With the signing of a ‘Suspension of Operations’ agreement between representatives of the Union Government and the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom last Saturday in New Delhi, hopefully a bloody chapter in Assam’s history, as also that of India, has come to an end. According to the terms of the ‘Suspension of Operations’ agreement, security forces will discontinue any ongoing operation against the separatist outfit’s members and not launch any fresh counter-insurgency offensive. On their part, ULFA cadre will lay down arms and 600 of them who have opted for the dialogue-based peace process will be accommodated in transit camps. This is precisely how the violent separatist movement in Tripura, led by the TNV, was tamed, neutralised and ultimately ‘mainstreamed’ — although some would argue that the TNV becoming the proverbial tail of the Congress, to be wagged or tucked between the hind legs as the occasion demands, is not really what ‘political mainstreaming’ of rebel outfits is all about. But that’s besides the point. What is of import is that the Government’s dialogue with ULFA, which began on a tentative note, has moved a step forward with the signing of Saturday’s agreement. It should send a signal to those leaders and cadre of ULFA who are still holding out and have made known their resolve not to go along with the peace process as that would be tantamount to compromising their declared goal and objectives. Which raises the question: Will the lull in counter-insurgency measures on account of the ‘Suspension of Operations’ agreement be used by the belligerent faction to recuperate, regroup and recruit new cadre before launching fresh attacks? The security agencies will have to move cautiously: A distinction will have to be drawn between those ULFA leaders and cadre who have laid down their arms to join the peace process and their comrades who are loath to give up their armed struggle which is indistinguishable from terrorism by other means.
No matter what the pro-dialogue group says, the fact remains that it has had to abandon the path of violence and accept the supremacy of the Constitution which it had rejected all these years. In a sense, this demonstrates the holding capacity of the Indian state: It can absorb losses without conceding ground and territory; ultimately, the state wins and co-opts yesterday’s rebels in the very system which they had sought to undermine at great cost to human life and property. It’s a pity that so many lives should have been sacrificed at the altar of ULFA’s intransigence, without fetching the separatists anything of consequence. On the contrary, the organisation came to be despised by the people of Assam. It is this alienation from the masses that is inevitably the undoing of separatist and terrorist organisations, a fact that has been proved again and again across the length and breadth of the country, and offers a lesson to insurgent groups that are sacrificing innocent lives while battling the state in the hope of victory. A last point that merits mention is that ULFA would possibly have still continued with its armed insurgency had the Government led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed not cracked down on camps in Bangladesh and repatriated leaders holed up there. New Delhi owes Dhaka a big thank you.
No matter what the pro-dialogue group says, the fact remains that it has had to abandon the path of violence and accept the supremacy of the Constitution which it had rejected all these years. In a sense, this demonstrates the holding capacity of the Indian state: It can absorb losses without conceding ground and territory; ultimately, the state wins and co-opts yesterday’s rebels in the very system which they had sought to undermine at great cost to human life and property. It’s a pity that so many lives should have been sacrificed at the altar of ULFA’s intransigence, without fetching the separatists anything of consequence. On the contrary, the organisation came to be despised by the people of Assam. It is this alienation from the masses that is inevitably the undoing of separatist and terrorist organisations, a fact that has been proved again and again across the length and breadth of the country, and offers a lesson to insurgent groups that are sacrificing innocent lives while battling the state in the hope of victory. A last point that merits mention is that ULFA would possibly have still continued with its armed insurgency had the Government led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed not cracked down on camps in Bangladesh and repatriated leaders holed up there. New Delhi owes Dhaka a big thank you.
