Death by apathy

Contrary to the earlier impression, the tragic crisis in Assam, created by last month’s orgy of violence and arson between the Bodos living in Kokrajhar and adjoining areas administered by the autonomous Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) and the non-Bodos, principally Muslims, in neighbouring Dhubri, hasn’t ended.

For one thing, even after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit there in the first week of August, when the situation was supposed to be under control and the return home of the refugees of both sides imminent, there was at least one sad eruption of violence. For another — and this is more disturbing — of the nearly four lakh refugees languishing in makeshift and segregated relief camps, more than a lakh are unwilling to go back to their burnt-down homes although it is critically important sowing time. The colossal trust deficit between the two sides is manifest. The BTC has made things worse by insisting on “verification” of those returning to Kokrajhar as genuine residents of Bodoland. Another aggravating factor is that though the Congress has a majority in the state Assembly it rules Assam in partnership with the Bodoland People’s Front. And the last straw on the camel’s back is a bitter factional fight within the state government.
Overshadowing all these is the sinister and alarming fallout of what most people believe to be tragic communal killings in Assam, though this is a terribly simplistic assessment of an incredibly complex state of affairs. For the ruling establishment in New Delhi, regardless of who the rulers are, the Northeast is a far-away land about which it knows little and cares even less. What an irony it is that the two Muslims whose murder triggered the July riots were not killed by Bodos, as the authorities now accept. Worse, of the Muslims who went on a rampage in Mumbai, 80 per cent were ignorant of Assam’s location. It’s even more revealing that the Mumbai police, itself the worst victim of the rebellious youth, took nearly 24 hours to discover that the merchants of mayhem were carrying out instructions to let loose violence in protest against the “atrocities on Muslims in Burma and Assam”, in that order. No wonder the media, next to the police, was made the special target. It was “punished” for failing to give adequate publicity to the killings of Muslims.
However belatedly, the Mumbai police did announce that the extraordinary anger among the Muslims had been worked up through morphed videos and photographs and other provocative material disseminated through social media websites. By then the eminent intelligence veteran and security analyst, B. Raman, had warned the country of intense activity by the international jihadi network to spread fury among Muslims against oppression and suppression of their co-religionists anywhere in the world. This was “traditional” in the month of Ramzan, especially on the last Friday of the month, and this year the focus was on Burma and Kokrajhar.
It is nothing short of shocking, therefore, that neither other state governments nor anyone at the Centre took any notice of Mumbai’s message or Mr Raman’s warning until the morphed videos etc, accompanied by frightening SMSes, caused the exodus of young people from the Northeast gainfully employed in southern cities. Obviously, the objective of the vile campaign was to renew the breach between the Northeastern region and the rest of the country. While thousands were boarding special trains to Guwahati, vicious Mumbai-like riots erupted in Lucknow and Allahabad, necessitating a five-day curfew in the latter city.
Only after establishing that the highly inflammatory and morphed images came from Pakistan did the Union home secretary, R.K. Singh, blame Pakistan for what had happened. His boss, Sushilkumar Shinde, even spoke on phone to the Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik. Predictably, the Western neighbour remains in a denial mode, and is demanding evidence and proof. The home ministry has already prepared a 43-page report. But will it meet a fate different from that of the bulky files of compelling evidence on the masterminds of 26/11 that are gathering dust in Islamabad?
More to the point is the limited action taken by the authorities. Eighty Pakistani websites have been blocked, and three arrests have been made in Karnataka. But the mischief within this country is much more extensive. Even the ISI in Pakistan wouldn’t have had the mobile phone numbers of the Northeastern people living in southern states. Obviously, there are modules, sleeper cells and extremist groups here that are doing Pakistan’s job for it. Mr Shinde has his task cut out for him, NCTC or no NCTC (National Counter-Terrorism Centre). As far back as 1999, a former chief of the ISI had stated, in reply to a question at an open seminar, that the main task of this notorious spy agency was to “weaken India from within, and we can do it”. Mr Rehman is perhaps right in arguing that the photographs of the victims in an earthquake in China or those killed in an anti-government demonstration in Thailand might have been morphed outside Pakistan. Obviously, an international jihadi network extending from Marrakesh to Manila is acting in concert.
A brief word must be said about the lethargy and inadequacy of action to deal with a crisis so massive as that in Assam. The trouble at Kokrajhar and Dhubri started on July 6 with the murder of two Muslims, and the retaliatory killing of six members of the Bodo Liberation Tigers a few days later. The main storm raged only from July 20 onwards. Evidently nothing was done to forestall it.
The only breath of fresh air in recent weeks was the constructive parliamentary debate during which everyone forsook partisan politics. However, apart from pious platitudes such as “we are all brothers and can live wherever we like,” little was said. Dr Manmohan Singh declaring, “we should do this, and we must do that” are vague assertions. What the country needs is effective action, not just soothing words.