By Ashis Biswas
From Manipur, the continuing ethnic strife far from being controlled, has currently impacted the political situation in neighbouring Assam: State Chief Minister Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma, regardless of his assiduously nurtured image as the region’s political strong man, is suddenly under acute pressure to explain his old links with terrorist and insurgent groups!
This unexpected twist came in the wake of an obvious failure of the recent official mission of Union Home Minister Mr Amit Shah, seeking to end the Meitei-Kuki ethnic conflict and help restore local peace and order. Mr Shah had during his two-day Imphal visit announced a few measures to bring the warring groups closer, after meeting concerned political stakeholders and officials.
But the continuation of group clashes, along with fresh signs of illegal infiltration of armed groups from neighbouring Myanmar during the past 48 hours , indisputably indicate a general failure of control and authority on part both the centre as well as the Manipur government to arrest the slide into anarchy.
Thirteen Meiteis were killed in a recent ambush at Kangpokpi district by suspected Kuki militants, while the tribes in the hills complained of being targeted by Meiteis.
While it has taken the efforts of an Assam Congress leader to unearth/expose a few embarrassing details of Mr Sarma’s eventful past political record, the larger question — what had led the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) to project people with a controversial track record as the ruling party’s unchallenged spokesman in a troubled region — remains to be answered.
For the record, twelve opposition political parties in Assam, including Congress, the CPI(M), Raisor Dol, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, RJD and JD(U) the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M-L) demanded Mr Sarma’s arrest under the National Security Act, for his alleged links with terrorist and extreme mist organisations in the past, including a few outlawed Kuki tribal organisations. Unless the centre responded, spokesmen of these parties told Assam-based media, they would visit Delhi to press their demands.
These leaders alleged that it was not surprising that Mr Sarma had proceeded during his present tenure as the Chief Minister, to disturb the political situation and existing ethnic/communal harmony through his controversial tactics of weakening the opposition. His methods included organising brutal police encounters and bulldozing of private property at short notice, harassing political opponents with false cases and targeting social backward communities and groups not considered the BJP’s political vote bank.
Such methods, not unexpected from a leader who himself cultivated links with NE-based extremist groups, had created a reign of terror among various social groups and communities in Assam and elsewhere. They had been bitterly criticised by national as well as foreign human rights groups and by the judicial authorities at times.
Surprisingly, there had been no condemnation, not even any mild criticism from the central BJP leadership, of such methods pursued by Mr Sarma. On the contrary, his responsibilities as the party’s supremo in the region, answerable only to the Modi-Shah duo, had increased with time indicating his growing clout and weight within the saffron party.
Nor was it a surprise , said these leaders, to learn that Mr. Sarma had confidentially met representatives of Kuki organisations in Guwahati only days ago, after he had visited Imphal in a bid to douse the flames of continuing ethnic violence in the region. He had met leaders of various groups and officials, including BJP Ministers at Manipur, no doubt on instructions from Delhi. However, there was no official briefing after the meeting with kukis in Guwahati.
The controversy began as state Congress President Mr. Bhupen Borah referred to a recent admission made by a Kuki extremist leader to National Investigation Authority (NIA) officials. The latter had claimed that the Kukis as a tribe had secretly agreed to support the BJP’s bid to win power in Manipur. This had followed pre/Manipur poll negotiations held between Mr Sarma, Mr Ram Madhav, leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) and Kuki militant leaders.
Mr Borah’s contention was that a dangerous precedent had been set by the BJP to choose as its regional head of the party in the NE region and appoint as the chief Minister of a major state like Assam, a person known for his anti –centre and extremist links. His view found broad support from other opposition parties in Assam as well.
Not only that, Mr Sarma prior to joining Congress had been arrested under the TADA legislation which sought to punish pro-secession-minded activists of the banned ULFA organisation!
It was strange that the Modi-Shah combination, Mr Borah had said, could find no other leader in Assam or in the NE region as a whole to project its party programmes and its policies. Such trends showed that the BJP was willing to align itself with extremist organisations in Manipur and elsewhere merely in order to win elections and assume power! Such an unprincipled approach could never ensure peace or progress in a politically troubled, volatile region like India’s Northeast. (IPA Service)
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