IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Bodo Impasse: Ball is in Dispur's court
November 8, 2010. It was the day US President Barack Obama addressed Indian parliamentarians in New Delhi. That very night, the NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) a banned rebel outfit, carried out a vendetta carnage in Assam killing many innocent people in cold blood. The casualties were mostly Hindi-speaking people residing in Bodo-dominated areas of the state.
The government should have seen it coming. That it did not reflects rather poorly on its ability to take prompt action when it is needed. On November 1, the NDFB had issued a press statement warning both the Central and state governments to stop the killing of the outfit’s cadre and innocent Bodo people. The militants warned that they would kill at least 20 Indians, be they from the Indian Army or the civilian population, for every innocent Bodo gunned down by the security forces.
Chillingly, they did just that. On November 7, a Bodo, supposedly an NDFB militant, was killed allegedly in an encounter with security forces. Exactly 24 hours later, the militant outfit struck in six districts, killing 24 people in the span of a day. Among the dead were innocent bus passengers, petty businessmen and even aged women. Despite a unified command system, the governments in Delhi and Dispur could do nothing to stop the designs of the extremists.
It is true that Dispur had some limitations. Army presence in Assam was reduced – securitymen were diverted to Jharkhand to comabt Maoists and to Bihar for the Assembly elections. Assam had 149 companies of the Army last year. At present, less than 100 companies are deployed in the northeastern state. To make matters worse, the state faces a paucity of policemen as there are more than 8,000 vacancies that are yet to filled. Dispur had initiated some steps in this regard including setting up of the elite Cobra battalion of CRPF. But the process of selecting state policemen as well as their training are going far too slow for comfort. That has allowed an extremist outfit like NDFB to run what could be described as almost a parallel government, as alleged by the opposition, in border areas, particularly on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river bordering Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan.
The state government has pitifully taken shelter behind these limitations to cover up for its failure to tackle the terrorists. However, it is still unable to explain its total inaction in the face of a prior warning of violence that ahd been issued by the NDFB. The bellicosity and brutal nature of the NDFB cadre became evident when it unleashed serial bombings, killing almost hundred innocent people two years back. Yet the Tarun Gogoi-led government in the state did not take any precautionary measures to thwart the NDFB rebels who had threatened to wreak vengeance on Indian people.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who had hurriedly arrived in Assam on November 12, while addressing a top-level security meeting in a CRPF guesthouse, ordered an all-out operation by the security forces against the NDFB faction that is on a killing spree in the state. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, along with top police officials from the state, was present in the meeting. Chidambaram did not buy Gogoi’s suggestion that that Assam needed more security personnel. The Union home minister’s argument was that there were only about 150 NDFB militants in hiding in the state and it would not be difficult for the forces available in Assam to apprehend them.
NDFB is an offshoot of the long-drawn agitation by the Bodos for a separate Bodoland state. The Union government tried to assuage the feelings of the Bodo people by first granting them an autonomous area and thereafter putting the area under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The NDFB was totally sidelined in the entire process. A section of the NDFB is in government-designated camps after surrendering.
A few NDFB leaders, including its chairman Ranjan Daimary, are in jail. The group lost nearly 75 of its hardcore cadre in operations conducted by the security forces from January to November. Only those few who have remained outside are still clamouring for a separate and sovereign Bodoland and creating problems by resorting to terrorism.
What Assam needs today, besides additional Central forces, is the political will and acumen to take on the militant faction of the NDFB. The Bodo impasse will continue to be a thorn in the flesh unless the government in Dispur can muster up a coherent strategy to neutralise the extremists. In its latest fatwa, the belligerent faction of the NDFB has warned both Bodos and non-Bodos living in the Bodoland area not to conspire or hobnob with the security forces otherwise all would meet the same fate as on November 8. The government must take that warning seriously and act before it is too late.
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Bodo Impasse: Ball is in Dispur's court
November 8, 2010. It was the day US President Barack Obama addressed Indian parliamentarians in New Delhi. That very night, the NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) a banned rebel outfit, carried out a vendetta carnage in Assam killing many innocent people in cold blood. The casualties were mostly Hindi-speaking people residing in Bodo-dominated areas of the state.
The government should have seen it coming. That it did not reflects rather poorly on its ability to take prompt action when it is needed. On November 1, the NDFB had issued a press statement warning both the Central and state governments to stop the killing of the outfit’s cadre and innocent Bodo people. The militants warned that they would kill at least 20 Indians, be they from the Indian Army or the civilian population, for every innocent Bodo gunned down by the security forces.
Chillingly, they did just that. On November 7, a Bodo, supposedly an NDFB militant, was killed allegedly in an encounter with security forces. Exactly 24 hours later, the militant outfit struck in six districts, killing 24 people in the span of a day. Among the dead were innocent bus passengers, petty businessmen and even aged women. Despite a unified command system, the governments in Delhi and Dispur could do nothing to stop the designs of the extremists.
It is true that Dispur had some limitations. Army presence in Assam was reduced – securitymen were diverted to Jharkhand to comabt Maoists and to Bihar for the Assembly elections. Assam had 149 companies of the Army last year. At present, less than 100 companies are deployed in the northeastern state. To make matters worse, the state faces a paucity of policemen as there are more than 8,000 vacancies that are yet to filled. Dispur had initiated some steps in this regard including setting up of the elite Cobra battalion of CRPF. But the process of selecting state policemen as well as their training are going far too slow for comfort. That has allowed an extremist outfit like NDFB to run what could be described as almost a parallel government, as alleged by the opposition, in border areas, particularly on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river bordering Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan.
The state government has pitifully taken shelter behind these limitations to cover up for its failure to tackle the terrorists. However, it is still unable to explain its total inaction in the face of a prior warning of violence that ahd been issued by the NDFB. The bellicosity and brutal nature of the NDFB cadre became evident when it unleashed serial bombings, killing almost hundred innocent people two years back. Yet the Tarun Gogoi-led government in the state did not take any precautionary measures to thwart the NDFB rebels who had threatened to wreak vengeance on Indian people.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who had hurriedly arrived in Assam on November 12, while addressing a top-level security meeting in a CRPF guesthouse, ordered an all-out operation by the security forces against the NDFB faction that is on a killing spree in the state. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, along with top police officials from the state, was present in the meeting. Chidambaram did not buy Gogoi’s suggestion that that Assam needed more security personnel. The Union home minister’s argument was that there were only about 150 NDFB militants in hiding in the state and it would not be difficult for the forces available in Assam to apprehend them.
NDFB is an offshoot of the long-drawn agitation by the Bodos for a separate Bodoland state. The Union government tried to assuage the feelings of the Bodo people by first granting them an autonomous area and thereafter putting the area under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The NDFB was totally sidelined in the entire process. A section of the NDFB is in government-designated camps after surrendering.
A few NDFB leaders, including its chairman Ranjan Daimary, are in jail. The group lost nearly 75 of its hardcore cadre in operations conducted by the security forces from January to November. Only those few who have remained outside are still clamouring for a separate and sovereign Bodoland and creating problems by resorting to terrorism.
What Assam needs today, besides additional Central forces, is the political will and acumen to take on the militant faction of the NDFB. The Bodo impasse will continue to be a thorn in the flesh unless the government in Dispur can muster up a coherent strategy to neutralise the extremists. In its latest fatwa, the belligerent faction of the NDFB has warned both Bodos and non-Bodos living in the Bodoland area not to conspire or hobnob with the security forces otherwise all would meet the same fate as on November 8. The government must take that warning seriously and act before it is too late.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
GIDF Club of IIPM Lucknow Organizes Blood Donation Camp
Award Conferred To Irom Chanu Sharmila By IIPM
IIPM Lucknow – News article in Economic Times and Times of India
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