>In such a situation, sending some high-level or low-level teams and
some more forces to Assam will not help. What is needed is a clear
policy of non->appeasement of both ULFA and illegal Bangladeshi
immigrants, and thus giving a clear message to the people of Assam that
New Delhi cares for the regional >sentiments.
_____
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Bartta Bistar
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 2:26 AM
To: AssamNet
Subject: [Assam] (1) Jinnah okayed partition after Nehru+Patel (2)
1971events show Assam would have destroyed EastPakistan andbecome
Sovereign by 1951 (3) 500 yrs ago only about 0.001%Muslims in Assam. (4)
India sponsored increase is 1.9+m 1951to 8+ m by 2001.
Jinnah's agenda included Assam
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist
<http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file
_name=punj%2Fpunj99.txt&writer=punj>
&file_name=punj%2Fpunj99.txt&writer=punj
The latest brutal killings of Hindi-speaking labourers in Dibrugarh and
Tinsukia districts of Assam has evoked the usual episodic response from
the Indian establishment. Our political parties have made statements on
predictable lines. The Centre, too, has followed the usual drill; it has
rushed Ministers to the affected State for "on the spot assessments".
So, when the Centre announced that security measures had been beefed up,
more forces were being sent and a high-level meeting had been held to
review the security situation in the districts, there was a general wave
of disbelief among the people of the State and the rest of the country.
We have heard all this before. Every time there is an ULFA attack, the
same story is repeated and the same text is read out by the Union Home
Secretary, with only the locations changed.
The current spate of atrocities against people symbolic of a "cow belt
dominating the Indian Union" is not an isolated act of violence by the
trigger-happy deranged group, as the Indian establishment sees and deals
with it. In fact, the roots of the malice in Assam are much deeper and
go back to the pre-partition ambitions of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who wanted
all six provinces - Punjab, Sind, the NWFP, Balochistan, Bengal and
Assam - to be included in his dream Islamic state of Pakistan. Barring
Assam, Jinnah managed to get full or in part the rest of the five. Today
ISI, through ULFA, is working towards completing Jinnah's unfinished
agenda of partition.
Assam's geographical position in the Indian Union has always been
precarious. Out of its 5,800-km long border, it shares 34 km with other
parts of India through "chicken's neck"; the rest it shares with
Bangladesh and Bhutan. Infiltration from Bangladesh continues unabated
and 'secularists' have made special laws to facilitate it. First, the
IMDT Act was brought in. After the Supreme Court nullified it as ultra
vires, the UPA Government brought about amendments to prevent anybody
bringing charge against the illegal immigrants. This measure, too, has
been struck down by the court.
Meanwhile, the damage has been done. The demographic character of the
State is changing fast. The percentage of Muslims in the State, which
stood at 24.68 per cent according to the 1951 Census, was recorded at
30.92 per cent in 2001. In the Bongaigaon district, their population
rose by 31.84 per cent between 1991 and 2001. In the same period, Muslim
population rose by 29.58 per cent at Dhubri and by 19.15 per cent at
Kokrajhar. In Karimganj and Hailakandi, the growth was 58 per cent and
52 per cent respectively.
Today Pakistan's ISI-controlled ULFA does not consider Bangladeshi
infiltrators, but only those coming from the rest of India, as
outsiders. In its December 17 issue of Swadhinata, the banned outfit
said it was "determined to uproot those illegal migrants who threatened
Asom's existence, created chaotic situation in its social formation and
occupied the political and economic sphere by making the indigenous
people homeless". In 2003, ULFA made its agenda public when it killed 61
labourers from Bihar after a prior warning.
The ISI, through ULFA, is seeking to create a volatile situation along
the Assam border with West Bengal by targeting non-Assamese Indian
migrants into the North-Eastern State. It could then take advantage of
the situation to infiltrate the State with its arms and ammunition. The
Bangladesh Government is giving full support to ULFA in a bid to create
problems for India in the sensitive North-East.
Earlier, the BJP-led NDA Government had persuaded Bhutan to evict all
ULFA camps along its border. But even as the Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Government was getting tough with Dhaka, there was a change of regime at
the Centre and the momentum was lost. Bangladesh is increasingly
becoming a paw of ISI, with the extremist parties in that country
backing this tie up.
The ISI strategy is obvious - encourage Muslim infiltration from
Bangladesh and force Hindus to flee from Assam, thus attaining a
critical mass of Muslim population in the State. This tactics has worked
successfully in Jammu & Kashmir where select killings of Pandits
resulted in the mass exodus of the community from the Valley.
All this is a prelude to sever Assam from the rest of India and avenge
the break-up of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh. In contrast, the
Indian response to this challenge is inept. For the 'secular'
establishment, the entire issue boils down to Muslim votes, even if they
are from foreigners. It is of little consequence to them that in the
process, the integrity of the country gets compromised.
It is against this background that one has to see how the Congress
Governments at the Centre and the State have been running in circles
with ULFA in the tow. Only a few months back, the two Governments began
a series of meetings - this time with a few self-appointed middlemen -
on resuming the peace talk with ULFA. The security forces were told to
hold their fire. This completely upset the plan of our forces that were
planning to flush out the ULFA cadre.
A year ago, as the election to the Assam Assembly loomed large, the
security forces were told not to pursue the 'encirclement' of ULFA
leaders. How damaging such orders are to the morale of the forces that
are battling the guerrilla militants in the most hostile jungles of
Assam is anybody's guess. The repeated bursts of "peace talks" have only
been eroding the morale of the security forces. How could the security
forces be expected to work efficiently when every time the
anti-insurgency movement picks up, the Government presses for slowing it
down?
There is this widespread belief in Assam that in the last Assembly
election, the Congress had a deal with ULFA. After the secessionists
were licking their wounds caused by the previous NDA regime that
succeeded in persuading the Government of Bhutan to take action against
ULFA in that country, the UPA Government once again left the people of
the North-East at the mercy of these insurgents.
In such a situation, sending some high-level or low-level teams and some
more forces to Assam will not help. What is needed is a clear policy of
non-appeasement of both ULFA and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and
thus giving a clear message to the people of Assam that New Delhi cares
for the regional sentiments.
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