Defining the Foreigner

This is not the first time that the ULFA has said it, and it is not going to be the last time either. In a recent article in its mouthpiece Swaadhinataa, the ULFA raised the question as to why the Bangladeshi in Asom should be regarded as a foreigner if a person from Punjab or Uttar Pradesh or Bihar was not to be regarded as a foreigner. Unfortunately, this cuts no ice at all because people living in Asom know which country they are citizens of. And what the ULFA does not seem to realize is that it is not only living in an imaginary will-be country that does not exist, but that it expects everyone in Asom also to transfer to this nonexistent country right now. This is not possible even if we were to buy the ULFA wish-list for the sake of argument alone. In the last 29 years it has done enough mischief with little school children by assiduously attempting to deny them their flag and their nationality. For 29 long years it has intimidated children by virtually forcing them not to hoist and salute their national flag and not to acknowledge India as their country. It has even shot down little school children and women merely for their sin of attending an Independence Day function at Dhemaji. But how far will that take the ULFA? Indian independence came long before the ULFA, and even for the build-up to it many people in Asom had sacrificed their lives, their youths and their studies to make their country free. They had done this because India was their motherland. It is not for the ULFA to tell the people of Asom what their country is. But since the ULFA persists in thrusting a hypothetical and non-existent country on the future generation, it must answer a few pertinent questions. What currency do the grassroots-level ULFA cadres use? We are not asking about the ULFA top brass because we know that they use the Bangladeshi taka most of the time or the Pakistani rupee when they land up in the country of their masters for training in arms. What hospital does an Assamese child visit when illness strikes? Certainly not a Bangladeshi hospital. What court do we approach for justice? What court is the ULFA activist taken to after being arrested in Asom? What passport do we carry when we go abroad? Maybe the ULFA top brass use Bangladeshi or Pakistani passports when they travel abroad. We do not. And their mothers and sisters, their fathers and brothers all vote in Indian elections. So who is the ULFA trying to delude? The Bangladeshi is not the same in Asom as the Punjabi or Bihari or the Tamilian is, because the Bangladeshi does not salute the same flag, does not use the same currency, does not use the same passport to go abroad and does not swear by the same constitution. Incidentally, the ULFA cadres are quite happy to extort the same Indian money that we spend in Asom and to siphon out huge sums of the same currency that comes as development grants for the poor people in the State. So who is the ULFA trying to give lessons in nationality and citizenship to? The top brass of the ULFA has a country that they have chosen as their own, but for us in Asom, as of today, our country is India and our flag the tricolour. source: sentinel assam