[Assam] Rupam Baruah's article

[ranenkumar goswami]

ULFA’s freedom struggle (The Assam Tribune, July 13,
2007)

— Rupam Baruah
It is high time the United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) should give serious thought to read the
writings on the wall. The people of Assam are fed up,
horror-struck and bitter with its sample of revolution
and freedom struggle for an independent Assam. But
oblivious to the people’s aspirations, the militant
group has so far not cared to show even the slightest
regard to the wishes of the people for whom they are
demanding a sovereign Assam. It is a clear that the
people of Assam, barring a microscopic number have not
authorised ULFA to forge out an independent Assam for
them. The Assamese think they are already an
independent people of the Indian State. Since the
early 90s, the patriotic and right-thinking people of
Assam have time and again been demonstrating their
true feeling against mindless terrorism and killing
spree of this secessionist outfit. Very recently the
Asom Maha Sanmilan convened by the State’s apex
literary body Asam Sahitya Sabha has boldly asserted
that Assam is an inalienable part of India. But the
outfit is adamantly continuing its violent activities.
After a series of continuous bomb blasts almost every
other day, people have come out on the streets
demonstrating against the ULFA-perpetrated mayhem. The
exasperated people shouted slogans like, ‘Drive out
ULFA’, ‘Down with ULFA’s terrorism’, ‘ULFA is ISI’s
agent’ and even ‘Hang Paresh and Arabinda’ etc. Both
in Upper and Lower Assam, people have given chase to
killer ULFA cadres in recent times and even lynched
them. The times have definitely changed. ULFA should
think deeply over the aggressive mood of the people
and realise its folly for its own good. It seems today
that if the militants do not stop their armed struggle
on the unarmed innocent masses of Assam, then the
people may come out and rise unitedly in the form of a
mass resistance against the anti-people activities of
this anti-national outfit.

ULFA claims itself to be ‘revolutionary’ and
‘liberation army’ of Assam. In reality, to achieve
both the above-mentioned qualifications one must be
guided by high spirited ideology which alone can
distinguish a revolutionary or a freedom fighter from
the ordinary lot. Hence, simply taking up arms in the
name of ‘revolution’ or ‘liberation struggle’ without
having ideological strength can never make one worthy
of the above rank. Were it so, then there would be no
difference between a revolutionary and a dacoit or a
liberation soldier and a murderer. While equipped with
such high ideology one cannot afford to be merely
trigger-happy or blood thirsty even though taking up
arms sometimes becomes necessary for achieving
revolutionary or patriotic cause. A revolutionary or a
patriot uses arms as a last resort against a powerful
opponent or enemy when all other non-violent ways have
failed. Moreover, he uses arms only against an armed
opponent. Unarmed, defenceless and innocent civilians
can never be the target of a true revolutionary or a
liberation soldier. He fights the powerful and does
not attack the weak. This is the ideology for which he
is different from a trigger-happy killer, and this is
why his deeds are termed heroic.

But unfortunately in the case of ULFA we have seen
nothing of the sort that can be termed as heroic.
Instead, they have tortured and brutally killed a
great many unarmed and innocent people till date with
their sophisticated weapons in the name of revolution
and liberation war since inception. Girish Goswami,
Saurav Bora, Manabendra Sarma, Kamala Saikia, Kalipada
Sen, Harlalka, T Raju, Sergei Gritchenko, Shabnam
Kalita (child), Rashmi Bora, Sanjoy Ghose, Anil
Baruah, Indra Mohan Hakasam and Sukleswar Medhi are
some prominent names of such victims. 

Mass graves discovered in many places of the State
stand testimony to their ruthlessness and inhumanity.
They so often talk about challenging the Indian Army.
But there is not a single instance when they faced the
Army heroically or fought a brave battle against the
State armed machinery. As ‘soldiers of Assam’, the
ULFA used the local villages as safe haven. But when
the Army or police get wind of the fact and raid such
villages to nab the militants, the latter always slip
away and let the innocent and unarmed villagers face
the brutality of the security forces. There is not an
instance which can tell us that these ‘soldiers of
Assam’ have faced the Indian Army with their
sophisticated arms to protect the unarmed village
folk- the people for whom they are supposed to
liberate Assam.

So, just claiming themselves to be revolutionaries or
members of a liberation army is nothing but a travesty
of facts. Since the beginning of bomb blasts in cinema
halls, passenger-filled buses and busy public places,
besides the dastardly act of killing innocent women
and children on Independence Day at Dhemaji in 2004
has established their criminal antecedents which
indicates just the opposite of the word heroic. In the
dictionary we find it as cowardice.

The series of bomb blasts and killing spree
perpetrated by the ULFA in public places have
undoubtedly proved one thing: This self-styled
‘revolutionary’ and ‘liberation army’ of Assam has no
love or concern for Assam and her people, and it must
have of late become a mercenary in the hands of some
anti-Indian foreign force.

It is a fact that the people of Assam are against
ULFA’s propaganda of ‘sovereign Assam’. During the
Kargil War, when the Assamese rejected outright the
ULFA’s call to support Pakistan, the outfit should
have been able to read the writing on the wall. Had
they truely loved Assam, they would have shunned the
path of senseless violence and secessionism, and
instead concentrated in constructive activities for
development of the State by showing proper respect to
the people’s wishes. But ULFA did just the opposite.

Secondly, those who truly love their land and the
people cannot indulge in such heinous and mindless
acts of violence like killing innocent masses,
including children and women of their own land by bomb
blasts in public places. Only a hostile foreign enemy
would trigger such kind of explosions to destabilise
the internal situation of a target country. India has
no dearth of such enemies. If some local youth
desirous of ushering in a ‘revolution’ in Assam have
become stooges at the hands of some enemy, then they
too have surely become nothing but enemies of Assam.
The dastardly killing of children and women by ULFA on
15 August, 2004 at Dhemji has proved this fact beyond
doubt. Since 2006, the bloodbaths caused by bomb
blasts have become almost a regular affair in the
State, especially in the capital city.

What can we surmise from the last 20 years of ULFA’s
activities? What kind of revolution, what kind of
liberation war or what kind of ideology do they
represent? Murder, dacoity, falsehood, hypocrisy? They
challenge the Indian Army, but where do members of
this self-styled ‘army of Assam’ hide when the
Assamese people suffer so much during the devastating
floods? Why do they not rescue or offer yeoman’s
service to the flood victims in place of the Indian
Army? Since 1985 we have seen how these blood-thirsty
elements have made Assam a killing field and mass
grave yard. They robbed the people of Assam like thugs
and dacoits and now their top brass are spending
lavish lives in foreign countries. What fraternal
feeling have they shown to the unemployed youths and
poverty-stricken people of Assam after siphoning off
crores of money from this region in the name of
‘revolution’ and ‘liberation’ of the people of Assam?
We still remember vividly how the irresponsible
misdeeds of this outfit heralded Army operation in
Assam in the early 90s, for which the people of this
region had to suffer a lot.

Today, these self-styled ‘freedom fighters’ have
crossed limits by indulging in diabolical crimes like
killing of children, women and other civilians which
proves that they are nothing but mercenaries. It is
also observed that they are not interested in peace
talks either. It seems they just want to keep alive
the chaotic and disturbed atmosphere.

But now it seems people’s patience is at the tether’s
end.

Nevertheless, the silver lining on the dark cloud is
that the conscientious and right-thinking people have
started coming out unitedly in the form of mass
resistance. One such example is Assam Public Works
(APW)–an anti-terrorist organisation comprising mostly
of relatives of ULFA victims. The time has come for
ULFA and such other elements to read the writings on
the wall. It is expected good sense will ultimately
prevail and the wayward youths will be prudent enough
to come forward for peace talks provided they have any
regard for the sentiments of the Assamese people.
 
  
 
 


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