[Assam] Sentinel editorial

[Ram Sarangapani]

At the risk of stimulating allergic reactions from certain quarters, here is
the editorial from today's Sentinel for those who haven't already read it.
*______________*
The Voice of ULFA
T his is not to explain what the voice of the ULFA is. The people of Asom
know well what this voice means, what this voice seeks, and how this voice
has 'liberated' them, including, of course, the outfit's latest brand of
''freedom struggle'' — use of children and students in planting explosives.
So what we want to explain here is how the voice of the ULFA has been
perfectly duplicated by some so-called civil society groups like the
People's Committee for Peace Initiative in Asom (PCPIA). The PCPIA, as
though it has earned a divine contract to represent the people of the State,
has called an Asom bandh today demanding: 1) direct peace talks between the
Government of India and the ULFA; 2) release of five top jailed ULFA
leaders; and 3) immediate withdrawal of Army operations from the State.
Clearly, the PCPIA — the voice of the ULFA — has missed quite a few
pertinent points, and these points are refreshingly simple. In this we also
have a regime of bizarre pro-ULFA and so-called human rights organizations
whose business it seems to be to bully further the ordinary citizens who are
already sandwiched between the ULFA's terror reign and the consequent Army
operations in the State.
The first point, then, is obvious: you cannot hold the State to ransom by
calling a bandh, thereby crippling the economy of an already beleaguered
State economy, if you think that you should be defined as a civil society
group. Any answer, PCPIA? No civil society group, in any civilized society,
would call a bandh as today's; however, when an organization acts as a
frontal organization of an underground outfit and represents a view as
partisan as the PCPIA's, and, more important, when such an organization
masquerades as a civil society group, a bandh as today's is but natural.
For, such a civil society group would not bother to look into the fallouts
of such a bandh: its murder of work culture in an already lethargic society,
and the message it sends across to the younger generation. The message is
that one can call bandhs in any random manner and of any random kind as long
as one knows that it means the business of bullying tactics. After all,
people love their lives and the very word ''ULFA'' haunts them. So as
today's bandh goes in the name of the ULFA, one would naturally have people
staying indoors, safe and quiet. And, of course, it also means an extended
Diwali holiday! This will enable the PCPIA to declare what a success the
bandh was. In this column, we have had occasion in the past to talk about a
typically parasitic bandh-culture mechanism in place that requires the bandh
supporters to design the bandh package in such a way that it adds to the
already existing holidays. So, call a bandh on a Friday or on a Monday so as
to have an extended weekend — so much for the liberation of a people!
The PCPIA wants the release of the five top jailed ULFA leaders as if this
is the only mantra for the success of the peace process in Asom. What is the
guarantee that these ULFA leaders would not jump out of parole once they are
released? Would the PCPIA give us such a guarantee? Can it? And why should
the Government of India be interested in releasing these jailed ULFA leaders
when it has the Anup Chetia experience to fall back on and when there is no
written letter from the outfit, stating its willingness to sit for direct
talks, as demanded by the Centre? Let the PCPIA also answer this: is it
still civil for an organization that claims itself to be a civil society
group to call a strategic bandh to voice its demand for the release of five
top jailed leaders of an outfit that has already blocked all avenues of
development in the State? Is not the PCPIA, then, making a tall claim that
it is indeed the voice of the ULFA, that it can, therefore, bully anyone
around in the name of the banned outfit, and that it has chosen to remain
ignorant of the nitty-gritty of a peace process as paradoxical and yet as
sensitive as the current one in the State?
By paradoxical, we exactly mean what the dictionary says: something to do
with ''an apparently sound statement or a proposition which leads to a
logically unacceptable conclusion''. This peace process as anchored by
organizations as the PCPIA starts on a sound note — it is made out to be all
about the ''people'' — but leads to conclusions, such as the discourse
behind today's illogical bandh call, that are unacceptable simply because
peace cannot be one-sided and the PCPIA has given us a whole lot of reasons
to believe that it speaks the ULFA language. And we call the peace process
sensitive because it involves the future of the State and the future of a
threatened Asomiya identity. The peace process is sensitive because it
involves a populace that has been forced to bear the brunt of
counterinsurgency operations, with their own stories of alleged human rights
violations. And, most important, the peace process is sensitive because
there are vested interests that want the industry called 'insurgency' to
continue. Given all this, it is actually so simple for the ULFA to script
the peace chapter in Asom: they can come forward and say, ''We want to talk
with the Government of India right now.'' High-sounding e-mails to the media
are a futile exercise, the ULFA must know this. Peace is simple if the mind
is simple. And the Asomiyas are a simple community. Let the ULFA make a
simple gesture of peace. It can directly sit across the negotiating table
with the Government of India to talk peace. The Government of India knows
what it has to say, and the ULFA too, as one hopes, knows what it has to
say. What is the need for a PCPIA or a PCG, then? Did the ULFA consult its
five jailed leaders while constituting the PCG?
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