Identity of Peace

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma must be congratulated for having made a very bold statement that Assam is now shining with a new identity of peace and stability. According to Sarma, it is because of the sustained efforts of the state government and the active support of the government of India in the past three years that peace and stability have become a permanent feature in Assam. Almost every militant group, barring just the Paresh Barua faction of the ULFA, had returned to the peaceful path and joined the mainstream. These include the pro-talk faction of ULFA, four Karbi militant groups (KLNLF, KPLT, PDCK, and UPLA), three Adivasi militant groups (AANLA, BCF, STF, and APA), and the DNLA in Dima Hasao. Earlier, the Government of India had signed a Memorandum of Settlement with the most dreaded NDFB too, an outfit that, among other criminal acts, had also engineered the serial blasts of 2008 in Assam. While Sarma can definitely claim credit for these peace settlements, credit must also be given to the common people of the state, who have very strongly and emphatically rejected the idea of pursuing a violent path in order to achieve anything. The communities in Assam are primarily peace-loving. But, taking advantage of the simplicity and also of the situation of hopelessness and despair created by decades of neglect and underdevelopment, certain anti-national forces were always out to divert the minds of a section of the youth towards the path of violence. A close look will also show that the large majority of the militant leaders and their followers are ordinary drop-outs, generally at the high school level, and hardly possess the basic quality and capability of understanding the intricacies of socio-economic development. Given such a level, it has always been easy to pollute their minds and incite them to take to militancy. A few of India’s neighbours, on the other hand, have always been on the lookout for an opportunity to foment trouble, particularly in the Northeastern region. Now that the people themselves have rejected violence, and peace has returned to the entire state, it is time for the present government to go all out in order to create conditions conducive to the positive engagement of the young generation.