Hardline ULFA trying to cash in on Citizenship Bill fallout

If the Bill is eventually passed, locals fear, it will turn them into minorities and destroy their land, language and culture.

Student activists with members of 28 ethnic organisations take out a rally against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Guwahati. (Photo | PTI)

GUWAHATI: Some 30 years ago, in the aftermath of the six-year-long bloody Assam Agitation, an anti-immigrant sentiment had lured hundreds of young, educated Assamese to join the proscribed militant group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).  

History is repeating itself now, courtesy the Centre’s move to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in Parliament for granting citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who arrived before December 31, 2014.

Seen as a spent force, Paresh Baruah’s ULFA-Independent faction is the biggest beneficiary of this controversy, with the latest intelligence and police reports suggesting at least 10 youths joined the outfit in the last 30 days alone. The number of recruits is presumed to be much higher as many cases go unreported. 
“There are various numbers doing the rounds. Some say it is 30, while others claim it is 100.

Whom to believe? We have asked our officers and the special branch to conduct an enquiry,” Assam’s DGP Kuladhar Saikia said. Worse, the new recruits include the likes of a 16-year-old Class 10 girl and Pankaj Pratim Dutta, who, till last month, was a leader of the influential All Assam Students’ Union. “I have joined the ULFA as I strongly believe that only it can protect Assamese people,” Dutta had announced.

Whether the NDA government will seek Bill’s passage in the Winter Session of Parliament or not is something to be seen. But, the controversy surrounding it has strained the fragile Assamese-Bengali ties. In October, masked men killed five Bengalis in Tinsukia district. 

If the Bill is eventually passed, locals fear, it will turn them into minorities and destroy their land, language and culture. Adding fuel to the fire is the propaganda by some outfits that the Bill will result in an influx of 1.9 crore Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh. Assam’s population is 3.12 crore, as per the last census.

“The ULFA’s popularity had waned when the Congress was in power. However, the Centre’s decision to table the controversial Bill and the Sonowal government’s failure to oppose it are forcing some youths to take up arms again,” Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said.

A brief look at the history of ULFA

1. The ULFA was founded on April 7, 1979, at Rang Ghar, a structure built by the Ahom dynasty in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar, with a goal to establish a sovereign Assam through an armed struggle. 
2. The GoI banned the ULFA in 1990 and branded it as a terrorist organisation.
3. In 2009, the outfit was dealt with a body blow when most of its top leaders were arrested in Bangladesh and handed over to India. A year later, they scaled down from the demand of Assam’s sovereignty as a condition for talks with the Centre. 
4. Hardliner Paresh Baruah continues to be elusive. He leads ULFA-Independent which operates out of Myanmar and is its commander-in-chief. Baruah is non-flexible on the demand of Assam’s sovereignty. He has made it clear that his group will sit for parleys only if the issue of Assam’s sovereignty is on the agenda.
5. According to Assam Police, 20 youths had joined Baruah’s group from 2015 to 2017.