[Assam] Sentinel editorial

[Ram Sarangapani]

C'da,

>Before this allergy sufferer exposes itself to the allergen you spread
>over assamnet :-),

And now I feel like a bee :)

>WHAT do YOU think of the piece?

I think it was well written and made points that we have often discussed on
the net, and of course, which you have been able to spin well (successfully,
I might add) :).

I have highlighted certain portions, which I thought are relevant. Nowadays
it seems 'peace' groups are being spawned left and right. Each claiming to
represent "people", but in reality representing the ulfa or some such group.
These sound more like mouthpieces than anything else. But then, what do I
know - the word "people" exists, so these must definitely represent the
voice of the people - whether they (the people) like it or not.

 >Once I can figure out where and how you stand, I may have a thing >or two
by way of analysis to put forth :-).

Oh! I am sure you do. We just want to be sure, you don't miss mentioning the
historical significance, and the underlying reasoning behind the whole
insurgecy problem. :)

--Ram


On 10/19/06, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>  Ram:
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> Before this allergy sufferer exposes itself to the allergen you spread
> over assamnet :-), WHAT do YOU think of the piece? Which parts struck a
> chord with you, and why?
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>
> Once I can figure out where and how you stand, I may have a thing or two
> by way of analysis to put forth :-).
>
>
> c-da
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> At 2:13 PM -0500 10/19/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>
> 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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