Truth as hostage

Truth is the second casualty in a terrible tragedy in which the conduct of the Assam police is barely better than that of Ulfa. P.C. Ram, an FCI official, was officially pronounced dead twice after his abduction by Ulfa. As reported in this newspaper on Monday, his family is unconvinced by the sarkari spin. And if governments in this country remembered their basic duties all the time, a second post-mortem and an independent inquiry would have been ordered by now. The Assam police will now remember in great detail every shot fired during the 8216;encounter8217; in a village house supposedly hosting Ulfa members. From Borka, where the police team had gone, to Guwahati there will be consistent answers and denials. What the Assam police has to do is answer inconsistencies. When Ram was first declared dead, the police had said it did not raid Ulfa hide-outs out of concern for the hostage8217;s safety. So what happened the second time? Credible local observers have pointed out that the police may have 8216;failed to act8217; on intelligence that Ram was being held in a small district on the Bhutan border.

When such questions come up they greatly undermine people8217;s faith in the state. More so in the case of Assam because there have always been doubts whether the state is as uncompromisingly tough and relentless in its pursuit of Ulfa as it should be. The Centre these days

isn8217;t of much help either, since quasi-invitations for dialogue with Ulfa always seem possible.

Notice that the only organisation that has come out a winner from this mess is Ulfa. It may have lost some members 8212; if one is to believe the police 8212; but it has again sent out the message that its style of operation has no effective state-planned counter. More than 150 citizens have died in Assam this year. In the manner of P.C. Ram8217;s death, Ulfa has received encouragement to better its bloody record.