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Retired SC judge to probe politician-insurgent nexus in NE

Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati

Two months after having announced its intention to probe the alleged nexus between politicians/bureaucrats and various militant groups in the north-east, the Centre seems to have taken the first concrete step in this regard.

On Wednesday, G K Pillai, joint secretary in the Union home Ministry in-charge of the north-east, announced in Shillong that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has decided to entrust the task to a retired Supreme Court judge. The name of the judge and the terms of reference of the enquiry will be finalised very soon, Pillai told newspersons in the Meghalaya capital.

In November last year, Pillai had said: "Intelligence agencies have informed the home ministry that some politicians and bureaucrats in the north-east have links with militants. The matter is being investigated."

Reports about the politicians-bureaucrats-militants nexus have been doing the rounds in the region for a number of years but this is the first time that any sort of inquiry has been launched into the matter. There are, however, no details available about the identities or number of such persons under investigation. The Army, the Assam Rifles and intelligence agencies have in the past talked about several politicians and bureaucrats maintaining such links but no concrete action has been forthcoming so far.

For example, there have been persistent reports in the past that the Nagaland Chief Minister SC Jamir has close links with the Khaplang faction of the banned National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which Jamir has denied time and again. The other dominant Naga militant group, the NSCN-IM is bitterly opposed to both Jamir and the Khaplang faction and has consistently demanded and obtained Jamir's exclusion from the talks that it has been holding with the Centre.

In Manipur, the then governor, Lt Gen (retd) V K Nayyar had specifically mentioned in one of his reports to the President, the names of at least two senior politicians having close links with the underground groups. That was way back in 1995. Nothing however came of it. Instead, Gen. Nayyar was removed from his post.

Of late there have been charges and counter-charges of politicians from different parties in Assam having used the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom for gaining undue advantage in electoral battles. Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has repeatedly accused the Assam Pradesh Congress President Tarun Gogoi of having harboured militants' sympathisers in his house and having used low-level ULFA militants as election agents in the last Lok Sabha polls. Gogoi in turn has pointed fingers at Mahanta for being responsible for the ULFA's rise during his first tenure as chief minister between 1985 and 90.

Last week, former Lok Sabha Speaker and general secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party, P A Sangma had expressed concern over the growing politician-ultra nexus in the NE including Meghalaya. Sangma, while attending a seminar in New Delhi, had stressed the need for nipping the "dangerous" trend (politician-ultra nexus) in the bud.

EARLIER REPORT:

Centre keeping a watch on situation in Manipur

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