Political Violence in Assam: Three Trends
27 Feb, 2001 · 470
Anindita Dasgupta predicts that Assam will experience more violence in the coming months leading upto the Assembly elections in April 2001
The trend of rising violence in
India 's North East demonstrates that
Kashmir 's violence is minor compared to what is possible in this region. It is not
Kashmir but Tripura which tops the country in terms of civilian casualties due to insurgency-related violence in the last four years. It is a sobering thought that easy availability of small arms India’s North East has resulted in a disproportionate and indiscriminate use of illegal weapons by insurgents/civilians/’unidentified assailants’ who can target any person or institution anywhere across the region at any time. But even more dangerous is the fact that this has led to a subversion of democratic processes, criminalization of civil society and subversion of electoral processes leading to a serious crisis of governance in
India ’s North East.
Assam illustrate that it is fast becoming one of the most dangerous places in the country to live in. These incidents of political violence over the last three months reveal some significant trends in the state:
Assam ;
Assam have been on the rise in the past three months. It is a matter of speculation as to who are the real perpetrators of such crimes. The fact that these ‘secret’ killings have remained unresolved tends to support the popular thesis of the state’s covert aquiescence in a bid to discredit the ULFA and force it to the negotiating table in a ‘Punjab-style’ offensive. Apart from the violence against the ULFA by pro-government former militants referred to as SULFA (Surrendered-ULFA), and the government's counter-insurgency operations merged to create a messy political situation. While some analysts see the hand of the ISI in these killings, others suggest they are done at the behest of the government and carried out by its retainers, the gun-toting ’rehabilitated’ SULFA, to gain mileage in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Lawlessness has reached such a state in
Assam that the gunman do not need an issue. The urge to settle scores, to win an election, to ‘manage’ a government contract or even play-back an evening show of ‘Mission Kashmir’ because he had missed the first few reels, is good enough reason to incite serious acts of violence.
Assam and handing over of the murder inquiries to the CBI. With the police, armed forces and the para-military forces strategically positioned across the state, it is surprising that not one ‘unidentified assailant’ has been successfully nabbed. Again, since 1992, some 6,000 SULFAs have been brought ‘back into the mainstream’ and yet the law and order situation has not shown any improvement. The rural youth of
Assam continue to join the ULFA. This has led to a further criminalisation of civil society by introducing a new culture of violence by the pro-government group SULFA who frequently use their ‘legal’ weapons to commit acts of violence in pursuit of their ‘new’ occupations of organised crime, racketeering, extortion and becoming government informers. That the political masters have turned a blind eye to such acts but have actively engaged them in anti-insurgency initiatives and criminalising electoral politics sets a dangerous precedent. It makes armed violence and criminal activities an acceptable route to accumulating wealth or gaining political mileage. What makes this danger real is that while the ULFA largely remained an entity ‘outside’ the civil society, the SULFAs functions from within and as a part of civil society to openly pursue their illegitimate activities ‘legitimately’.
Assam also appears to be politically motivated, not an ethnic-cleansing offensive, to discredit the ruling government just before the Assembly elections. The murder of 14 Bhutanese petty traders in lower
Assam has put an end to any hopes the Indian government may have had of a Bhutanese military offensive against the Assamese militants hiding in
Bhutan .
Assam will experience more violence in the coming months leading upto the Assembly elections in April.
The rising incidents of political violence in
· A series of ‘secret killings’ of the family members and relatives of ULFA cadres by ‘un-identified assailants’;
· Violence and ‘Quit Assam’ notices served on the Hindi-speaking communities living in
· Mass killings of ‘soft targets’ like Bhutanese petty tradesmen and people of marginalised communities by random insurgent groups;
The frequency and intensity of the secret killings’ in
That the popularly elected government in Dispur has completely failed to stop these ‘secret’ killings and acts of violence is irrevocably established. While the ‘official’ statements blame the ULFA, the banned outfit has yet to claim responsibility for such acts. Most opposition parties have come joined to demand President’s Rule in
The recent murder of some 100 Hindi-speaking people in
All in all, it seems quite clear that
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