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Assam : New Delhi’s directive to ULFA - Prove sincerity first |
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Unsure about the ULFA’s intentions, the Union Government has quietly conveyed to the banned militant group that it must first prove its commitment to the peace process by calling a halt to violent acts and blackmailing tactics.
A senior official in the Union Home Ministry said Delhi was ‘not at all convinced about the outfit’s sincerity’, especially after the recent burst of violence in Assam. Its views were conveyed to the ULFA leadership both ‘verbally and through unofficial channels’, the official said.
What took Delhi by surprise was the magnitude of the violence that rocked the state last month despite ULFA’s professed willingness to start negotiations. ‘We were expecting some positive signals from the outfit. But by resorting to violent acts and, at the same time, accusing the government of lacking sincerity, the ULFA only exposed its own double standards,’ the official said.
Field operatives of a central intelligence agency have warned of more violence in Upper Assam and the North Bank districts, including Dhemaji, within the next couple of weeks.
The official accused ULFA of resorting to ‘blackmail’ by attaching ‘too many conditions’ to the proposed dialogue. The outfit has sought the release of seven of its jailed leaders and three senior activists who went missing during Operation All Clear by the Bhutanese army in 2003. ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia remains in a Bangladesh jail despite completing his sentence recently.
The Tarun Gogoi Government is willing to release those ULFA leaders jailed in Assam. The list includes ULFA vice chairman Pradip Gogoi, former publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary, former cultural secretary Pranati Deka and veteran Bhimkanta Borgohain.
The ULFA is understood to have mentioned in its formal response to national security adviser M.K. Narayanan’s letter that there is just one ‘core issue’, sovereignty, and it must be on the agenda.
Celebrated writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami, who is mediating between Ulfa and Delhi, believes the peace process will be a lengthy one.
Oscar steps in to break Assam PCC deadlock
On the political front, the stalemate over the Assam PCC has forced the high command to depute party general secretary Oscar Fernandes as a mediator, along with Assam in-charge Digvijay Singh, to broker peace between rival camps.
The constitution of a new body of the PCC had got bogged down, thanks to the cold war between Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and state unit chief Bhubaneswar Kalita.
Serious differences had cropped up between the two power centres in the party over the choice of new office-bearers.
This is because Gogoi had insisted that no minister, MLA or MP should be inducted into the party organisation.
Sources said it was because of Gogoi’s insistence that the high command had written to Kalita last week to keep ministers, legislators and parliamentarians out of his new committee.
This was perceived by Kalita as a move by the chief minister to keep his known detractors out of the new committee. Kalita has written to the high command, urging it to review the decision, saying such a step would only weaken the party, since most of the leaders would have to be kept out of organisational activities.
Sources in the party said Fernandes and Singh plan to sit down with Gogoi and the PCC president soon to try and resolve the impasse.
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