Give peace a chance

We have seen enough violence. Now it is  time to give peace a chance.

THE rhythmic beats of drums can be heard far and wide, as young boys and girls dance merrily to the tunes of the enchanting and heartwarming bihu. The onset of New Year had brought with it the festive season, be it the beach festival or the Tezpur festival, the Elephant festival or Bihu. Assam is sparkling, with everyone decked   up and enjoying themselves.        But the, isn’t this also the land of insurgency? Of senseless violence and bloodshed?  Extortions, kidnapping, mine blast, you name it and we have seen it. So many lives have been lost over the years, so much of resources destroyed just to satisfy some ulterior motives of a handful of greedy people, safely sitting in neighbouring lands.

Two decades of insurgency, a result of the ill-conceived perception of chasing a dream, has taken its toll on the common man. Assam has traveled a full circle, from absolute peace to the pinnacle of violence and destruction, and now, crawling back towards normalcy again. At this juncture, we need to analyze, was the struggle worth all the time and effort, violence and bloodshed? Has it brought peace and prosperity to the people? Has it ushered in an era of development, improved the quality of life, and improved health care, education and employment avenues? Or has it helped in infrastructural development, provided vocational training and brought about an industrial revolution, in this part of the country? A clearer picture will emerge if we do a little mathematics and calculate as to how much has been spent for this arms struggle. We should take note of the yearly budgetary layout of NDFB which is around two crore and ULFA approximately about 10 crore, which is a sizeable chunk of the funds of the State. Imagine the progress Assam would have made if this amount was used for infrastructure development yearly for the last two decades. Another glaring lapse of the militant groups is that their budgets are only a fraction of the amounts that are extorted from the people of Assam. To take an example, last year’s budget accounts for only about 15 crore, where as extortion has been reported to the tune of approximately 100 crore. It is obvious that such large amounts are being used by the select few to maintain a lavish lifestyle abroad. Money is also being used to set up and run business ventures in other countries like Bangladesh and Thailand, at the cost of the people of Assam. These so called freedom fighters are chasing their dreams in a unique way, doing nothing for the people except extorting their hard earned money and investing in foreign land. One can only sympathize with these sons of soil; after all, being puppet in the hands of some foreign agencies, they cannot do much. However a glaring difference between the insurgency in North-East and one at J&K is that there is no extortion by the militants in J&K. So much for the selfless sacrifice of these self-styled ‘sons of soils’ who extort money at gun point, but do little else for their people except bringing misery and hardships to their lives. The figures are only a tip of the iceberg, but imagine how different would Assam have been, had this amount been used for infrastructure development. And if one adds the cost that the State incurs annually in counter-insurgency operations, which is to the tune of 1000 crore approximately, Assam would definitely have been a different place.

Will the militant leadership tell us what the aim of their armed struggle was? Is it to build a modern vibrant Assam? With bullets and explosives, grenades and mines, did they set out to build a modern Assam or a land of ruins? 

We have seen the violence, now it’s time to give peace a chance.
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