GUWAHATI: The self-styled “commander-in-chief” of insurgent group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Paresh Baruah, has slammed Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, calling him an “agent of India” after the spiritual leader had purportedly said the insurgent leader was not coming forward for peace talks owing to “pressure” from China.
“During my interactions with him (last year), I told him that China can give him arms and ammunition but it cannot assure him an honourable death…I feel he is under great pressure from China. Something is preventing him from coming forward for the talks,” Ravi Shankar had told a group of visiting journalists in Bengaluru on Monday.
Baruah took strong exceptions to the assertions and called the spiritual leader an “agent of India”.
“He (Ravi Shankar) is frustrated as he could not trap us in his web of peace talks. There is no question of responding to his offer to sit for peace talks. We want to make it amply clear that nobody can dictate terms to ULFA. ULFA is an independent liberation front, which functions on its own conscience,” Baruah told an Assamese news channel.
“In April last year, we had made our position very clear to him. We had told him that we won’t come forward for talks if the agenda is not the core issue (which is Assam’s sovereignty)…Our movement is not about peace; it is for the liberation of our people,” the ULFA C-in-C said.
He said he had also told the spiritual leader that, “Ours is a political issue and hence, should be resolved politically”. “He often talks about world peace but where in India could he usher in peace?” Baruah asked.
Ravi Shankar had telephonic conversations with Baruah on a couple of occasions last year through a mediator. The insurgent leader had categorically told the spiritual guru that the outfit should not be expected to sit across the table if the sovereignty of Assam was not on the agenda.
Baruah is believed to be holed up somewhere along Myanmar-China border where the ULFA and several other insurgent groups of the Northeast have their bases.