Jamshedpur : The CPI(ML) PCC severely condemns the brutal attack on the Adivasis of Assam by NDFB terrorists.
Nearly a hundred people including women and children have been killed, thousands of houses have been burnt and tens of thousands of people have been rendered homeless.
This is not the first time that the Bodo terrorists launched an attack on Adivasis of Assam. In 1996, they had launched a genocidal attack on Adivasis in Kokrajhar in which nearly four hundred people were killed and lakhs of people were homeless.
Since that massacre lakhs of Santhals are living in refugee camps in Kokrajhar in sub-human condition. The Adivasis have been living in Assam for nearly one hundred and fifty years and the rich tea plantations have been built by their sweat and blood.
But the Assam government descheduled them from the list of Scheduled Tribes in 1952 and deliberately deprived them from access to education, jobs and health-care.
This was done in order to assure the supply of cheap labour in the tea-gardens and swell the profits of the multinationals.
The CPI(ML) demands that the central and state government should immediately intervene to restore normalcy, punish the culprits, rehabilitate the refugees, treat Jharkhandi –Adivasis as Scheduled Tribes, recognize Sadri and other Adivasi languages and ensure minimum wage to the tea-garden labourers.
The Adivasis in Assam in collaboration with other oppressed groups and toiling masses have been fighting for these just demands over a long time. The CPI(ML) supports their just struggle.
The CPI(ML) holds that the Central Government has been conniving with Bodo chauvinism and gave them Bodo Territorial Council which is rule of 20 % over 80 % of the people in the BTC area.
The Central government should review the formation of BTC and hold consultations with all groups ( Adivasis, Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Koch- Rajbanshis and Assamese along with Bodos) to formulate a form of autonomy which ensures equality to all groups.