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Journalism of Courage
The Bodos have come a long way. Guess who was the chief guest at the 36th annual conference of the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) which had been spearheading for 16 years the agitation for a separate state? No, none of the leaders of the Bodoland Liberation Tigers that signed a historic accord with the Centre on February 10 was in the limelight. It was National Security Guard (NSG) Director-General Ranjit S Mooshahary, a senior IPS officer, who was on the dais here on Sunday.
Why Mooshahary? ABSU president Rabiram Narzary explains: ‘‘Now that ABSU has declared the agitation closed, it is time to concentrate on our primary duty, to work for the welfare of the student community.’’ For the Bodo student body, Mooshahary is the new role model. ‘‘Our boys should now forget the past — of armed struggle and agitations — and settle down to work hard. Mooshahary is one of the few Bodos who have made it big in their career. We want our boys to compete and shine,’’ says Narzary, elected for a second term.
Mooshahary comes from the sleepy town of Gossaigaon near here, which has produced several IPS and IAS officers. His younger brother, Bhaskar Mooshahary, IAS, is the chief election officer, Assam. H S Brahma, another IAS, is a senior bureaucrat in Andhra Pradesh. The town has several others in the central allied services and state civil services.
‘‘Now is the time for the Bodo youth to look forward with a positive attitude and I think that was the reason they invited me to this session,’’ said the soft-spoken Mooshahary, who in his 15-minute long speech exhorted the Bodo students to study hard and become worthy citizens of the country.
Mooshahary was also a student leader during his college days and was associated with the Northeast Kachari Students’ Union in Shillong.
‘‘Given the right kind of guidance and opportunity, the Bodo students can also easily get into the all-India services and other professions,’’ he said.
The ABSU, meanwhile, has promoted an NGO called Lafa Saikho (meaning Cuckoo) that will exclusively work as a career counselling body for the Bodo students.
‘‘This three-month old NGO has already roped in professionals and officers from different fields to interact with school and college students on various career opportunities,’’ said B Hajowari, director of the NGO.
Of 55 boys who took part in a week-long camp on career opportunities in the defence services, 12 got recruited as jawans a month ago, he pointed out with pride.
The ABSU is also supporting another programme launched by a women’s group that is focusing on training Bodo girls in textile fashion designing and jewellery. ‘‘The girls have already designed clothes using hand-woven Bodo cloths that have attracted a lot of attention in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai,’’ said Malati Rani Narzary, who is herself an expert weaver and designer.
She has roped in the Central Silk Board and some trained experts like Sanjit Phukan and Savita Bhutani to conduct workshops for young girls who want to make textile and fashion designing a career.
The ABSU has also set up an institute at Kajalgaon near here, where at least 100 boys and girls are undergoing training on various uses of the computer. ‘‘We have hired computer experts from Guwahati to impart the training,’’ said Rangara Narzary, now general secretary of ABSU, who was instrumental in setting up the centre.
