Md Jubair: The north-east of India was marked by sustained separatist insurrections, mass unrest, ethnic riots and the reaction of the amateur kingdom that followed. The fragile situation in the northeast region is the result of the landscape, the country of social wealth enhancement and those factors which belong to the past such as a native tongue, civilisation, ancestral conflicts and migration. Currently, there are more than thirty-six separatist movements in India, in which twenty-two are large-scale movements in India. Several of those movements have been occurring for many years and their followers are from various religions and regions. Spiritual discrimination and domination of Hindu extremists are the elemental reason for these separatist movements. The Hindutva ideology has been dominant since Narendra Modi came to power, his second term particularly. Two of the most profound insurgent movements in India are the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). These militant movements, though established for different objectives and at different dates, have actually much more in common than meets the eye. For starters, both are campaigning for more autonomy in their various areas: West Bengal for GNLF and Assam for NDFB. Members of these movements are prepared to give their life and risk everything to get they think is long overdue to them by the Indian government: Freedom. The human rights violations committed by the Indian government to control and put down the NDFB and GNLF movements are an open secret. Alongside the human rights, socio-economic, cultural and political rights are also being violated. Some rights (such as right of free speech) are those rights deemed the most basic ones which every human, irrespective of creed, deserves and for which dozens of international laws have been passed.

The Bodoland and Gorkhaland movements are one of those movements in India whose supporters are facing increasing suffering day by day. The NDFB and GNLF movements emerged in the 20th century and, in the truest sense, were based on social and political grounds. The movements were launched to safeguard the rights of the people. In order to control NDFB and GNLF movements, many incidents have been reported where girls have been raped and tortured, with the objective of this rumoured to be to humiliate the Bodo people. Indian government security forces use brutal acts to overcome and crush the Bodoland freedom movement. It is quite clear that the Indian government is employing very cunning state policies that aim to crush all freedom movements.

Concerning the ongoing atrocities committed against the NDFB and GNLF by the Indian government, the media fully supports and covers the violations committed by the government against the people. On an international level, the Bodoland movement has still not been highlighted. The Indian media; print, electronic and social media is under the rule of the Indian establishment, which is why the real picture of the issue has never ever been highlighted. It is quite clear that the western world is still not ready to pay attention to the freedom movements within India. It is a clear example of the western world’s double standards that they ignore Indian forces’ brutality against the common people. NDFB-GNLF and other various freedom fighter organizations have been demanding their rights for almost half a decade now. Parts of Northern India (such as Kashmir) have many decades of urgency against the Indian government. The Government of India is trying its best to overcome the freedom struggle but they have yet to succeed. It is quite clear that the NDFB and GNLF have no intention to surrender anytime soon, however the Indian authorities continuously try to fool the national community into believing otherwise. Till date, every government in New Delhi has tried to divert the attention of the world community from this issue. The Indian government claims that the NDFB and GNLF are not freedom movements but rather the efforts of the neighbouring countries to try to destabilize India.

In the meanwhile, to deal with this problem, the Indian government, ironically, uses the strategy of divide and conquer to weaken this struggle of the Bodos and Gorkhas for their rights. The Indian government currently has adopted a way of strategy in which it uses force to control the situation, alongside giving people rights to appease them. Interestingly, in order to cover their own weaknesses, the Indian government claims that behind every freedom movement is the involvement of the neighboring countries which fund all the movements. Another dark side of New Delhi is that it doesn’t follow through on its agreements which were agreed upon by both parties. This is one of the reasons that many freedom movements are wary when approached by a deal from India. Another response of the Indian government towards these movements is to turn a blind eye to them. This involves total media blackout with little to no information about the movement being mentioned in the media outlets. This blackout gives a general impression that the “powerful” Indian establishment does not want to highlight this dark side of its government.

The Indian government uses the strategy of divide and conquer to weaken this struggle of the Bodos and Gorkhas for their rights.