Killings by Bodo militants expose flaws in govt policy
Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service
Guwahati, December 25
The latest massacre carried out by the Bodo militant group NDFB-S has exposed the futility of the current carrot-and-stick policy of the government to hold talks with extremist groups in Assam.
Adivasi tribesmen guard their village at Tinikhuti in Assam on Thursday. AFP |
The government is talking to two factions of the NDFB — NDFB (Progressive) and NDFB (Ranjan Daimary) — while the third faction NDFB-S has been on the rampage in certain parts of the state.
It has raised questions about continuing dialogue with factions of the same parent militant outfit while a section of the cadre has chosen to remain at large and continue with violent ways.
The scenario is no different when it comes to another militant group, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). While a section of leaders of the ULFA led by its self-styled chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa is holding talks with the government, another section led by “commander-in-chief” Paresh Barua has remained out of the process under the name of ULFA (Independent).
The situation was summed up by Congress leader and former Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, a tea-tribe leader, today. Ghatowar said, “What sort of revolution are militant groups (like NDFB-S) carrying on and for what purpose if they kill infants sitting in the lap of the mother. They are no less brutal than the Taliban. There should not be any dialogue with such terror groups.”
“It has become a sort of business — they form a militant group, kill people, extort money, become rich, then surrender or hold talks with the government and join the mainstream without getting punished for the heinous crimes they had committed earlier,” he said.
The militant groups in Assam have an advantage because of the current policy of the government that holds dialogue and rehabilitates the surrendered insurgents without caring to pursue the cases registered against them to logical end. For that, one has to blame the alleged nexus between the militants and a section of the politicians who tend to use ultras for their narrow political interest.
