Making everyone stew in ‘Nagalim’ broth
Gauri Shankar KalitaTrue to their character, politicians across the board in Assam have just hawed and hemmed at the Camp Hebron resolutions adopted at the instance of the church leaders of Nagaland, who used the NSCN (IM) to issue the threat to Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh that the ‘Nagalim’ area, comprising huge tracts of all these neighbouring States, was not negotiable. The tone and tenor of finality in the resolution in respect of ‘Nagalim’ appears to have been totally lost on the Assam politicians, or they have not been at all mindful of what its implications could be. In contrast, however, the politicians and the Government of Arunachal Pradesh have been quick and sharp in rejecting the Camp Hebron claim on territory, while the apparently subdued reaction of the Manipuris is being widely viewed as the lull before the storm — after all, they have already proved what they could do if anybody laid claim on their territory. Obviously, they must have been preparing for the real showdown when substantive — read ‘territory’ — talks between the NSCN (IM) and the Centre end up, as is being widely feared by the people of Assam, in dittoing the Camp Hebron resolution.
One normally expected the Assam Chief Minister to convene an all-party meet to firm up the political-administrative strategy to thwart the NSCN-(IM)-church leaders’ expansionist design on Assam, keeping in view the fact that it is fully backed by the Nagaland Government and the Nagaland Assembly, which had adopted as many as four resolutions on the ‘Nagalim’ demand. One would have expected the Opposition parties of Assam also to call upon the Chief Minister to convene an all-party meet on the issue immediately since it has been forced to the breaking point by Camp Hebron resolution. But busy as they are, as ever, in their pastime of mud-slinging among themselves, none of them would care less if major chunks of Golaghat, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Karbi Anglong districts are ceded to Nagaland by the Centre just to buy peace with the NSCN (IM). In fact, the issue has never been in their agenda as if it does not concern them at all.
Nudged by journalists at a press conference in Guwahati the other day, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi sounded like the proverbial empty vessel when he thundered that not an inch of Assam territory would be ceded to any — read Nagaland — neighbouring State. Mercifully, none of the journalists reminded him that Nagaland had already encroached upon 1.4 lakh acres of Assam land, nearly half of which had been encroached in the past three years of his rule as Chief Minister alone ! But then, Gogoi too, like the Opposition politicians of Assam, is a product of the political culture where politicians believe that empty rhetoric takes the heat off a difficult situation they often land themselves in when they don’t do their homework.
But then, is Gogoi not suggesting that the people of Assam could go to sleep now that he has rejected, so forcefully, the Camp Hebron claim on Assam territory ? Is he not suggesting that the NSCN (IM) will have no option but to drop its claim now that he has said no to any ceding of Assam territory ? Will his Government now order a massive — it has invariably to be a massive — crackdown on the Naga encroachers on 1.4 lakh acres of Assam land and accelerate developmental activities in the area so cleared so that there could be no further encroachment ? People of Assam, particularly those living on the Assam-Nagaland border areas, know that these are questions which no Chief Minister, and certainly not Gogoi, would be able to tick off through rhetoric, as they also know that they are intrinsically related to the NSCN (IM) demand. Obviously, rejecting the demand also implies, therefore, that the Gogoi Government will have to ensure at least three things related to the issue : (i) ensure that the NSCN (IM) gives up the claim on Assam territory, (ii) clear the encroachments on Assam land, and (iii) accelerate the developmental activities in the border region to ensure that there would be no further encroachment. Even a layman in Assam today knows that to call upon the Gogoi Government to ensure these elementary things in respect of Assam territory vis-à-vis the ‘Nagalim’ demand, would be asking for the moon.
This is a collective failure of the Government and the political parties of Assam that they are unable to assure the people that they would successfully prevail upon the NSCN (IM) and the church leaders of Nagaland to drop their claim on Assam territory. Nor can they assure the people that they would reject any proposal from the Centre to reconsider their rhetoric about Assam territory. One can safely assume that, as the territory talks proceed, the Centre would egg on the Gogoi Government to cede the territory claimed by the NSCN (IM) in a spirit of ‘give and take’ in the ‘greater interest of peace in the North-east’. One could then bet that the Gogoi Government would feel obliged to accede to the Centre’s request — or would it be armtwisting ? — and come up to the people that they needed to learn to sacrifice a bit for the sake of peace! After all, the Government has already created the situation for precisely such a ‘request’ to come from the Centre, by very benevolently allowing Nagaland to continue to encroach on Assam territory. It is just a matter of regularizing, what has been a fact of life in Assam: the massive encroachment. One can also safely assume that, even in that event the Opposition parties of Assam would continue to hem and haw, unable to make out how or what had happened to the State’s territory !
On the flip side, the situation in the two hill districts of Assam would start to take a slide, as a debate would be sought to be raked up among the Karbis, the Kukis and the Dimasas if the decision to remain with Hindu-majority Assam was right when the option was given to them to merge with Christian-majority Meghalaya, and whether it would be right now to cold-shoulder the offer of the church leaders to merge with Christian-majority Nagaland. The NSCN(IM)-church leaders have injected an altogether new element to the political cauldron of the North-east by cleverly wrapping their territorial ambitions under the ‘sovereignty’ call. Now that their cat is out of the bag, one must be prepared not to get stewed in the broth of the NSCN(IM)-church leaders’ making. But going by the lackadaisical manner in which the polity in Assam has reacted to these ominous developments, one wonders if the Government and the Opposition parties of Assam would not make everyone stew in the ‘Nagalim’ broth.
Sent your comments to asimhazarika@gawab.com
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