In the disputed areas belt (DAB) on the Assam-Nagaland border, old frictions have risen to the surface again. A local property dispute between a Naga landowner and an Assamese cultivator turned into an ugly border clash, with houses set ablaze, thousands displaced and at least 11 killed. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s belated visit to the strife-torn areas failed to cut any ice. As people in Assam protested against the violence, marching on police stations in Golaghat district and blockading highways to Nagaland, they were greeted with police fire and lathi charges that have killed at least three so far. Flag marches by the army on Thursday brought an uneasy calm to the affected areas. The bitterness that began between people on either side of the border has now turned towards a state that lashed out with force against protestors. Indeed, long years of state apathy helped unleash this cycle of violence and recrimination in the first place.
The roots of the dispute lie in conflicting territorial claims by the two states. Nagaland, carved out of Assam in 1963, says that a 16-point agreement drawn up in 1960 provides for the restoration of territories that “historically” belong to the state. The Nagaland government demands the assimilation of contiguous “Naga-inhabited areas” with the state, while Naga militant group NSCN(IM)’s vision of a Greater Nagalim also enfolds four border districts in Assam. Assam, for its part, claims Nagaland has steadily been encroaching on its territory. Through the 1980s, talks between chief ministers of the two states failed to find a political resolution to the dispute and the Assam government took the matter to the Supreme Court. In 2006, the SC appointed a local commission to settle the boundary. While states have kept up their territorial demands and the Centre has manned the DAB with CRPF troops, the development of the border areas seems to be nobody’s business. People living in the area have few economic opportunities and with growing pressures on land, territorial tensions have sharpened.
The last couple of years have seen sporadic conflagrations in the border districts, yet the current crisis found the state governments and the Centre completely unprepared. The proposed joint mechanism announced by the two chief ministers on Thursday, after their meeting with Union MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju, is the first political initiative in years. While the demarcation of the border has been left to the courts, the tensions generated by years of stalemate must be managed through sensitive political give and take.
