Reality as it is

Reality as it is

It is natural that there should be such hype about the press conference called by the ULFA’s 28 Battalion on Thursday as reflected by the media coverage of the event. After all, were not the top leaders of the battalion pointing to things that people would not expect from the lips of ULFA leaders? Were not the rebels harping on what ULFA c-in-c Paresh Baruah has denied all these years? Were not the hardened militants indicating their willingness to abdicate the path of violence for ever and appreciate the fact of Indian democracy? Were not they being mature enough to realize the futility of armed struggle against the Indian state? Was not an influential section of the ULFA coming to terms with the reality of the day? Therefore, the excitement, hype and expectations that marked the press conference — the first of its kind in the history of ULFA’s ‘insurgency’ — seemed to be so very natural.However, there is hardly anything surprising about what the pro-talk ULFA leaders said in the press conference, be it the indifference of the Bangladesh-based top ULFA leadership to the suffering of the lower-rung cadres back home, or the manner in which the top leadership has turned a blind eye to illegal immigration from Bangladesh to Asom (especially after the outfit came under the grip of the ISI), or even the business empires that Paresh Baruah and chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa have established in Bangladesh while pretending to be staging a revolution for the people of Asom. This newspaper said all this long ago. Yet, the element of surprise — should one call it so — is that for a section of the ULFA that has thrived on the loot extracted from the people it had set out to liberate, the cause of Asom should now weigh more than the temptation to serve the ISI and enjoy luxuries on foreign shores. Therefore, we welcome the latest peace initiative of Mrinal Hazarika and his comrades. One would definitely ask: Are some of the ULFA leaders beginning to realize that the outfit’s brand of insurgency has actually turned out to be one of the worst forms of criminal terrorism against one’s own brothers and sisters at the behest of hostile foreign powers?So where does one go from here? Let it be reiterated that unless the entire outfit, including of course the top leadership based in Bangladesh, comes forward for a meaningful peace process in the best interest of the people of Asom, it is unlikely that anything tangible will result from the peace overtures. And for the peace process to be meaningful, as the pro-talk ULFA leaders should now realize, ‘‘sovereignty for Asom’’ cannot be on the agenda. Now one only hopes that the State would not have to bear yet another — and more horrendous — cycle of attacks and counter-attacks. Neighbouring Nagaland should serve as an example where three different factions of the NSCN, all championing the same cause, have made commercial hubs like Dimapur a war zone, killing their own brethren, despite the fact that two of the factions have a ceasefire agreement with the Centre. Therefore, let us be less euphoric, more realistic. If much water has flowed down the Brahmaputra, there is a lot more to flow too. source: sentinel assam editorial 29.06.08