Absu activists during the mass rally at Kajalgaon in Chirang district on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Kajalgaon (Chirang), March 2: Seven years after putting the statehood movement on hold following the signing of an accord among the Centre, state government and the now-defunct BLT, the All Bodo Students Union (Absu) today returned to the streets seeking a separate state.

Scenes from the past unfolded as Absu activists sported tonsured heads and carrying placards screaming “Divide Assam 50-50” at a rally at Kajalgaon in Chirang district, which was attended by a large number of people. Significantly, it was on this day in 1987 that the first movement for a separate state was launched by the late Upendra Nath Brahma with the same slogan.

Absu president Promode Boro announced the fresh movement amid a sea of humanity, which thronged Kajalgaon to participate in the mass rally.

The envisaged state is bigger than the area now under Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD), which was created comprising the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baksa, in consonance with the provisions of the February 2003 Accord. Covering an area of 25,000 square km, the state would stretch from river Sankosh in the west to Sadiya in the east, Bhutan and Arunachal in the north and Dhubri, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup (rural), Darrang, Lakimpur, Dibrugarh districts in the south.

Absu had suspended the separate state demand at its Banargaon convention in 2003 after the accord was signed in the hope that the newly created Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) would fulfil the aspirations of the people.

“Bodoland state is the ultimate demand of the Bodo people but the Bodos were denied on the pretext that the nation did not have a policy to create any more new states. But the fact was that the nation created three more new states — Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh in 2000 — and today Telangana has been proposed. The other states have been created one after another and the demand for Bodoland has been repeatedly denied in a deceptive manner,” Boro said.

Though the Bodos and other tribals demanded a separate state in the form of Udayachal in 1967 under the Plains Tribes Council of Assam, the movement died a premature death. The demand and agitation for the separate Bodoland state gained momentum in 1987 under the leadership of Bodofa Upendra Nath Brahma, the then president of Absu.

The party signed the first accord in 1993 and formed the Bodoland Autonomous Council. The Bodos under Absu revived the demand for a separate state the following year which eventually led to the formation of the BTC in 2003 and scrapping of the Bodoland Autonomous Council.

According to D. Narzary of Kokrajhar, who participated in the Bodoland movement under Bodofa, the main complaint of the Bodos is that their land was taken away by non-tribals and successive state governments did nothing to stop that. Narzary, who attended the rally today, said the spaces meant for the tribals are being occupied by non-tribals. The encroachment is still going on.

Absu also submitted a memorandum to Union home minister P. Chidambaram for a separate state and other demands. It also demanded more autonomy for all autonomous councils of Assam.