Thanks for sending this. It is good to be able to read her comments and purpose
of life of this brave woman - daughter of a brave mother.
“In order to make spiritual progress you must be patient like a tree and humble
like a blade of grass”
- Lakshmana
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:09:09 -0800 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To:
assam@assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] Tehelka: ULFA Chief's sis wants
democracy thru elections - not guns Sister Concern ULFA’s exiled
commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah’s sister is contesting panchayat polls. She
says she wants ‘development’, not a ‘sovereign Assam’ TERESA REHMAN
Tinsukia, Assam
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne260108sister_concern.asp
GO AHEAD, but be courteous and respectful to everyone.” That is the advice
that Hirawati Baruah Chetia, sister of United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) commander- in-chief Paresh Baruah, remembers her mother gave her as
she stepped into the fray of the panchayat polls. But isn’t she contesting
under the Constitution, which her brother had rejected in 1979 when he
launched his “struggle” for a “Sovereign Assam”? “I am a simple person and
have come forward to serve the people,” replies Chetia. “I haven’t met my
brother for the past 28 years nor have I ever sought his advice. I wouldn’t
even recognise him if I saw him now. Like others, I learned that he had left
India to struggle for the country from the newspapers.” An unassuming
mother of three, 44-yearold Chetia is a well-liked figure in her village,
Panitola Borchapori Betoroni. Her hopes from a panchayat election win are
basic — improving roads, healthcare, education, working conditions for
weavers and setting up a rural library. As a social worker active with the
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) for the past decade, her decision to contest for
the Baruaholagaon panchayat in Tinsukia district has surprised few. But
does she agree with her brother’s principles? “I don’t think I am qualified
to comment on his activities. He never discussed with us the reasons why he
left everything to wage his struggle. My parents also failed to understand
why he had to do this because he always got what he wanted,” she says.
Paresh Baruah had worked as a railway porter from 1978 to 1982, and also as
a labourer for Oil India at Duliajan. “He used to stay with a group of
friends in a rented house while he was working. We did not know who he met
then and what he used to discuss with them,” she recalls. Chetia remembers
Paresh, elder to her by four years, as a strict, nononsense, short-tempered
man of few words. “I used to be very scared of him. He was very particular
that I not hang around and chat with my friends after school. He would tell
me to come home straight after school got out or stop going there
altogether,” she says. “We never had peace at home. One brother left home
to become an insurgent and another — Dinesh — who got a job in the railways
through the sports quota, was found dead after unidentified gunmen took him
away on February 19, 1994. But my mother manages to remain happy as she
feels both her sons have been sacrificed in the cause of the country. Of
course, we miss them. But we know we can’t get them back.” Did her family
face harassment from the security forces? “Yes, they used to trouble us,”
Chetia replies. “I still remember a few policemen hanging around at my
wedding, hoping my brother would come.” Didn’t her parents find it difficult
to find a suitable match for her, considering she was the sister of Assam’s
“most-wanted militant”? She says people did not know much about her brother
then as ULFA wasn’t very well known at the time. It is her children now who
keep asking about their “famous” uncle. She recalls how she and her four
brothers all used to excel at sports. “You can say we had a team at home.
While he was in school, Paresh was just too busy with football and
volleyball. He hardly spent time at home. He used to go to Bombay, Calcutta,
Punjab and Kashmir to play in tournaments. He once got a jacket for me from
Kashmir, something that I still treasure.” Chetia says Paresh had a good
sense of humour and would often tease younger boys and elderly women. But
his aversion for hard labour was one of his characteristic traits. “Once my
mother asked him to carry rice sheaves from the field and I still remember
what he said. He said he was ready to wash even the clothes worn by women
but he wouldn’t carry a heavy load on his shoulders.” SO, DOES she expect
to win? Will she get votes because she is Paresh Baruah’s sister? Her
response is emphatic. “No, people look at me as Hirawati Baruah Chetia and
not as Paresh Baruah’s sister. People will judge me on the basis of the
service I have rendered to the community. I have my own credentials.”
Bhaben Barua, a former
