Congress made fun of Bodo Accord but it brought peace, development to BTR: Shah

Kokrajhar (Assam), Mar 16 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the Congress had made fun of the Bodo Accord but it brought peace and development to the region.

The youth of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) now “carry the tricolour instead of guns”, and this has been made possible by the signing of the accord in January 2020, Shah said at the open session of the 57th annual conference of the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) at Dotma in Assam’s Kokrajhar district.

“Peace, development and enthusiasm prevailing in BTR have been possible because of ABSU, a signatory of the accord. Had ABSU not taken the initiative, there would have been no accord or peace in the region,” he said.

“The Congress may have laughed at us, saying there will be no peace in BTR and this agreement will be a joke but 82 per cent of the clauses of the Bodo Accord have been implemented. In the next two years, there will be 100 per cent implementation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bringing long-lasting peace in the region,” he said.

“According to the terms of the accord, we brought the entire BTR region out of the purview of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in 2022,” Shah said.

The NDFB, also a signatory to the peace accord, has given up arms to return to the mainstream and both the central and state governments have taken several initiatives to rehabilitate the cadres, he added.

“In the last three years, 4,881 NDFB cadres have surrendered their firearms and Rs 287 crore has been spent on their rehabilitation, with 90 per cent given by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre,” the Union home minister said.

He said the surrendered cadres were also being trained in various skills with the help of non-governmental organisations.

Shah also appreciated Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s initiative to induct 400 of these youth into the state commando force.

“When the Bodo Accord was signed, there was happiness not only in BTR and Assam but in the entire country,” he said.

The Bodo Peace Accord was signed on January 27, 2020 between the Centre, state government and Bodo groups including the ABSU and the NDFB.

“There was a time when there was only talk of insurgency, separatism and conflict but now education, development and industries are being discussed,” Shah said.

In Assam, altogether nine militant organisations have signed peace accords and more than 10,000 youth have been brought to the mainstream by the Modi government at the Centre, he said.

The central and the state governments have allotted Rs 1,500 crore for the development of BTR which has a population of 35 lakh under the directive of the prime minister, Shah said.

The prime minister is committed to peace and development of all the northeastern states and to end insurgency, violence and conflict in the region.

He said that BTR has already hosted the Durand Cup and exhorted Bodo youths to start preparing for the 2036 Olympics.

Shah said a road in New Delhi, named after ABSU founding president ‘Bodofa’ Upendranath Brahma, and his bust will be inaugurated in the first week of April.

He said that the BJP governments at the Centre and the state are committed to translating the dreams of ‘Bodofa’, who was born in Dotma, into reality.

It was the late prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who included the Bodo language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, Shah said.

Sixty villages of Sonitpur and Biswanath districts have also been included in BTR to ensure their development and progress, he added.

ABSU is taking forward the education and empowerment of youth and it is due to their efforts that students till class 12 are appearing in examinations in the Bodo medium.

Products from Kokrajhar and other districts of BTR under the ‘One District, One Product’ initiative are now being displayed at hotels in New Delhi and this has been possible due to peace in the region, he said.

More than 12 products from BTR have already got GI tag and this has led to the growth of an industrial environment, Shah said.

Shah said he was honoured to address the ABSU convention and thanked all ABSU members for inviting him to it.

“I also pay my obeisance to the 5,000 martyrs who had laid their lives for the cause of the Bodoland, paving the way for peace in BTR,” he said.

“Investments of over Rs 5 lakh crore are lined up for Assam following the recent business summit in the state. I urge the youth to move ahead by educating themselves and establishing permanent peace… the future is ready for you,” he said.

The government is going to ensure infrastructure development in BTR which will help the youth compete with those in the rest of the country, Shah added.

The Union home minister recalled that a few years ago, he was invited to the Bathou Puja of the Bodos and was gifted some books on the religion.

“On reading the books, I realised the high spiritual values of the Bathou religion which embodies the five elements of nature. I make efforts to spread these messages to the students across the country,” Shah added.