Hagrama Mohilary is used to being chief. Till 2003, he was commander-in-chief of the Bodo Liberation Tigers, a banned militant outfit that...
Hagrama Mohilary is used to being chief.
Till 2003, he was commander-in-chief of the Bodo Liberation Tigers, a banned militant outfit that waged an armed insurgency demanding a separate state carved out of Assam.
Since 2003, he has been chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council, the governing body for the Bodoland Territorial Region, earlier called the Bodoland Territorial Area District, a densely populated swathe of land covering four districts in western Assam. The council has powers and autonomies under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for decentralised governance in certain tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
But Mohilary suddenly has a challenger – and his friends and old comrades are starting to desert him.
The contender is Pramod Boro, until recently the president of the most influential Bodo civil society group, the All Bodo Students’ Union. In February, he became the face of a new accord signed with the Central and Assam governments – a deal that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has called the “final and comprehensive solution” to the vexed Bodo question.
In December, the Bodoland Territorial Council will finally go to polls after a pandemic-induced delay of almost eight months. Boro, who will make his electoral debut, will hope to ride on the...
