COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

The Rediff Special

Assam's hour of reckoning

Assam. As winter sets in ever so gently and the mighty Brahmaputra flows quietly by, the mother of all north-eastern states wears an almost idyllic look -- at first glance.

Take a closer look and you are witness to frenetic activity. In political corridors, administrative departments, military outposts, media centres and intellectual circles. There is, after all, a war being fought in Assam. A war for peace.

After years of inaction, or misdirected action, the powers-that-be have finally woken up to some home truths: the United Liberation Front of Asom cannot be wished away; nor can it be used and abused for political gains by the state government. Not anymore.

"There is no way we can allow the extremists, backed by foreign agencies, to threaten the security of our state and the country," says Prafulla Mahanta. This year, the Assam chief minister has led a sustained crackdown on insurgents, and the ULFA in particular.

The Unified Command -- comprising the army, the paramilitary forces, the state police, and guided by Chief Secretary V S Jafa -- which came into existence in January for an initial period of three months, is here to stay. Till October, 200 insurgents have been killed, 600 arrested, and 450 weapons seized by the forces.

In its bid to finish off insurgents and flush out sympathisers, the government has gone into overdrive. This has left some of the AGP's traditional allies, the Opposition, several non-political organisations, and the intelligentsia crying foul over Mahanta's style of functioning.

And with the Tata Tea controversy exploding out of nowhere and opening up a Pandora's box of the tea companies's pay-offs to ULFA, Mahanta's present avatar has come under critical political and corporate scrutiny.

What explains Mahanta's new-found belligerence? And will his aggressive ways help to find an enduring solution to the decade-old ULFA problem?

Ever since ULFA came into existence, it has either been treated with sympathy or disdain. And neither has helped shut the lid on the problem. The first Asom Gana Parishad regime chose to go soft on insurgency and was dismissed, under pressure from the tea lobby, in November 1990. The Hiteswar Saikia-led Congress government launched a ruthless army crackdown which hit ULFA where it hurt, but fuelled public resentment and political unrest.

In the run-up to the 1996 election, the Opposition AGP took a bagful of promises to the people. Mahanta vowed to set things right -- he would tackle the insurgency with more sensitivity; send the army back to the barracks; take up the foreigners's issue in right earnest; and concentrate on the development of Assam. If only he was 'given a second chance.'

That he was, on May 15, 1996. As head of an AGP-led coalition which swept the poll, Mahanta was very much the man of the moment. The AGP was still largely identified as 'one of us'; the Congress, after Saikia's demise, resembled a bleak house; and, to top it all, within days of his becoming CM, Mahanta played a part in helping the United Front come to power in Delhi.

So, he had political partners at the Centre, allies in the state, and a populace that simply wanted him to perform. It was a time of hope.

But 18 months have passed, and it is obvious that things have not really gone according to plan -- provided, of course, there was a plan. For the major part of his tenure, Mahanta has been less chief minister and more commander-in-chief in the fight against insurgency.

And this fight has seen the metamorphosis of Mahanta: from a mild-mannered man pathologically averse to taking unpleasant decisions, to a tough-talking politico not hesitant to read the riot act.

"No political leader in the North-East has shown the sustained political will to root out insurgency as Mr Prafulla Mahanta has in the past few months," observes Jafa. As head of the strategic group of the Unified Command, and the CM's 'hit-man,' Jafa is said to be responsible for the change in attitude of the state administration. "Today, we are all working together with one, single, extremely narrow objective: to root out insurgency in Assam," he declares.

And while this narrow focus has enabled the security forces to bring quiet to most ULFA-dominated areas, there is a growing disquiet in Assam's social environs.

Take the tea community. With the spectre of the Tata Tea case looming large, and the government threatening to take 'stern action' against each and every tea company found to be 'purchasing peace' from extremists, the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association wears an aggrieved look. "No one -- the politicians, the people, or the local media -- has made any effort to find out about the tea companies's socio-economic contribution to Assam," laments ABITA secretary P K Bhattacharya. "After decades of service and sacrifice, to be looked upon as anti-nationals is so painful," feels additional secretary Robin Borthakur. The teamen welcome the government's crackdown on insurgency, but are apprehensive of being singled out for some special treatment by the marauding Mahanta.

What has alienated the Mahanta government from its own people and making many in Assam wary of AGP rule is the crackdown on democratic institutions and democratic forms of protest. "Earlier, I had great respect for Mahanta. But now, he is just bothered about his seat, not about the consequences of damaging democracy," says Charan Deka, suspended secretary of the Sadou Assam Karmachari Parishad.

The SAKP leadership has been accused of taking sides with AjitKumar Bhuiyan, editor of Sadin and Asomiya Pratidin, who has been detained under the National Security Act for acting as a mouthpiece of ULFA. "The Mahanta government is adopting undemocratic methods to suppress the voice of the people. It is digging its own grave," observes Ashish Gupta, secretary general of the North-East Co-ordination Committee of Human Rights, who was also arrested and later released on bail.

The government's overzealous bid to smoke out overground ULFA sympathisers has resulted in some stupid excesses. Take the arm-twisting of Agradoot, a daily. Editor Kanaksen Deka explains: "I wrote an editorial, titled 'We are ruled either by ignoramuses or fools'. He (Mahanta) was so annoyed. And the police came and raided us, harassed us. I had to take anticipatory bail. Everyone knows I have never supported extremism or extremists. If the government continues to behave like this, it is finished."

According to Bimal Prasad Choudhury, president of the Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhtra Parishad: "All these are attempts to cover up for their failures." The 20-year-old organisation, which has over 300,000 members, was the breeding ground of several top ULFA leaders "before they lost faith in the democratic path." "The AGP should not follow double standards as most present ministers took ULFA's help to win. What right do they have to rule like dictators with military might now?" demands Choudhury.

A peculiar case in point of dictatorial discernment was the Zoii Nath Sarma episode. The revenue minister was accused, by an army FIR filed on the basis of the confessions of an ULFA activist, of retaining close links with the banned outfit. What followed was a series of allegations and counter-allegations involving the minister, the government and the army. It all ended with the power centres deciding that there was 'no real evidence' and so the minister should not be touched. The reason was simple: with so many AGP leaders having had links with the ULFA, action against Sarma would have triggered a chain reaction and caused great embarrassment, if not a crisis.

Observes senior advocate Arup Borbara: "There is one set of rules for the common man and another for a minister. If Sarma was not a VIP, he would have been picked up that night itself. This not the way a popular government is supposed to work."

Indeed, the one thing that the AGP government seems to be have sacrificed at the altar of military expediency, is an essential element of enduring democratic success: popularity.

With the disenchantment index rising, the chief minister's biggest threat could come from quarters too close for comfort. His employees are angry; his arch rival in the AGP, the suspended Bhrigu Phukan, is threatening to get his act together; there are disconcerting noises of discontent from Mahanta's political nursery, the All Assam Students Union; and the letter of credit scam is casting its shadow.

AASU president Sarbanda Sonowal gives vent to the growing disillusionment in the ranks: "They have completed 18 months and if you demand a performance report, it will be a big zero. This government has no political will, no interest. They are just enjoying their time in power.

"These are the men who taught us. Mahanta created history as our leader. How can they do this? We are giving a warning to the AGP now. If they do not listen to the voice of the people, they will face the consequences. We will reject them, nullify them."

Handicapped by history, injured by insurgency, crippled by corruption, and plagued by growing unpopularity, the AGP regime is desperate to prove that offence is the best form of defence. Once the guns are silenced, and the blasts stopped, the grateful people of Assam will forgive them their follies. After all, ULFA is the enemy. It is determined to secede, it is operating from neighbouring countries, it is funded and armed by foreign agencies, and it is mobilising international opinion against the Government of India.

But that is just one side of the conflict coin. As Lt-Gen R K Sawhney, 4 Corps commander and head of the operations group of the Unified Command, says: "the insurgency problem in Assam is so complex that it has to be tackled with real sensitivity. The role of the army is to put pressure on them and pave the way for a political solution."

At the moment, that looks a distant prospect. "The present situation is leading to cynicism and despair," feels Hiren Gohain, a leading intellectual of Guwahati. "As long as there is social frustration and economic deprivation, only a temporary lull can be achieved, not permanent peace."

It is somewhat like a vicious cycle -- no peace, no development; no development, no peace. In order to strike a balance, to achieve peace and progress, Prafulla Mahanta will have to act not just with vigour, but with vision. He, along with his friends in Delhi, will have to treat the Assam problem from a long-term socio-economic perspective, not just as short-term crisis-management.

For, intrinsically, Assam is not a land of extremes, and therefore, not of extreme measures. It is a land of amity, not acrimony, where might is still not seen as right, where the ends aren't really supposed to justify the means.

-- Sumit Das Gupta with Dileep Chandan in Guwahati. Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

'If some people shake hands with the extremists, how can we tolerate it?'
No-trust motion admitted against state govt

Tell us what you think of this feature