Ranjan Daimary sentencing raises cries of “Divide Assam 50/50”

Guwahati, January 30, 2019:

The sentencing of NDFB Chief Ranjan Daimary to life-imprisonment amid peace-talks with the Government is sure to lend more fuel to the fire of separatist calls for Bodoland. Security was beefed up at the CBI Court in Guwahati as many of Daimary’s supporters gathered outside the Court and raised the demand for a separate Bodoland yet again. Many of these people view Daimary as a ‘freedom fighter’.

A huge group of supporters gathered outside the Court and raised slogans such as “No Bolodand no rest”, “Divide Assam 50-50” as well as “NDFB long live”.

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InsideNE talked to some of Daimary’s supporters who had gathered outside the Court to take their opinion on the happenings. Shanti Basumatary, a supporter of the Bodoland movement said: “Not just NDFB, all Bodo people want Bodoland. The Government needs to take a decision regarding the matter or things will take a turn for the worse. We have informed every Government, be it BJP, AGP or Congress, that we want Bodoland. The NDFB staged the blasts for the collective benefit of the Bodo ethnolingustic people.”

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Another supporter stated that Assam Government’s sentencing of Daimary shows its “partiality” and promised to take proceedings to the High Court.

Owing to his reputation as a “freedom fighter” among many Bodos, it may be assumed that if Daimary spends the rest of his life trapped inside a jail cell, people will only view him as a ‘martyr’ and his sentencing can be considered a lost opportunity for the Government to truly feel the pulse of the Bodo people.