'ISI funding insurgency in North-East'

Archana Masih in Bombay

“Unless the Government of India considers the North-East's problems in right earnest, it will slowly and steadily lose total control of that region,” says Lieutenant General Kuldeep Singh Brar (retired), who served as general officer commanding Eastern Command and spent more than four years tackling insurgency in the region.

The general felt the turmoil is directly associated with the history of Assam. More than a hundred years back, Assam was an independently ruled state called Ahom, ruled by kings. It was during the Raj that neighbouring Burma tried to invade the state. The British pushed the Burmese back. Gradually, Ahom became a part of the British empire.

Later, Christian missionaries started making in-roads in the region, proselytising and improving the living conditions of the people. “These missionaries did a world of good,” says the general, “they taught basic methods of cultivation, built hospitals, rendered education. Slowly the tribals started regarding Christianity as a good religion.

Nevertheless, the natives continued to practice their own customs and social system. “The Britishers did not force them to change their way of living,” points General Brar.

After Independence, between the 1950s and 1960s, the Indian government started deporting missionaries. “They were often looked upon as spies,” he adds. The general says the government tried to reverse the trend to spread Hinduism. “Hindu priests were sent to the state. An effort which was a complete failure.”

Explaining further, he says the Indian government tried to bring the state under the same laws as the rest of the country. “Their tribal laws allowed them to have six wives etc. Though the government wanted them to come under a common law, they were not doing enough for the progress of the state,” continues General Brar, “had they established universities, reserved jobs in the central government and industry, the government would have been able to prevent the present alienation of Assam.”

Pakistan was clever. With militant activity in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab gaining momentum the ISI struck in the North-East, reveals General Brar. During the 1970s and 1980s, Bangladesh had begun being unfriendly towards India after Mujibur Rahman’s murder in 1975. Bangladesh started getting closer to Pakistan.

“The ISI then set up base in Bangladesh,” says the general, “so that they could help the North-East get further away from India. And do what India had done in east Pakistan to Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura."

Kachin, is another sensitive region on the Burmese border fringing the eastern part of the North-East. “Kachin has been fighting for freedom from Burma. It is a part of Burma which has gone completely out of Burmese control,” points out the general. All the separatist groups in the region -- the United Liberation Front of Asom; the National Socialist Council of Nagaland; and the People’s Liberation Army of Manipur, along with Kachin formed the Indo Burmese Revolutionary Front.

“They are supported and funded by the ISI. Their common manifesto is the formation of an independent Ahom state. Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, and Kachin after secession from Burma want this independent state,” reveals the general.

As Assam is closest towards India, the armed forces were sent there with the idea of controlling the insurgency. Pointing out the major reasons for the insurgency, General Brar says people in the region have always been given second class status in the country. They have endured complete neglect and apathy from the government. They are ethnically and ideologically different. The culture in the remaining parts of the country cannot be forced upon them, which has proved a major misgiving.

Economic imbalance is another grouse of the people in the region. There are no modernisation steps taken by the government. The broad gauge railway line extends only up to Guwahati and getting to other parts of the North-East is extremely difficult. There are only two bridges across the Brahmaputra which makes crossing from south to north another difficulty. There is a lack of industries, universities, air fields and hospitals.

The tribals and the weaker sections have been exploited. “They have never been allowed to build themselves. Fifty per cent of the population of Assam is non-Assamese,” says General Brar. People from all parts of the country have gone there and made money, since the locals do not have the know-how they are unemployed. “In Assam, all white collared jobs have been taken by Bengalis, trade is dominated by Marwaris, labour by Biharis and Nepalis and transport by Sikhs. The poor Assami is a non-entity in his own state,” says the general, “to this the influx of Bangladeshi refugees has added to the problems.”

Quoting an American study, Brar reveals there is such a population explosion in Bangladesh that in a few years the Bangladeshis will either have to come to India or jump into the Brahmaputra river. There will be no space on their land to accommodate them.

Tea, the largest foreign exchange earner for the country, comes from the gardens in Assam. “But that has not helped in the progress of the state. It remains neglected because development is happening in states with maximum representation in Parliament. Assam has minuscule representation,” says General Brar.

Further, the general says the government should look for amicable solutions. “Giving a separate state is not possible but the government should give them their legitimate due. Only if New Delhi wakes up to the situation rather than taking temporary knee jerk solutions can the North-East remain with us,” he adds.

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