When 7 journalists defied all diktats to hoist the Indian flag in Assam

Celebrating Independence Day was an act of rebellion at the peak of militancy in the state

WrittenBy:Subhabrata Dasgupta
Date:
Article image
  • Share this article on whatsapp

It was a scene of absolute defiance. Seven journalists hoisted the Indian national flag against the backdrop of deserted streets in Guwahati. This was in the year 1998, when diktats against the celebration of Independence Day by militant group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) effected a total shutdown in the city.

subscription-appeal-image

Support Independent Media

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.

Contribute

When a Delhi editor was sent a picture of this event, he failed to see the newsworthiness in it.

“Only seven people have turned out. What’s the news in this?” he asked a Guwahati-based journalist.

Despite the editor’s lukewarm response, this act of rebellion was significant. This was a time when there was considerable sympathy in the media for ULFA and its cause for a sovereign Assam. The militant group’s calls for bandhs evoked fear and compliance. For an entire generation that grew up in Assam in the late eighties and nineties, days like I-Day and Republic Day meant total shutdown. Heavy paramilitary forces and police deployment in the streets, stringent checking of vehicles and rumours that the ULFA was planning something ‘big’ were routine in the run-up to August 15. Kidnapping of children for ransom money, extortion of traders, bomb blasts and assassinations were common.

Even the hoisting of national flags independently in homes would be discouraged, lest they attract the attention of ‘spotters’.

“I was in the fifth standard when I drew the tricolour on a chart paper, attached it to a stick, and put it up on the gate of our house. We were children, too naive to understand nationalism. But, watching the Independence Day celebrations on TV and patriotic movies on Doordarshan gave rise to a certain ‘josh’. But I will never forget the scolding I got from my father that day when I hoisted my mini flag out. It was removed,” said Juthika Bora, who belongs to Guwahati, and now works in the National Capital Region for an IT firm.

The first time Bora understood how Independence Day is celebrated in the rest of the country was when she spent her first I-day outside the state in Bangalore during her engineering days. Bora is not alone. Debojit Saikia, a marketing executive, rued the fact that he could never be part of the government functions and watch the parade live, during the time he was growing up.

While there was popular support for the ULFA in the first decade of its existence since they were looked upon as ‘sons of the soil’ who left their homes to liberate Assam, it eventually lost direction. “The operative element became fear: of bomb blasts, of trains being blown up and of carnage during popular festivals. Heavy paramilitary deployment on the streets, though they were meant for the protection of people, did not bode well for common people psychologically,” explained Chandan Kumar Sharma, who teaches psychology at Tezpur University.

Assassination of journalists, activists, and alleged mass executions carried out by the group were signs that the movement was wavering. Attacks carried out against Bihari migrant labourers, and Hindi-speaking people who had lived in the state for generations were signs that the organisation was desperate to stay relevant. The infamous 2004 Dhemaji bomb blast carried out in a school on Independence Day eroded a massive chunk of support for ULFA. Indigenous Assamese were killed in the attack.

Nava Thakuria, a Guwahati-based independent journalist, explained, “The Dhemaji bomb blast was the ultimate blow to the popular support for Assam. The organisation’s general secretary later confessed that it was a massive error on their part.” Thakuria is one of the seven journalists who started hoisting the national flag at the Guwahati Press Club since 1998. He explained how the initial opposition even by peers later gave way to support.

“Our colleagues asked us what was the need to celebrate Independence Day. We as journalists are independent, we are impartial, we are not committed to any nation, they said. But we said we will support India as a nation, and pay tribute to the Assamese people who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for Indian Independence. We as journalists may be impartial, we are Indians.”

Thakuria narrated how over the years he has received emails from Assamese non-resident Indians asking him how much money he had received from the establishment. Those emails eventually vanished, he said.

Veteran journalist DN Bezboruah, former editor of The Sentinel, was one of the first few to keep a national flag at his residence. Thakuria said he, in fact, inspired many other media persons to come out in defiance of the ULFA’s diktats.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Bezboruah said, “I received several death threat phone calls, including ones from ULFA Commander-in-Chief Paresh Baruah. I told him give me 10 days, and then you can kill me. He asked why. I said I am yet to prepare my will.” Bezboruah, who was in school when the country became independent, said it is important that the media ends up choking any publicity the ULFA seeks.

Over the years, subsequent military operations against the organisation in 1990, 1991, and 2003 broke its back. The split in the ULFA in 2011 — with one faction coming to negotiating table — depleted its power. But the organisation makes its presence felt. There were five blasts allegedly orchestrated by the ULFA in the state this year on Independence Day.

“While the ULFA has ebbed, there are other threats from other groups, as we saw recently in Kokrajhar. But things are certainly not as bad,” said Sharma.

On August 5 this year, indiscriminate firing allegedly by men from the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) (NDFB(S)) led to the death of 13 people. While there is peace, occasions such as these are stark reminders of how fragile it can prove to be.

But Sharma is right when he says things are better now. While earlier the mere possession of the national flag was dangerous, today local markets abound with flags in the run-up to Independence Day. Schools and colleges are open to celebrating the day. There are still diktats, but the overpowering fear is gone.

Prosenjit Sheel, who grew up in Guwahati, said, “Through social media, it is heartening to see my alma mater celebrating I-day. We missed it, but the newer crop shouldn’t.”

However, there are others who have different memories of growing up in an insurgency-torn state. Abhijit Handique, who teaches at Dibrugarh University said, “I have bitter memories, as I saw my family members being subjected to atrocities by the armed forces, on the basis of mere suspicion. My cousins were picked up and tortured.”

Decades of a failed secessionist movement have left many bitter, and thousands dead. When the movement went astray, innocents paid with their lives. Many became collateral damage in the war between forces and insurgents. But the defining theme is that after dark decades of living under fear, there is some hope of peace returning to the state at long last. However, it has certainly been a tortured peace process.

subscription-appeal-image

Power NL-TNM Election Fund

General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.

Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?

Support now

You may also like