HVK Archives: Assam's agony
Assam's agony - The Times of India
Editorial
()
19 August 1997
Title: Assam's agony
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 19, 1997
The massacre of 13 non-Bodos in the Bodo-dominated Nalbari district of
Assam on August 15 is a stem reminder not only of the unending cycle of
senseless violence in that state but also of the unfulfilled regional
aspirations of the people in the entire North-East aspirations which have
set the region rumbling with insurgency. That the Nalbari incident and the
torching of government property elsewhere in the state by Bodo and ULFA
ultras on Independence Day were intended to blot the golden jubilee
celebrations is obvious. In the past two weeks, more than 24 innocent
people have been killed and several security personnel have lost their
lives in a rising tide of violence. The toll would have been far greater
had the Guwahati Rajdhani Express not escaped the mistimed explosion on the
track near Barpeta on August 10. From their unabated campaign of sabotage
and subversion, it is clear that the Bodo extremist groups are enjoying a
free run of the region. If their terror tactics suggest that they have
become better organised and armed over the past 13 years since the demand
for a 'separate Bodoland' was first raised, the growing violence involving
the Bodo Liberation Tigers Front and Bodo Security Force is proof that
extremist elements have outmanoeuvred the moderates and are calling the
shots in the Bodo movement. More sinister is the increasing targeting of
non-Bodos. Such attempts at 'ethnic cleansing' cannot but have serious
repercussions in the rest of the state.
These developments do not augur well for the future of the state. But chief
minister Prafulla Kumar Mohanta seems to have failed to grasp their
implications and has merely asked the Army to launch combing operations in
Nalbari. Belated Army involvement cannot suffice to meet the challenge
posed by ULFA and the insurgent Bodo groups. For, the surge in their
violent activities has not been unexpected. Indeed, way back in April
intelligence agencies had warned about an escalation in terrorist strikes
around the time of the golden jubilee celebrations. However, both the
Centre and the state government did precious little to put the law and
order machinery on alert, or to address the Bodo issue with any semblance
of seriousness. If the apathy of the Centre and the crass bungling of the
then Congress state government blew up the 'foreigners' issue which brought
the Asom Gana Parishad to power in Assam, it is the AGP's failure to
accommodate local ethnicity that has led to the violent outburst of
sub-regionalism. The Saikia government's reliance on ruthless suppression
of tribal aspirations and the subsequent indifference of the Gowda and
Gujral administrations to the need for redressing the Bodos' grievances has
only played into the hands of the extremists. In the absence of steps to
initiate dialogue, the extremists have upped their demands. "Divide Assam
fifty-fifty" is increasingly the refrain of the Bodos who feel cheated out
of their autonomous set-up by its inefficient functioning and by the state
government playing politics with the Karbi-Anglong tribals' demand for
equal autonomy. Fuelled by this disenchantment and flush with freshly
acquired arms, the Bodos are now spurning any talks and are raising the
pitch for a separate state. The fractious nature of both the UF and the
AGP only serves to compound the problem.
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