In India, elections are times when political parties, desperate to grab power, aim at and say the impossible. Rhetoric is accentuated to suit the constituency in mind and gimmickry taken to a new absurd height. After all, has not even the so-called party with a difference — BJP — vowed in its manifesto to detect and deport all illegal immigrants within just 100 days of coming to power? How they will accomplish the task, if at all they come to power, is best known to them only. And now we have the Congress’ so-called problem-solver, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, telling us that bullets are no answer to the militancy imbroglio in the Northeast and that ‘‘peaceful means’’ are a better option to solve the problem. But who does not know that in a democracy? And why did it not dawn on the ‘sensible’ UPA government five years back — or during the course of these five years when it has had ample scope to use peaceful means to resolve the problem of militancy in the northeastern region? And does Mr Mukherjee know that most of the militant groups he has referred to have by now so metamorphosed into sheer terror organizations that they cannot even traverse back and join the path of insurgency (as distinct from terrorism), let alone the democratic mainstream? What is then the magic wand that the UPA has to initiate a peace process with the industry of so-called insurgency?
Last Friday, addressing a number of election rallies in the Barak Valley, the External Affairs Minister held out the UPA promise thus: ‘‘There is no doubt that the UPA government has been controlling the menace (of militancy) in the (northeastern) region with a firm hand. There is no question of being soft towards the militants. But at the same time, we have to understand that the youths who have taken arms are our own boys. Unfortunately, they are a misguided lot. The UPA government is interested to listen to them and solve their demands through dialogue. If the UPA returns to power after election, the new government will accelerate the peace process.’’ But what has the UPA government done to guide the ‘‘misguided lot’’ back to the mainstream? Why is Mr Mukherjee — and the government he is part of — remembering ‘‘our own boys’’ only now? Is it that the UPA is ‘‘interested’’ to listen to ‘‘our own boys’’ only now just because votes must be garnered by hook or by crook, after which the boys would miraculously turn into an invisible species? Why has not the UPA government listened to them in its five years of rule, when it has had all the liberty to heed the boys? Several such questions naturally arise when a responsible minister of the incumbent government lands up in the Northeast and talks hogwash merely to campaign for his party and help it win seats on the strength of a whole gamut of pseudo-promises and overused rhetoric.
Sorry, Mr Mukherjee, even if one admits that you and your party nurse a sincere desire to politically tackle militancy in the Northeast, there is no reason to believe that by now you have acquired even an iota of knowledge of the socio-ethno-politico-economic dynamics of the region that has stoked and helped foster the many insurgencies in the region, now in their terroristic avatars. Leaders from New Delhi, right from that famous Nehruvian my-heart-goes-out-to-the-people-of-Assam time, have visited the Northeast only with their own interest in mind, and post-independence history is a standing testimony to that fact of life. THE SENTINEL
Last Friday, addressing a number of election rallies in the Barak Valley, the External Affairs Minister held out the UPA promise thus: ‘‘There is no doubt that the UPA government has been controlling the menace (of militancy) in the (northeastern) region with a firm hand. There is no question of being soft towards the militants. But at the same time, we have to understand that the youths who have taken arms are our own boys. Unfortunately, they are a misguided lot. The UPA government is interested to listen to them and solve their demands through dialogue. If the UPA returns to power after election, the new government will accelerate the peace process.’’ But what has the UPA government done to guide the ‘‘misguided lot’’ back to the mainstream? Why is Mr Mukherjee — and the government he is part of — remembering ‘‘our own boys’’ only now? Is it that the UPA is ‘‘interested’’ to listen to ‘‘our own boys’’ only now just because votes must be garnered by hook or by crook, after which the boys would miraculously turn into an invisible species? Why has not the UPA government listened to them in its five years of rule, when it has had all the liberty to heed the boys? Several such questions naturally arise when a responsible minister of the incumbent government lands up in the Northeast and talks hogwash merely to campaign for his party and help it win seats on the strength of a whole gamut of pseudo-promises and overused rhetoric.
Sorry, Mr Mukherjee, even if one admits that you and your party nurse a sincere desire to politically tackle militancy in the Northeast, there is no reason to believe that by now you have acquired even an iota of knowledge of the socio-ethno-politico-economic dynamics of the region that has stoked and helped foster the many insurgencies in the region, now in their terroristic avatars. Leaders from New Delhi, right from that famous Nehruvian my-heart-goes-out-to-the-people-of-Assam time, have visited the Northeast only with their own interest in mind, and post-independence history is a standing testimony to that fact of life. THE SENTINEL
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