Even a flawed democracy is a better bet than the politics of the gun. The birth of a new political party should, therefore, be a good omen for the Bodos in Assam who have lived long under the shadow of the gun. Many of the leaders and workers of the Bodoland People?s Progressive Front were once members of the Bodo Liberation Tigers, an armed group of ethnic insurgents. It would be a very different experience for them when they fight the first elections of the Bodoland Territorial Council. The Bodos have high hopes from the new council. They see it as their own government which can help them realize many of their social and economic aspirations. Long years of the insurgency have pushed most people in the area deeper into economic and other deprivations. How the new party and its rivals conduct their affairs before and after the polls may be crucial for an enduring peace and development of the area. No matter which of them eventually controls the council, the important thing is that they live up to the people?s new enthusiasm for democratic politics. Their failure to do so could result in the area?s relapse into violence.

On the other hand, the success of the council and the democratic experiment in Bodoland could nail the lie of ethnic insurgents in the whole of the North-east. The BLT is the first militant outfit in the region after the Mizo National Front to have given up arms and joined democratic politics. Mizoram has had peace and progress ever since. But peace in the Bodo-inhabited areas of Assam continues to be threatened by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which is carrying on with its armed movement. The gains of democracy could wean its supporters away from the NDFB. Assam?s ruling Congress too must play its part in all this. The party was once accused of using the Bodoland issue to serve its electoral interests. It cannot afford to arouse such suspicions this time.