Visit of the Bhutanese King to India

The visit of the Bhutanese King to New Delhi in the second week of September raised enormous hopes in the media regarding an early dismantling of the militant camps in that country. On September 14, the English daily ‘Assam Tribune’ in a lead story ‘Gogoi hopeful on eviction of ultras’ reported that ‘Assam government is looking up to Bhutan King’s visit to the country with a hope for a concrete promise to evict camps of militants from Assam from the soil of the Himalayan Kingdom.’ On the same day, ‘The Sentinel’ quoted the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of having said ‘Assam hopes that after the end of the royal visit, some concrete steps would be taken by the Royal Bhutanese Government to demolish or shut down the insurgent camps.’

State of Insurgency

Assamese vernacular daily ‘Asamiya Pratidin’, on September 13, reported through its news item ‘Karimganj Simantat Bhoyonkar Akramanar Ashanka’ (Violent Attacks Feared in Karimganj Border) the game plan of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan use the Karimganj border of Assam as a corridor for violent activities. It further said ‘a camp belonging to Bangladesh Rifles near the Karimganj border is said to be the main centre of ISI’s planning.’ Previously the same newspaper in its September 2 editorial ‘Who is the progenitor of terrorism?’ had accused Pakistan and Bangladesh of providing support to the insurgent outfits of the region.

Excesses by security forces

Asamiya Pratidin (on September 18) carried a news item on the attempt by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to kill a youth of Athara village in Kamrup district. Commenting on the incident, in which the CRPF personnel picked up the youth from his house and tortured him severely before dumping him in a local hospital, the newspaper wrote, ‘Two and half years into Tarun Gogoi government secret killings appear to have raised their ugly head which was common place during the last two years of the previous Prafulla Mahanta government.’

On September 19, the Assamese vernacular daily ‘Asamiya Khabar’ provided a similar report in which CRPF personnel beat up a journalist at Barpeta road area. The narrative detailed the torture in the following words. ‘A profusely bleeding Gayon (name of the journalist) was then taken to a nearby hotel and forced to drink alcohol and sign on a blank paper. When Gayon resisted, he was again beaten.'

Similarly, newspapers in Manipur carried news items in which the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) dismissed the claims of the Assam Rifles of having eliminated nine terrorists of the Kuki National Front- Military Council (KNF-MC) on September 13. According to the Imphal Free Press (September 19), the KIM said that ‘those killed were under the custody of Assam Rifles, and helped them in operational activities’.

Naga Peace Process

The representatives of the National Socilaist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) and the government of India met at Amsterdam on September 17 for another round of negotiations. The Nagaland Post (September 17) in a lead story reported that the ‘greater Nagaland’ issue ‘continues to be the biggest impediment in the successful conclusion of the peace talks aimed at ending the five-decade-old insurgency in Nagaland.’ The official level talk was supplemented by the efforts of the Naga Hoho (the so called People’s Parliament), which sent a delegation to Manipur on September 12 and 13 to meet the South Nagas in Imphal. The Nagaland Post (September 15) termed it as ‘a meeting between the family members displaced by artificial boundaries.’

State of Economy

There has been a common perception in the region regarding the misutilisation of developmental funds. On September 1, the Assamese daily Asamiya Khabar reported that the Assamese government is utilising only 20 per cent of central funds. The report said ‘the rest 80 per cent goes to the pockets of ministers, officials and contractors.’ The news item quoted the Central Water Resources Development Minister Bijoya Chakraborty who said ‘during the past year, the central government had provided an amount of 1500 crores to Assam of which the state could utilise only Rupees 400 crores.’

Similarly commenting on the Manipur Government’s performance, the Sangai Express, on September 22, commented ‘Poor share of the State's Plan size has often been quoted by successive Governments as one of the main reasons for the poor fiscal health of the State Government, but what is often left unsaid is the point that successive Governments have to been unable to effectively utilize all the Plan money allocated by the Centre annually.’ Quoting a ‘well placed source in Delhi’ the newspaper said ‘in the financial year 2002-03, the State government could utilize only Rs 322.09 crore of the allocated Rs 590 crores.’

Ban on Hindi Movies

One of the interesting items in the media is on the ban of Hindi movies by several insurgent outfits. Asamiya Khabar (September 15) suggested that the film distributors of Assam have entered into an understanding with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in Mumbai. Quoting a source in the State Home Department it reported, ‘Secret parleys took place between the ULFA and film distributors last week in which the outfit demanded an amount of Rs one crore. All film distributors acceded to this demand. It is for this reason that screening of Hindi movies shall continue unhindered in the state.’