CPI(ML)’s tryst with Assam can be traced to the late 1960s when its functionaries landed in the state to escape persecution in West Bengal. There were reports of squads led by Kanu Sanyal taking shelter in Assam’s Goalpara town for brief spans, prompting the police to nab him. Years later, Bhaskar Nandy toured the state to expand the outfit’s base, but his efforts did not yield any results. Fresh attempts were made since mid-1985 when the party held a series of meetings with representatives from marginalized groups in Assam. The goal was to organise them on a platform for a crusade against the long-standing issues neglected by the government. The leaders also held the view that a pact with ULFA could help to spread the roots of the outfit faster in the absence of dedicated cadres.
CPI(ML) activists led by Kamal Das huddled in meetings with ULFA delegates with the goal of evolving a common minimum programme. Although Anup was keen to examine the scope of a joint venture, other ULFA functionaries were reluctant, since focusing on class struggle would mean digressing from the outfit’s envisaged objectives. CPI(ML) was upset and compelled to join hands with other local groups under a banner called the United Reservation Minorities Council of Assam (URMCA) on February 21 next year, but an expansion of the movement was tardy owing to financial constraints. Three years later, Lakhimpur, where a hushed resistance had been brewing against ULFA, emerged as the focal point for the launch of the movement. URMCA’s cause was helped by the fact that its general secretary Ranoj Pegu was a Mising with political ambitions.
URMCA received a warm response in the entire belt inhabited by the Mising in the Lakhimpur-Dhemaji region. Locals were recruited in large numbers and a series of programmes was organised to oppose ULFA. Entry of the rebel group was banned in many of the villages in this region. In some places, ULFA cadres were even beaten up as a retaliation against the atrocities they had committed earlier in the Lakhimpur-Dhemaji region.
The situation turned worse when URMCA leaders hurled allegations against ULFA saying it was an organisation of men addicted to a lifestyle of luxury and that it was a militant manifestation of Assamese chauvinism. In a series of press conferences, it also cited specific instances of ULFA cadres snatching motorbikes and extorting funds from the locals. ULFA retaliated by asserting that URMCA was a creation of the central home ministry with the sole objective of checking the ULFA’s expansion in Assam.
Even as the war of words continued, ULFA decided to train its guns on its adversaries. More than ten senior leaders of URMCA were gunned down in a span of three months, triggering a reaction among prominent citizens of the state, who issued statements urging both groups to bury their differences. Finally, a meeting between the senior functionaries of both outfits at Lakhimpur resulted in a truce that drastically reduced the conflict. The killings drew to a close, but not the hostility of the Mising-inhabited areas towards ULFA. Nonetheless, the ban on ULFA was lifted. However, its activities were still curtailed, with the result that the outfit’s expansion in the region was halted. ULFA did not have an alternative plan to make fresh inroads here either, as it was grappling with graver issues.
More funds were required to sustain the elaborate structure and the camps that had been set up in Assam. The list of donors among the non-Assamese business communities, especially the Marwari community, was expanded to include petty traders across the valley. ULFA’s decision to target these trading communities also stemmed from other factors. There were frequent complaints by local businessmen about the domination of Marwaris and their propensity to promote only members from their own community. The rebels saw it as a perfect opportunity to intervene as it would only create goodwill among the locals. An overwhelming majority of the Marwari traders who were served with demand notices fell in line and opened their purse strings. But there were a few who were reluctant until they were shown the gun. Whatever opposition existed was eliminated by early 1990 after a spate of assassinations, which included the killing of another president of Kamrup Chambers of Commerce, Sankar Birmiwal, who was also suspected of having made a case for President’s Rule in Assam before influential politicians in New Delhi.
These killings not only provoked widespread condemnation across the country but also led to hectic lobbying in the capital for the deployment of the army against the rebel group in Assam. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Right-wing party supporting the non-Congress National Front government at the Centre, was vocal in demanding an outright ban and crackdown on ULFA.
The demand had the support of Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, who began to lobby with Prime Minister VP Singh for the dismissal of the AGP government in Assam. But the National Front government had its own compulsions, which inhibited tough action against ULFA. Deployment of additional troops could not be done without the concurrence of the ruling AGP, which was a constituent of the National Front government. The Centre was in a fix and unable to find an answer to the situation in Assam. A meeting convened by Singh with law minister Dinesh Goswami, who belonged to the AGP, and home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to summon Chief Minister Mahanta to the capital for a review of the situation in Assam.
Held early in August 1990, the meeting was also attended by state governor D.D. Thakur and top intelligence officials. The home ministry was armed with all the details about the outfit’s expanding activities – video footage of a documentary filmed by Newstrack on the camps in Assam, which had already been telecast, the press briefing by senior ULFA functionaries at a hideout in Nalbari, and the frequent meetings between Assam home minister Phukan and the rebel leaders. Earlier, photographs and video filmed by R&AW operatives in Kachin on ULFA had already been in circulation among the security agencies. Mahanta was told in categorical terms to take all possible measures to prevent further killings and extortion of funds by ULFA.
Of course, the chief minister did not admit that the situation in Assam was veering out of control with no possibility of a crackdown against the rebel group. There was no way the police could swing into action as it was further demoralized following the assassination of senior superintendent of police Daulat Singh Negi by ULFA in a meticulously planned operation. Apparently, as he was being tortured in police custody in Guwahati, deputy commander-in-chief Hirak Jyoti Mahanta had told Negi that he would be killed within 48 hours of his release. Mahanta was set free by the government in return for the release of a general manager of the Guwahati refinery, HKL Das, who had been abducted by ULFA. Another officer, SP Mullick, escaped an ambush in Dibrugarh, but his wife and children were killed.
Excerpted with permission from ULFA: The Mirage of Dawn, Rajeev Bhattacharyya, HarperCollins India.