India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

North East : Assam : Sonia kickstarts campaign for Assembly polls

	February 13, 2006

The Congress finally blew the bugle last week, announcing its entry into the poll arena with party supremo Sonia Gandhi addressing a public rally in Barpeta on Feb. 11 amidst reports of a massive people’s protest against custodial killings.



Declaring that the Congress is the only party committed to protecting the interests of the minorities in the country, Sonia Gandhi assured her audience that the proposed amendment in the Foreigners Act would give them the same safeguards as the IM(DT) Act had done.



In an apparent bid to dispel apprehensions among the minorities following the Supreme Court striking down the IM(DT) Act, the Congress chief said the amendment was necessary to ensure that no genuine Indian citizen is harassed in the name of detection and deportation of illegal migrants.



After laying the foundation stone of the proposed Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College on the Barpeta Civil Hospital premises, the Congress president said her party had been working for the uplift of all citizens of the country irrespective of their religion or language.



She showered praise on Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, describing him as one of the most worthy sons of Assam with the crowd responding with thunderous applause.



Observers note that the Congress apparently chose Barpeta for the rally in a bid to pacify its disgruntled leader A.F. Golam Osmani, who has raised the banner of revolt against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.



Sonia Gandhi lauded the Gogoi government’s achievements with a special mention about the improvement in the state’s economy during the Congress rule, as she sought votes for the Congress in the coming Assembly polls.



Besides Barpeta, she addressed another rally in Tezpur during her whirlwind election tour of the state. In Tezpur, she touched on almost all the crucial issues - the perennial floods, the floundering tea industry, growing unemployment, insurgency and also the Kokopathar incident in which 10 civilians were killed in police firing.



The Congress president expressed her deep shock over the Kokopathar tragedy. She said she has spoken to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. “We feel both sad and sorry. But at the same time, we want stern action against those responsible for these. The Defence Minister has assured me that appropriate action will be taken,” she said, referring to the actions of the security personnel.



Government spokesman and Minister Ripun Borah blamed Feb. 10 incidents on some “vested and lumpen elements” among the protesters, who were otherwise peaceful. “These people wanted to embarrass the ruling Congress before the Assembly elections,” he claimed.



National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said the situation at Kakopathar was being “strictly monitored” by the Prime Minister’s Office. Narayanan conveyed this to writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami, who is mediating between the ULFA and the Centre, when she spoke to him in Delhi.



Inaugurating the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Amingaon in Guwahati, the AICC chief took the opportunity to take a dig at the “negligence towards sports” during the AGP regime between 1995 and 2001. “I had laid the foundation stone of this project way back in 1995 and it took a long time for completion as the construction work was stopped during the tenure of a particular government,” she said. Echoing Assam Minister of State for Planning and Development and local MLA Himanta Biswa Sarma, she said sports should not be mingled with politics.



Sonia, who inaugurated the Rajiv Gandhi Computer Literacy Programme, Phase IV, said emulating the ideals of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and fulfilling his dreams of youth development was the only way to achieve progress in the country.



The National Advisory Council chairperson gave away the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial Award for the year 2005 to former Union Sports Minister Sunil Dutt posthumously in a ceremony held in Guwahati. The late former minister’s daughter Priya Dutt received the award.





Protest against custody death



As the Congress Prsident was preparing for her visit to Assam, a small town, Kokopathar, in Tinsukhia district exploded with over 20,000 people coming out on the roads to protest the death of an alleged ULFA cadre in Army custody.



Overwhelmed by the sight of such a multitude, police opened fire, killing at least 10 persons in the Upper Assam town of Kakopathar, 500 km from Guwahati. Indefinite curfew has been clamped in the town in Tinsukia district and the Army moved in.



Residents of Kakopathar have been blocking National Highway 52 since the death of Ajit Mahanta in Army custody came to light early last week. They have been demanding a public trial of the Army personnel linked to the death.



Police said the forces first burst tear-gas shells and then fired in the air, but the protesters pressed ahead. They were about 3 km from Kakopathar police station when some announced their intention to set the police station on fire. The threat prompted the police to fire on the crowd. The area was cleared of protesters.



A rattled Government instituted a probe by the state CID into the custody death and instructed additional Chief Secretary N.K. Das to submit a report after an on-the-spot inquiry. No timeframe was set for the completion of the probe.



Branded as an “active ULFA linkman”, Ajit’s detention and death in custody has put the Army in trouble. The official version is that he sustained fatal internal injuries in a fall while trying to escape. A team from the 1/3 Gorkha Rifles had ostensibly asked him to guide them to an ULFA “treasure chest” of weapons and cash.



The 1/3 Gorkha Rifles team took the body to the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh around 2 am on Sunday and left it at the casualty ward without informing either the police or the civil administration.



The army staged a flag march at several places in Tinsukia, but the situation remained tense in areas placed under indefinite curfew since Feb. 10.



Sources in the Army said two officers — of the rank of major and captain — “had been closed”. In military parlance, that means relieving them of responsibilities, but not suspension. Brig. A.S. Minhas of 2 Mountain Division is conducting the inquiry.



Army Chief Gen. J.J. Singh is understood to have asked the military authorities in Assam to ensure a speedy and impartial probe. A source said the post-mortem report indicated “profuse internal bleeding” but “no significant external injury”.





Setback to peace talks : ULFA threatens to pull out



The team of negotiators chosen by the banned ULFA has threatened to pull out of the peace process with Delhi in the aftermath of police firing on Feb. 10 on civilians at Kakopathar.



The People’s Consultative Group (PCG) constituted by the ULFA warned that it would abandon the talks if army operations in Assam did not stop immediately. PCG spokesman Arup Borbora said that the police firing at Kakopathar was against “the undertaking given by the government of India on February 7 at New Delhi to initiate confidence-building measures”.





ULFA, AASU call for bandh



The banned ULFA and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have separately called bandhs throughout Assam, respectively on Monday and Tuesday to protest against the police firing at Kakopathar.



In a statement issued in Guwahati on Feb. 11, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa described the Kakopathar incident as “worse than the Jallianwala Bagh killings perpetrated by the British”.



The AASU, too, came down heavily on the Tarun Gogoi government, claiming that the Kakopathar incident had exposed Dispur’s callous attitude towards protecting the lives and property of the common people.



“Even after such a tragic incident, not a single person from the ruling Congress has bothered to visit the spot. All party workers are busy with the visit of party president Sonia Gandhi,” he alleged. AASU adviser Sammujjal Bhattacharyya pointed out that the students” organisation has called a bandh after 15 months.



“We have been forced to protest against such a barbaric incident. It is shameful that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, head of the unified command structure, could allow the army and police personnel to kill innocent people,” he said.



Bhattacharyya said the Kakopathar incident was not an isolated one. A recent series of incidents has exposed the lawlessness prevailing in the state ruled by the Congress, he alleged. He mentioned how Hitendra Nath Neog had been killed in an alleged fake encounter in Jorhat and innocent youth picked up and branded ULFA militants.



Extending full support to the bandh sponsored by the AASU, the Opposition AGP has announced an agitation to register its protest against the incident.



An AGP delegation, headed by former MP Birendra Prasad Baishya, will leave for New Delhi next week to meet President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to seek his intervention for punishing the culprits responsible for the Kakopathar incident.



The BJP also took out a protest rally in the city.