Congress victory will spur Assam peace process
Vishwa Mohan\TNN
May 14, 2011, 06.28am IST
NEW DELHI: The Congress victory in Assam will see the ongoing peace efforts with insurgent groups, specifically with ULFA, gain momentum.
The Centre, which has been negotiating with ULFA informally over issues like surrender of arms of its cadres and setting up camps for them ever since the talks began in February, will now invite the group's leadership here for the second and 'substantive' round in early June. The outfit will be asked to come with its 'charter of demands' to pursue the process within the constitutional framework.
Although officials responsible for back-channel exchanges had been working on several fronts to take the talks process forward, there was a 'sense of uncertainty' due to elections as they were not sure about the pace and extent of the peace process in case a new regime came in.
"The sense of uncertainty has now gone with the poll result going in favour of Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the man who has been on the same page with the Centre over the peace talks with ULFA and other insurgent groups in Assam," said a senior home ministry official.
It is believed that the peace efforts have paid dividends in the form of victory for the Congress. During its poll campaign, the party pitched for peace in the state for better security by holding talks with all insurgent outfits including ULFA, NDFB, DHD(J) and KLNLF.
Gogoi too made his intention clear after his election victory on Friday. He said in Guwahati: "Reaching out to the militant groups and bringing lasting peace would be my priority. We have been trying to bring all the insurgent groups to the negotiating table. We hope to resolve all contentious issues through negotiations during the next five years."
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government has already agreed to deport one of the top ULFA leaders Anup Chetia to India provided he withdraws his court plea for political asylum. Officials here say that the pro-talk faction of the outfit, led by its chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa, would now send its emissary to Chetia to convince him to withdraw his asylum plea and come back and join the peace process.
An official said: "The possibility of Chetia's joining the pro-talk faction will make the process broad-based. The move will also in some way weaken the anti-talk faction led by its absconding leader and the outfit's commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah."
Though the first round of talks with the outfit had taken place in February when a team led by Rajkhowa came here and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram, the process had begun long ago when the ULFA chairman came back from Bangladesh in November 2009. He was handed over to the Assam Police after being nabbed by Bangladesh security agencies in a coordinated operation across the border.
He had remained in jail before the Assam government decided not to object to his bail plea in a Guwahati court in December last year as part of the state's move to bring the outfit for the much-awaited peace talks.
The rest of the top ULFA leadership was released from jail much earlier in similar fashion. Among them were ULFA's vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary and senior political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMTEvMDUvMTQjQXIwMTcwOA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
Vishwa Mohan\TNN
May 14, 2011, 06.28am IST
NEW DELHI: The Congress victory in Assam will see the ongoing peace efforts with insurgent groups, specifically with ULFA, gain momentum.
The Centre, which has been negotiating with ULFA informally over issues like surrender of arms of its cadres and setting up camps for them ever since the talks began in February, will now invite the group's leadership here for the second and 'substantive' round in early June. The outfit will be asked to come with its 'charter of demands' to pursue the process within the constitutional framework.
Although officials responsible for back-channel exchanges had been working on several fronts to take the talks process forward, there was a 'sense of uncertainty' due to elections as they were not sure about the pace and extent of the peace process in case a new regime came in.
"The sense of uncertainty has now gone with the poll result going in favour of Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the man who has been on the same page with the Centre over the peace talks with ULFA and other insurgent groups in Assam," said a senior home ministry official.
It is believed that the peace efforts have paid dividends in the form of victory for the Congress. During its poll campaign, the party pitched for peace in the state for better security by holding talks with all insurgent outfits including ULFA, NDFB, DHD(J) and KLNLF.
Gogoi too made his intention clear after his election victory on Friday. He said in Guwahati: "Reaching out to the militant groups and bringing lasting peace would be my priority. We have been trying to bring all the insurgent groups to the negotiating table. We hope to resolve all contentious issues through negotiations during the next five years."
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government has already agreed to deport one of the top ULFA leaders Anup Chetia to India provided he withdraws his court plea for political asylum. Officials here say that the pro-talk faction of the outfit, led by its chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa, would now send its emissary to Chetia to convince him to withdraw his asylum plea and come back and join the peace process.
An official said: "The possibility of Chetia's joining the pro-talk faction will make the process broad-based. The move will also in some way weaken the anti-talk faction led by its absconding leader and the outfit's commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah."
Though the first round of talks with the outfit had taken place in February when a team led by Rajkhowa came here and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram, the process had begun long ago when the ULFA chairman came back from Bangladesh in November 2009. He was handed over to the Assam Police after being nabbed by Bangladesh security agencies in a coordinated operation across the border.
He had remained in jail before the Assam government decided not to object to his bail plea in a Guwahati court in December last year as part of the state's move to bring the outfit for the much-awaited peace talks.
The rest of the top ULFA leadership was released from jail much earlier in similar fashion. Among them were ULFA's vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary and senior political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMTEvMDUvMTQjQXIwMTcwOA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
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