ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Assam Sahitya Sabha sets up panel to study ULFA's demands

Tired with years of violence and abortive official peace talks, the Assam Sahitya Sabha, the leading literary organisation of Assam, has constituted a panel to examine all the demands of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom.

The Sabha has forwarded the panel to the state government with a request to form another expert panel to examine ULFA's demands.

Sabha president Dr Nagen Saikia said this panel should go over ULFA's demands and point out up to what extent they could be met. "The state government alone should not reject the ULFA's demand," he added.

The Sabha, in a communique to almost all the distinguished personalities of the state, has sought their suggestions. The state government is reportedly pondering over the panel the Sabha had suggested.

Dr Saikia said the Sabha could not turn a blind eye to the social malaise and had thus stepped in to solve the crisis. However, critics disagree on its move, saying that the panel would once again involve the state government, in whom the militant organisations reportedly had no faith.

According to a small section of the lawyers, who have closely seen the ULFA, an international mediator should be appointed on the line of the Ulster peace accord of North Ireland. "The clause of holding talks in a third country has no meaning today as interest has made every home a part of the globe. But the mediator must have vision, which only a professional can take care of," said an ULFA ideologue on the condition of anonymity. But a ceasefire comes prior to everything, he added.

Perhaps all this non-governmental activism for a solution to extremism in the region had reactivated the state government, which held an all-party meeting on Tuesday night and decided to send a team to New Delhi to apprise the defence ministry of the situation.

The meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, resolved to convene a citizen's meeting on April 29 to "create a healthy public opinion on the insurgency scenario in the state."

The current period, according to ULFA ideologues, was a crucial one which, on one hand, promises to offer a lasting solution while, on the other, threatening further aggravation.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report