P Chidambaram ruled out any dialogue on sovereignty outside

Addressing the valedictory session of a national conference on leadership in Kolkata on Tuesday, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram ruled out any dialogue on sovereignty outside of the ambit of the Constitution as demanded by different militant outfits of the Northeast, but said that the ‘‘stated position of earlier governments’’ had changed and the UPA-II was prepared to reach out to the tribal groups of the region ‘‘differently’’ because the region had had a ‘‘different’’ history. ‘‘This is the most unambiguous message (no talks on sovereignty) from us to these groups (Northeast militant outfits). The demand for sovereignty is unacceptable. We are firm on this basic principle. But there is a shift from the stated position of earlier governments. The Indian Constitution is flexible to accommodate their genuine desire for self-governance so that the tribal groups feel they are the masters of their own destiny... We must approach the tribal groups differently. It is possible to accommodate them. The Constitution has provisions for hill development councils, semi-autonomous areas, the Fifth, Sixth and the Seventh Schedules,’’ Chidambaram said. He added that the government ‘‘can create another Schedule as long as the government structure can meet the aspirations of the people. They can be masters of their own destiny even while remaining a part of India’’.

The appreciation of the ‘‘genuine desire’’ of the militant outfits of the Northeast for ‘‘self-governance’’ marks a welcome shift from the earlier stereotype of overlooking and even rubbishing the different aspirations of different peoples in the region. Chidambaram has accepted the genuineness of such aspirations and pointed to the government’s readiness to make the best of politico-economic arrangements to accommodate and empower the northeastern tribal groups within the framework of the Constitution. This ought to have takers in the militias of the region if they mean the business of insurgency; if they are terrorists camouflaging as insurgents, they will patently reject overtures of the Chidambaram kind and keep terrorizing their own people to sustain the industry of criminal terrorism. It is not that militant outfits like ULFA believe that one fine morning the government may break the news that it is prepared to talk on and even concede to the demand for sovereignty. They know it only too well that the government will not do anything of the sort. However, in order to prove their so-called revolutionary valour (cowardice for a vast majority of the very people whose cause the militant outfits ostensibly advocate), credibility and doggedness of purpose, the insurgents-turned-terrorists remain obdurate about sovereignty. This eventually prepares the ground for fresh military offensive and perpetuation of conflicts with the concomitant civilian casualties — with the people remaining the worst victims as ever.

Chidambaram’s latest statement pertaining to the need for a different approach to diagnose the maladies of the northeastern region offers a great opportunity to the insurgents among its non-state actors to come forward and negotiate on the ways and means of empowering the people for whom, as they claim, they are fighting the Indian nation-state. As for the terrorists, their only interest is the enterprise of criminal terrorism — there is nothing political about their dastardliness, and therefore, there is no question of dealing with them politically. THE SENTINEL