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Journalism of Courage
This newspaper has always maintained that ceasefire with the Ulfa is utterly unacceptable. But the home ministry had insisted that negotiations with a group of extortionists was feasible. With the army being directed to resume operations hours after Ulfa cadres gunned down a tea estate manager in Upper Assam, what should have been apparent from the beginning has been brought, as it were, home now. That the Ulfa8217;s latest outrage is reportedly a follow-up action of an extortion notice should surprise no one who has followed the group8217;s history. India is no stranger to insurgency. But most insurgents have a minimum political manifesto 8211; however convoluted 8211; and some local sympathy 8211; however small. The Ulfa doesn8217;t possess either attribute. It is a basically an organisation that makes money by terrorising people and killing them. What possessed the home ministry to treat the Ulfa as a partner for talks only the home ministry can answer.
If the ministry still has doubts it should carefully read what Paresh Barua, the Ulfa boss, told this newspaper. Barua said his organisation has no 8220;charter of demands8221;. That the only thing he cares about is 8220;sovereignty8221;. So, here we have it: The group the Centre has been so keen to talk to all these months basically has nothing to talk about apart from being granted a separate nation! If the government isn8217;t ready for that, Ulfa cadres will simply go on finessing their art 8211; as they indeed did during the informal ceasefire when they regrouped and inducted new recruits. One must say the Ulfa makes even Naxalites sound a little reasonable.
No surprise of course that the same home ministry that saw such hope in the Ulfa8217;s reasonableness had also spotted sweet reason in Naxalites8217; rhetoric. The dreadful consequences of allowing Andhra Naxalites to negotiate without disarming them first are still being felt. The home minister, who8217;s back after briefing his party8217;s Nainital conclave about internal security, should really ponder hard where India8217;s internal security stands today after more than a few official attempts to negotiate. No one, certainly not this newspaper, can question the value of flexibility in dealing with violent challenges to the state. The attempt to co-opt Pakistan in tackling Pakistan-based terror is a positive example of such flexibility. For a stunningly negative example pick the now deservedly shot-to-pieces idea of being nice to the Ulfa.
