At the root of many ills afflicting Assam and the rest of the North-East is the sense of alienation of the region’s people that stems from real deprivation in econmic and political terms. This was stated by a scholar Asgar Ali Engineer.

He felt that most of the people of the Northeast have a genuine sense of grievance against the political dispensation in New Delhi. Subsequent governments in Delhi have “promised much, but delivered little”, he asserted.

More autonomy for the region could be one approach to help fulfil the region’s political and economic aspirations. Towards that end, a federal structure was needed, something that subsequent Union Governments have failed to recognize.

While criticizing the ULFA for “killing innocent people”, he said that there was a need to solve the issue through negotiations. “Why can’t the Government of India and the ULFA engage in talks?” According to him, talks should not be hampered just because the ULFA kept insisting on sovereignty.

One among those journalists and activists who had visited Nellie, following the violence that took place there in 1983, Engineer, in hindsight was of the view that the killing took place because of attempts by the RSS to hijack the Assam Movement.

“There were lots of people like MV Kamath and Arun Shourie who were frequently visiting the State. They had close ties with the RSS,” he remarked.

He felt that such an attack could not have been a result of the Assam Movement, “the AASU and the movement were not communal,” he added. He said the Government of India also failed in moving towards a resolution of the Kashmir problem, because it had promised much but failed to deliver any of those. As a result, the people of Kashmir now were doubly alienated.

The problem is aggravated because there are more educated unemployed than in anytime before. Development packages for the State have not been implemented, which has added to the woes of the unemployed.

On the issue of the challenges facing Muslim civil society in India, Engineer felt that security to life, poverty and illiteracy were some of the main impediments in their development. He, however, did not favour reservation for Muslims on religious lines. “That would only benefit the BJP, which would describe it as appeasement of the minority community.” Instead, he wanted reservations to benefit the weaker classes, or the biradiri, among the Muslims.

Taking the country’s bureaucracy to task, Engineer claimed that it was infiltrated by the RSS, as a result of which no development programme targeted at Muslims could be suitably implemented.