Blood of the innocent

Ravishankar Ravi Guwahati

The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has gone on a killing spree with numerous bomb blasts in Assam, but it has only succeeded in rocking its own boat. Consequently, the people have started raising fingers at the intentions and politics of the banned organisation. There was a time when the ULFA claimed to be a militant, ‘revolutionary’ organisation whose avowed purpose was to wage a war against the Indian government for the ‘liberation’ of Assam. However, over the last few years, the sympathisers of ULFA have been forced to change their opinion about the underground outfit, leading to a sharp decline in public support with the ULFA being accused of systematically using communalism and terrorism as its ideological identity.

During the 1980-90 phase, people turned up in thousands to pay their homage to the ULFA cadres killed in action against the security forces. However, the situation has taken a dramatic turn-around now with people burning the effigies of ULFA commander, Paresh Barua, and raising slogans against the outfit. Barua is stated to be hiding in Bangladesh. The prevailing situation is such that Assam’s non-political organisations have not only condemned the violent killings of innocent people, especially hardworking and poor migrant Biharis, but have also opposed the ULFA’s demand for an ‘independent,  sovereign Assam’. Among the organisations criticising the ULFA are the Assam Manvadhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) and the Peace Committee for Peace Initiative (PCPI), which have been ULFA sympathisers in the past.

According to journalist Samudra Gupt Kashyap, “The attack on security forces and destruction of national property can still be understood in a given context, but the bombing of innocent children who came to participate in a Republic Day function at Dhemaji, the attack on Hindi-speaking labourers living in the state for the last many years, the brutal killings of north Indian migrant labourers and explosions at public places -- is this any kind of revolution? This has neither logic nor rationality.” He is certain that the people’s honeymoon with ULFA is over; it’s clear that political degradation is hounding the hierarchy and character of the militant outfit.

If the survey conducted by Assam Public Works is anything to go by, 95 per cent of the Assamese people do not support the ULFA’s demand of independent Assam. The results of the survey conducted in nine districts of the state is rejected by the ULFA, citing it as the handiwork of the Union home ministry’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), but the way demonstrations are being staged by the Assamese people against the organisation’s violent methods clearly indicate that the outfit has reached its rock-bottom in terms of mass popularity, political vision and praxis.

For instance, the former publicity secretary of the ULFA and currently a journalist, Sunil Nath, is upset and astonished with the ULFA’s political strategy. He said that earlier there used to be serious ideological discussions in the party before any campaign and no innocent civilian was ever made a victim of violence. At that time, the ULFA’s ideology and politics used to be above caste, religion and community consideration.