Assam's angst

Increasingly, public opinion in Assam is much less exercised over the killings of "suspected militants" than it was a decade ago.

ONE can never do away with the past. Like the hound of heaven, it will catch up with us, even if we want to forget our own role in its construction. Consider this truism in the context of the sea change that has come about in the way in which public opinion, that amorphous and in so many ways fraudulent and self-serving thing as reflected in the media, has been responding to the seemingly never-ending saga of violence and killing that is going on in Assam in the name of insurgency and counter-insurgency.

The story was rather different even a decade ago. Almost every incident involving an insurgent outfit as a perpetrator of an outrage, or a counterinsurgency operation by the security forces in which a person or persons (of whatever self-proclaimed or assigned value-loaded description, militant, insurgent, terrorist, separatist, secessionist or any other) were killed, received extensive coverage. Public figures issued statements expressing anguish or outrage, covertly commending even while publicly disapproving individual acts of terrorism, or making indignant condemnations of the violation of human rights and the manifestations of state violence.

Where have all the ideologues gone, those who provided the intellectual and political rationale for the politics of individual terrorism with the conviction that only by following that path could an independent and sovereign Assam be attained, one may well ask. The answer is simple one has only to look around. Those that did not get killed, meaning the more hard-headed of them, seem to have gone in for total disengagement, or rather, engagement of quite a different and materially rewarding kind.

This context of both an innate and manufactured support to the concept of swadhin Asom deeply influenced, both at the spontaneous level and at the manipulative level, the perspectives on and reactions to the incidents of individual terrorism and counter-terrorism. The death of innocent civilians as hapless victims of insurgents, or of insurgent(s) in counter-insurgency operations, was covered widely, with several follow-up reports detailing the background of the victims, interviews with parents and other family members and neighbours, schoolteachers, classmates and friends, providing a rounded picture of the incident as well as of the individuals involved, as perpetrators or as victims.

Given the social composition of rural Assam where the majority of such incidents took place and are even now taking place such detailed coverage which fed on and was in turn fed by public outrage was not merely natural, but also dictated by the most dispassionate judgment of newsworthiness of such incidents, the sheer human interest, and the drama and tragedy that they embodied.

Thus, a little over 10 years ago, when a senior United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader was cornered by the security forces on December 31, 1991, following a `tip-off', in a hideout in Guwahati and was shot dead in the encounter that followed, the incident reverberated for several days, during which period there were many (mostly speculative and wish-fulfilling) reports and analyses, stories of betrayal and heroic defiance, of high revolutionary morality and low political cunning.

The incident also had a profound political fallout, marking the open manifestation of a split in the organisation on the question of engaging in a political dialogue with the government. That the political dialogue that followed became a non-starter is neither here nor there, and is anyway not the point of discussion here.

Rather more relevant is the fact that such incidents continue to this day. With this difference, though that unlike a decade ago, they now are often no more than a single sentence running to three or four lines in a single column of a newspaper. There is no curiosity or interest in the facts and events that led to the incident, even less in what the incident portends for the future.

Even more tellingly, in the case of many, probably the majority, of the incidents in which `suspected hard core ULFA militants' have been killed by the security forces, the reports, invariably attributed to "Army sources", and actually verbatim reproductions of Defence Ministry handouts, also carry a tag: that the "identity of the dead militant is yet to be established".

Which certainly begs the question: How can a dead person whose very name, let alone other details like family background, was presumably not known at the time of the incident, be described as an `ULFA militant' whose identity moreover is "yet to be ascertained"? Could it be that the supposed militant is really some innocent village resident who was out in the small hours of the day to meet a natural need? Why and how does a person become a "suspected militant" unless it was part of the "tip-off", a notorious practice known to be part of a culture of settling scores? Almost without exception, unless described as having taken place following a "tip-off" when a house is raided, the incidents take place in the open field, either late at night or in the early hours of the morning.

Perhaps a few citations are in order. They begin in May this year. Some of these, though purportedly describing events that happened in widely different places, appear to be recycled handouts. Every one of these reports and several more such could be cited begs more questions than the ones posed above.

Guwahati, May 13: One suspected ULFA militant was killed by the troops of the Red Horns division of Army operating in Darrang district in the wee hours of May 12, an Army release said. The troops of the Army on specific information laid an ambush at Dalanghat village near Kalaigon. Two suspected militants were seen moving suspiciously. On being challenged by the troops, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire. Troops in retaliation killed one militant while the other managed to escape in darkness. One .22 pistol, one live cartridge, one Chinese grenade, two blank ULFA letter sheets were recovered from the slain militant. The identity of the militant is yet to be established.

Guwahati, June 3: An ULFA militant was killed today in an encounter with a combined police and CRPF team in Goalpara district. Police said that the extremist exchanged fire with the security personnel at Pisimkoli. The slain ultra was yet to be identified.

Guwahati, June 8: Two militants were killed in a joint operation launched by troops of the Red Horns Division and Assam Police in Nalbari district recently, stated an Army press release. On specific information, multiple ambushes were laid near Khograbari village during pitch darkness. Suspected militants movement was observed and on being challenged the militants lobbed grenades and fired at the troops and attempted to flee. In the retaliatory fire by the Army, two militants were killed. Identity of the slain militants is being ascertained.

Guwahati, July 10: Troops of Red Horns Division operating in Darrang district killed two hardcore ULFA militants in an encounter on July 8, states a press release. On receipt of specific information, an ambush was laid near village Moamari under Dalgaon police station to nab militants. Suspected militants when challenged lobbed grenade and fired at troops in an attempt to escape. In the retaliatory fire two ULFA militants whose identity is being ascertained were killed.

Nalbari, July 15: Two unidentified ULFA militants were killed in an encounter with Army at Digheli village under Nalbari PS around 12 last night, according to police sources here.

Guwahati, July 21: Two hardcore ULFA militants were killed by the Army on Saturday morning at Hajo under Kamrup district. According to defence sources, acting on a tip-off, troops of Red Horns Division killed the militants in an encounter. One 9 mm Chinese pistol, a .38 revolver and one Chinese grenade were recovered from the slain ultras who are yet to be identified.

Guwahati, July 24: Troops of Red Horns Division operating in Barpeta district killed one hardcore ULFA militant in an encounter, stated an Army press release. On specific information search was conducted in village Kukapar under Chenga police station to nab ULFA militant. The militant on being challenged lobbed grenade at the troops and attempted to flee. In the retaliatory fire the militant was killed. Identity of the slain ULFA militant is being ascertained.

Guwahati, August 1: Troops of the Red Horns Division killed two ULFA militants in Rajapara village under Boko police station in Kamrup district on Tuesday morning. One AK-56, one bayonet, one Chinese grenade and few incriminating documents were recovered from the slain militants. Their identities are yet to be ascertained.

Nalbari, August 10: Troops of the Red Horns Division of the Army shot dead an unidentified NDFB cadre in an encounter at Dooni under Borbori police station in Nalbari district this morning.

Guwahati, August 14: Troops of the Red Horns Division of the Army shot dead four ULFA militants in two separate incidents in the State in the wee hours today. According to a PIB release, the troops shot dead two unidentified ULFA militants near Suklapara under Hajo police station in Kamrup district. In another incident near Dudhnoi in Goalpara district, the jawans of the same Division shot dead two other ULFA cadres Amrit Rabha and Manoj.

Guwahati, August 21: Troops of the Red Horns Division on Tuesday night killed two suspected ULFA activists in Darrang district. One .35 revolver, some live ammunition and three hand grenades were recovered from the slain militants whose identities are yet to be identified.

Guwahati, August 28: An NDFB militant was killed on the spot in an encounter with the Army that took place at Rajabasti area under Udalguri police station in Darrang district around 4.30 am today. The militant is yet to be identified.

Guwahati, August 30: The troops of the Red Horns Division of the Army killed two unidentified ULFA militants in Suktaguri village under Sipajhar police station in Darrang district yesterday, stated an Army release.

Guwahati, August 30: Army killed one ULFA militant at Rampur area in Sonitpur district under Behali police station on Thursday. One .303 rifle, 30 ammunition and a few other incriminating documents were recovered from the slain militant whose identity is yet to be ascertained.

Guwahati, September 11: Army killed one unidentified ULFA militant in an encounter at Bhebladongpar under Patacharkuchi police station in Barpeta district in the wee hours on Tuesday. Intelligence sources said that troops of the Punjab Regiment killed the militant who is yet to be identified at 3.30 in the morning.

IN contrast to what used to be the case... a decade ago, there is not even a ripple of reaction to similar incidents now. Public opinion, to go by such as it is as finds expression in the print media, could not care less, it seems. This is especially so in the English language media, though even Assamese media have been much less exercised over such killings than used to be the case not so long ago. Only twice in the last five months have sections of the Assamese print media focussed with some background detail as well as photographs on incidents of this kind.

There are several plausible explanations for this lack of concern. Almost all the killings are taking place in the rural areas, reflecting, even if in a distorted way, the changing social profile of militancy, the social composition of the new recruits joining the organisation. The situation could change if such killings were to take place, say, in Guwahati. But then, this is unlikely because protest and rage of the youth in the cities has for the most part found new ways of expression and escape.

The indifference and callousness also reflects the growing amorality, the other side of the profound depoliticisation at all levels, of the very class that continues to own and propagate ideas. The situation is not unique to Assam. Corresponding tendencies are there all around, inside and outside the country, in the most materially advanced as well as in the most materially deprived societies... .

It seems likely that this complacency and callousness can be sustained, if not indefinitely, at least in the short and medium run. Memory, ever so fragile, now necessarily stored away in a forgotten recess of one's being, has become a poor and unserviceable conscience-keeper. Indeed, given the larger national and international trends in society and politics, seemingly so well-entrenched and indeed irreversible, memory has become a dangerous part of a people's inheritance.

Perhaps in that very danger lies the hope for the future, despite all the terrors it may hold.