Assam Exists Beyond Blasts and Terror

Is the media’s rigid narrative on the Northeast as a region in perpetual conflict in some way responsible for the never-ending circle of violence?

WrittenBy:Arunabh Saikia
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It was 2008. I had just come back home a few days earlier to Guwahati to be with my family on Diwali. Guwahati, at least for some years then, had been a rather insulated space in the mess called Northeast India. Just like the floods, terrorism – or insurgency as they call it back home – didn’t have too many manifestations in the city.

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Attacks and ambushes, we thought, were confined to the problem districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalgudi. Guwahati was safe.

October 30, 2008 changed that perception for good.

Around noon, a bomb placed inside a car went off at Ganeshguri one of the city’s busiest market places. It was strategically placed at one of the most densely populated locations in the market. The bomb was not intended to scare or put across a point. It was meant to kill.

Forty-one people died (there were other blasts too on the same day across the state and the total toll went up to almost 100).

My mother works just about 100 metres away from where the bomb had gone off. The panic button was hit.  Mobile networks were jammed and every failed call made everyone even more frantic. The house landline had been out of service for a while and I figured I’d walk down to the local market and try calling from a public telephone.

The market, barely a few metres away, was in a state of commotion. A boy working at one of the shops had gone to the Ganeshguri wholesale market to pick stuff up. He had been waiting at the bus stop to catch the bus back when the bomb went off. He was killed.

The few seconds in between registering the news about the boy’s death and receiving a call from my father informing me that he had managed to get in touch with my mother who was fine – brought panic and fear I had never before experienced. Terror had hit – and affected people and places I thought were insulated

Though initial suspicion fell on Indian Mujahideen, investigations threw up evidence, which strongly suggested that a hit-team of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), under the direction of its president, Ranjan Daimary had carried out the attacks.

Notably, the organisation had an arrangement of ceasefire with the government since 2005. The blasts, it seemed, were a result of the NDFB’s frustration with what was turning out to be futile “talks” with the government.

Much blood has been shed in Assam since.

The NDFB has seen a three-way split. Immediately, after the attacks, a section of the group distanced itself from the attack, saying that the “the act is undoubtedly an act of terrorism and can never be part of revolutionary struggle”. This faction, led by B Sungthagra, came to be known as the pro-talks factions or the NDFB (Progressive).

More recently, when Daimary was in jail, one of his accomplices, Sangbijit, emerged as the new leader. Soon, there was another NDFB faction – NDFB (S).  Sangbijit, incidentally, is not a Bodo; he is a Karbi, who took the already brutal NDFB to another level. In August this year, the group executed a 16-year old, forcing her parents to watch as they pumped in nine bullets, including two in her breasts. They contended that the girl was acting as a spy for the state government.

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The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which seeks to give greater autonomy to tribal communities, is a special provision for the Northeastern states of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Assam has a total of three autonomous councils formed under the Sixth schedule, and one of them is the Bodoland Territorial District Council (there are also six other autonomous councils that have not been formed under the Sixth schedule but by special acts passed by the State Assembly).

The Bodoland Territorial Council – or BTC – was part of a deal brokered by another insurgent group, Bodo Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF), in exchange of giving up arms. The leader of the group, Hagrama Mohiliary was sworn is as the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the region.  This led to other insurgent groups fighting for the same cause – most notably the NDFB – feeling betrayed. They believed they deserved much more than an autonomous council, and they reacted in the only way they know – more violence.

Violence, ceasefire, failed talks, and more violence – it is almost a cycle in Assam. At the heart of this ominous structure is appeasement politics, which party after party, and government after government, has been guilt of. But in a state like Assam that is home to more than 20 notified Scheduled Tribes and more than 30 insurgent groups, appeasing one tribe or group invariably leads to antagonising another. Granting of autonomous status by successive governments (mostly Congress) has been random and most approvals have often been desperate pre-poll appeasement measures.

Also, the state, now, has acquired a trophy-like status for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since it is being seen as the last standing bastion of the Congress. Inroads into Assam are crucial for the party’s vision of a Congress-mukt Bharat.

In the run-up to the General Election, a BJP leader Bhabadev Goswami told a local news channel that he had met with the NDFB’s Songbijit and Ranjan Daimary factions, and they had pledged its support to the party. If true, this reveals a deeper rot.

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As most news channels deliberated on the supposedly controversial decision to confer Bharat Ratnas to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malviya, a colleague was exasperated. “How can this be the lead story when 70 people were massacred in cold blood!” she said.

Although upset, a part of me was actually glad though that it wasn’t the lead story. Amidst all the complaining of the Northeast not being reported on by Delhi newsrooms, an important detail gets missed: the only stories that do make their way have a common leitmotif of conflict. It is almost like we – and I too have been guilty of this – thrive on projecting Assam – and the northeast – as a state perpetually on boil. Journalist Kishalay Bhattacharjee, who’s extensively reported from the region, said something very interesting in a public function recently: “I am regretful that the only stories I have told from the Northeast are that of conflict.”

Bhattacharjee said something that most journalists wouldn’t admit, forget dare to say publicly. A story from the region is a story only when it involves a bomb having gone off somewhere, killing people.

A recent Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) study revealed that Assam was one of the least attractive states for investors. This perception is shaped in large measures by the blinkered narrative of the region presented by the media for years. The lack of investments, and consequently scarcity of jobs, is ammunition for people looking for reasons to kill. In fact, there are reports of the NDFB luring unemployed youth with promises of a “monthly salary”. This is not to say that civilian deaths don’t warrant press coverage. They do. But is the media to focus on places away from the metros only when it involves horror tales of bomb blasts and violence?

In a recent visit to Guwahati, I saw hoardings of a party at a newly opened “restaurant and lounge”, where a Swiss DJ was supposed to perform. I was surprised, but a friend who’s stayed on back in Assam – one of the very few to have – told me it’s fairly regular.  “But who goes?” I asked. “It’s all these students who come here to study in the new private engineering colleges”, he said.

I think it’s a damn good story – of a city opening up, young people coming in to study, and doing things that young people do in other parts of the country. I am going to pitch it.

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