Suppose for a moment we set aside the question of our own views on the ULFA, its demands and the history of its movement.
Assume that at some point in time the representatives of the govt of India and the ULFA actually meet across the table for negotiations - just like the Naga or Bodo insurgency leaders did. You will agree that in that event - what will be most important will be the actual nitty gritty of the negotiation itself and that there is a possibility that there will be a negotiated settlement. History teaches us that such settlements often look very different from the formal charters of the organizations. In fact, there is little doubt that the organization ULFA, its historical perspective and its full set of demands are controversial - there is no general consensus on them. In particular, a large section (without trying to quantify how large) do not actually sympathise with the ULFA or its demand for sovereignty (just as a large section actually do). However, on specific issues that the ULFA initially stood for, popular opinion is often quite close to ULFA's perspective. For example, my own observation most people actually sympathise with the fact that Assam is virtually in some sort of a colonial socio-economic relationship with mainland India - whether or not they think of it as a deliberate imposition or simply an outcome of history to which the Assamese have contributed. Similarly, most people actually believe that Assam's options of selling its natural resources to the world market at fair prices are actually cut off. That, de facto, Assam has had little access to its geographical neighbors on the east through whom it could have bought its imports at much cheaper price than it currently does from rest of India. There are many others - including those related to preservation of socio-cultural rights of indigenous people. Though I am not sure the ULFA is actually interested in this, the strongest popular support for ULFA during an actual negotiation will be on issues about which there is relatively strong convergence of opinion among the people of Assam. The stronger the public opinion, the greater the bargaining power of the ULFA on such issues. There is, therefore, an important role for building public opinion among the people of Assam on a core set of issues for negotiation with the government of India. Let me clarify, I am not suggesting that the people or their intellectuals formulate ULFA's agenda. The ULFA is a partisan political organization with its own aims to which we may or may not subscribe. But "the people at large" can nevertheless extract important advantages from any negotiation by independently building consensus on certain core demands that they may hope to see reflected in any final settlement. And even though it smacks of collective opportunism, to not do so, would (almost by definition) be a historical opportunity foregone. Santanu. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list Assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
