There is a presumption that the main obstacle to a negotiated settlement between the ULFA and the Govt. Of india is the question of absolute sovereignty for Assam. Indeed, it as been suggested by many that but for the demand for sovereignty, it would be easy to arrive at settlement where, for example, Assam could easily gain a high degree of autonomy - and the impression is that in fact, the government of India is actually quite willing to grant that.
Nothing could be further from truth. Let me suggest that on its own, the government of India is absolutely not willing and has never - since 1950 - granted one additional iota of autonomy or transferred one iota of actual power to the states or carried out a single constitutional amendment that transfers functions to the states. The history of India in the last 50 years is one of moving towards greater centralization of powers. It is the centralization which provides the economic and political rents that the civil servants and politicians make in Delhi - and distribute to their lower fiefs in the states. Rivers of blood will have to flow before they give even one bit of it. By a negotiated settlement with insurgents, govt of India means two things: i) handing out more doles - as grants, as bridges, roads and universities ii) handing over political power (along with slush funds) at the state level to former leaders of insurgencies. This is not a matter of opinion - its the construction of every agreement that the GOI has signed. From the point of the rulers in Delhi, the issue is very clear. Giving one additional degree of autonomy to one state is going to open the floodgates and unravel the nature of power structure of the Indian "union". As it is, economic liberalization has made many of the states more powerful than ever imaginable in a socialist economy. The GOI's strategy is to wait and hope that all militancy will eventually tire and get corrupted to a degree that doles and state level ministries can buy out. Then it can just do another Assam accord of 1985. For the people of Assam, short of a fundamental restucturing of constitutional power, every other accord will just as meaningless as the accord of 1985. Santanu. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] 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
