[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f lethargy is not the cause then the government has lost all its resources to address cases of ethnic violence in the region. There is not a single month passed without an incident of ethnic related violence in the north east region. Every time such a case occurs the usual measure of the government has been to simply deploy large number of security force personnel. Once the situation gets calmed the security force personnel will be withdrawn and thereafter no effort to weed out the cause of violence is seen from the government side.
The same approach is applied here in the Adivasi-Bodo problem by the government. Some 80 lives were claimed in the Christmas time violence in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts. Nearly ten thousand people have been displaced and over five hundred of them reported missing. The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) — the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland — carried out the attacks. Several houses have also been torched in the trouble torn villages.Meanwhile, to name some major cases, in the year 2012, it was the problem between the Bodos and the Muslims. Nearly 100 people were killed in the riot. The incident had spilled over to other parts of India where people from the north east were attacked. Large number of people fled from their work places and institutions and returned to the region.
This column is too short to name all the cases of violence related to ethnic groups. The problems are not the fresh ones. They all have their histories and root causes. They will recur from time to time. However, the government will invest its effort only after lives are claimed. This is the sad side of our situation.
We want that the government holds on to the situation and follow it till its dept and length and analyze things. Apply all possible measures as long as the root cause of the problem is not identified and done away.
Sadly, this is not going to be the case. The government will only seek the adhoc solution before leaving the problem to the people altogether to have another round of blood bath.
