The Rediff Special
'Betrayers need bombs, not garlands'
So what makes Mahanta sit up now? Obviously, the situation was
going out of hand with the Bodos and ULFA striking at will at
regular intervals. In the last one year, not only have they successfully
attacked 'soft' civilian an targets, but also killed senior army
officers, ambushed paramilitary forces, and blasted trains and
railway tracks. And on June 8, Mahanta himself providentially
survived a fierce bomb attack. ULFA claimed responsibility for
the assassination attempt, and the outfit's chairman Arabinda
Rajkhowa said: 'Betrayers need bombs, not garlands.' Mahanta's
personal security was now at stake.
And the month of August was particularly violent. There were at
least ten major incidents, including the death of social worker
Sanjay Ghose on the 4th of that month. In fact, Ghose's death,
in ULFA custody, brought the state's law and order situation under
the glare of international attention and pushed Mahanta's government
close to the brink of dismissal, yet again.
History seemed to be repeating itself and Mahanta was determined
to prevent it. On August 23, the state government organised a
high-powered meeting with the director general of military operations
Lt Gen Inder Verma, chief of staff, headquarters, Eastern Command,
Lt Gen A R K Reddy, GOC 4 Corp, Lt Gen R K Sawhney, and the joint
home secretary for the North-East.
At this crucial meeting, it was decided to overhaul the intelligence
system by bringing different agencies under a coordinated set
up and consider the introduction of the National Security Act. Evidently, the intelligence system was activated before
everything. The leads about Deka's treatment in Jaslok Hospital
under TTL's medical scheme was accurate.
And the reason why Mahanta picked on the tea industry first is
that the army had been pressing to plug the
flow of funds to the
militants. For some time, ULFA was concentrating its fire power
chiefly on the army and paramilitary forces, significantly leaving
out the local police. Although R K Singh, superintendent of police,
Tinsukia, was gunned down last year, army personnel were being
more frequently targeted in recent months.
The quickest way, reckoned the government, to bring ULFA under
financial pressure was to halt the siphoning of funds from the
tea industry. And the reason why TTL was identified for the state's
first salvo was that it was the only company that had kept the
administration informed, from time to time, about its dealings
with the militants, TTL was indeed a soft target for the government
as well!
Other factors, too, supposedly precipitated the government's action.
Sweeping changes in the administration were in the offing. DGP
Hrishikeshan was sure to be replaced. But Deka's arrest and the
evidence gathered by the Bombay police about TTL's involvement
gave Hrishikeshan a golden opportunity to save his chair.
For Mahanta too, the development was a godsend. It was his glorious
moment to emerge as a tough campaigner against terrorist violence,
and thus to refurbish his sagging image. Mahanta, like everybody
else in Assam, was fully aware of the tea-terrorism nexus all
along, but had never chosen to act earlier.
In fact, the tea grapevine
has it that he was in Calcutta before the state assembly election
last year, raising funds for his AGP party. Although he was slated
to win, the tea lobby's response was only lukewarm, and TTL had
definitely refused to pay. Observers in Guwahati feel the chief
minister is acting out of spite and wants to put the tea industry
in its place for having humiliated him when he was out of power.
It is difficult to explain otherwise the government's present
zeal to penalise the tea industry. Sources point out that the
Assam police was in possession of the account books of the NDFB
for the years 1994-95 and 1995-96 which clearly listed at least
seven tea companies -- besides government departments such as sales
tax, forest and transport -- which regularly paid the outfit.
These documents had been handed over to the police after an army
unit recovered them in December 1996. So, why didn't the police
act all this while?
Mahanta's gameplan is to emerge as the sole buffer between the
people and the militants, and in order to succeed he has to have
the tea industry kow-towing before him. He appears to have won
the first round, but the challenge he faces is far from over.
Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine
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