Facing troubles: Assam CM's way

The chief minister of Assam is known as an honest and outspoken politician. But the senior Congress leader has earned bad name as he often makes casual comments in public. If the journalists ask the chief minister Tarun Gogoi in a formal press meet about the flash flood in Guwahati, he would say-there are flash floods every where like in Mumbai, Kolkata, London and even in American cities. If he is asked about his comments on the terrorist attacks in the State, Gogoi would answer-it can take place anywhere as it happened in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and through out the world.

But for the first time, the smiling chief minister was seen in an embracing situation, when the communal violence broke out in some places of middle Assam during the first week of October. The violence started on October 3 elongated for almost a week to snatch away the live of over 50. Moreover, the hostility between the Bodo tribes people and migrant Bangladeshi Muslims in four districts of Assam left hundreds wounded and thousands families with women and minor children in the relief camps.

The incident was shocking for all, as nobody outside the localities under the Bodo territorial council apprehended about it. Not to speak of common people, the police and intelligence department also failed to understand and predict the growing intolerance between the two communities since August. The migrant Muslims were angry with local Bodos in some areas of Udalguri and Darrang, as they opposed an agitational program sponsored by the migrants.

But this time, violence erupted with a small incidence of stealing of cattle by Muslims from a Bodo village. The flame of communal violence rapidly engulfed the adjacent areas and finally it spread widely in Udalguri, Darrang, Baksa and Chirang districts of the Bodoland Territorial (Autonomous District) Council.

The government tried hard to take the situation under control. Thousands of police, army and paramilitary troops were deployed in the strife torn areas. The army and paramilitary forces continued to stage flag march in the affected areas for continuously for many days.

Army choppers were also engaged for air surveillance. Even curfew was clamped for more than a week, though it was relaxed during day time as the situation started improving.

The State government earlier transferred the Udalguri deputy commissioner (DM) George Basumatary and suspended the Superintendent of Police Anup Kumar Singh for their failure in preventing the violence.

The tension between the Bodos and migrant Muslims was mounted following the killing of two Bodo youths on August 14 in the locality. Some Muslim students bodies called for a Bandh there opposing the alleged harassment on Muslims in the name of identifying their nationalities (as Bangladeshi). The incident took place at Rowta of Udalguri district.

The Assam Tribune, the oldest English daily of Northeast made an editorial comment on the issue, "The recent ethnic violence in ----- once again exposed the failure of the Government to assess the situation on the ground to take adequate precautionary measures to prevent occurrence of such unfortunate incidents. The districts of Udalguri and Darrang faced similar kind of violence in the month of August but unfortunately, the Government failed to take adequate measures like deployment of additional forces to prevent recurrence of such incidents and the same areas faced violent ethnic clashes once again."

But Gogoi was quick to blame the National Democratic Front of Bodoland militants for the violence. He found a supporting voice in his loyalist minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment. The State Health and Family Welfare minister Sarma visited some affected areas and later addressing the local media at Mangaldai, he termed the act as a systematic ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the NDFB militants. He even warned that the militant outfit, which is under ceasefire agreement with New Delhi, to review the truce.

The BTADC chief Hagrama Mohilary also accused the NDFB as being involved in the killing. But the NDFB general secretary Govinda Basumatary refuted the allegation promptly. Amazingly the State police chief RN Mathur also revealed that there was no evidence of NDFB's involvement in the violence of Udalguri and Darrang districts.

The main opposition party of Assam, the Asom Gana Parishad asked Gogoi to resign as he failed miserably in both ways, as the head of the government and also the Home minister of the State. After visiting the riot affected areas, the party's newly elected president, Chandra Mohan Patowary also demanded an impartial inquiry to find out whether Pakistani flags were hoisted in the violence affected areas. Patowary, also the leader of the opposition in the State Assembly asked the Gogoi government not to take the issue lightly.

Gogoi earlier tried to clarify that the flag, which was seen by many people including some journalists at Mohanpur under Udalguri district, was associated with the festival of Eid and not symbolizes Pakistan. The Assam government spokesman Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma also rubbished the report that there were Pakistani flags in the conflict ridden areas.

Of course, the local television channels telecast the visuals of Pakistani flags flying at Sonaripara and Mohanpur village. Many Guwahati based newspapers including the highest circulated Assamese daily, Asomiya Pratidin also published such a photograph in the front page of the newspaper. Even a Pakistan based portal highlighted the issue hailing the act (raising of Pakistani flag in Indian soil) as a symbol of freedom.

Even a major English daily of Northeast, The Sentinel, editorialised the issue saying, "----even if the Pakistani flag were really hoisted in some of the trouble-torn areas dominated by 'minorities', the highly 'secular' Tarun Gogoi government would see a different colour in the flag or a different flag altogether, but never Pakistani or Bangladeshi.

"Given this, the people of the State are being increasingly introduced to the intentions of the government, its craze for votes cast by illegal Bangladeshis who would be called 'Indian minorities' for whom the best 'secular' safeguard on Earth must be in place, and the manner in which the ruling dispensation has trampled over the aspirations of the indigenous people because it has to consolidate its position among the so-called minorities even at the cost of the indigenous people," the editorial added.

The All Assam Students' Union and the All Bodo Students' Union representatives also visited the affected localities and expressed their annoyances that 'the indigenous people of Assam were forced to leave their residences to take refuge in the relief camps'. The AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya astonished that the miscreants could dare to hoist Pakistani flags in the soil of Assam. He alleged that Gogoi had dared to compromise with national security by protecting those involved in the incident.

Worried New Delhi asked the State government to take all possible means to restore normalcy in the violence hit localities and rehabilitate the victims. The central government also suggested Gogoi to maintain adequate security and food at the relief camps. Soon after paying a visit to the affected areas, E. Ahmed, the Union minister of state for External Affairs met Gogoi and informed him about New Delhi's worryness.

Even the Asom Sahitya Sabha president Kanaksen Deka also blamed Gogoi for his inefficiency to handle the situation. Earlier the Bodo Sahitya Sabha criticized Gogoi for not 'visiting the violence-hit areas (even though less than 200 km away from Dispur) to assess the situation'. The BSS president Dr Kameswar Brahma blamed Gogoi as he failed to take prompt actions to save the lives and properties of the victims even though he holds the Home portfolio.

Facing the increasing heat of criticism, Gogoi finally visited the affected areas on seventh day of the violence. But this time, of course, Gogoi did not dare to make any irresponsible comments. Rather he initiated a judicial probe into the incidences of violence after his visit to the location on October 9. Lately Gogoi opted for a CBI probe into the incidence of hoisting of Pakistan flag with an aim to punish those involved in the incidence.

Now if some one was waiting for a witty comment from the chief minister, this time too, like-communal violence erupted in many States like Gujarat, Orissa or Karnataka, so what is wrong if it happens in Assam, Gogoi had deprived them of fun surely.