Bangla must flush out Ulfa militants

THE SATURDAY INTERVIEW - Tarun Gogoi

The second son of a tea estate doctor, Tarun Gogoi was born on 10 October, 1934 at Rangajan, Jorhat, in Assam. A former Union minister, Gogoi became the chief minister of Assam on 17 May 2001 and is now enjoying a second consecutive term.
BAPPADITYA PAUL recently spoke to him at his official residence in Guwahati. 

Excerpts:

After Bimala Prasad Chaliha, you are now the longest standing chief minister of Assam. What are the achievements of your government in the past seven and half years?

The major achievement is the turnaround in Assam’s economy. When I took over the governance from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Assam’s economy was really in a bad shape ~ employees were not being paid salaries, developmental activities had stopped completely.
Today, the economy has stabilised. Earlier the state budget used to be deficit every time, but now we are presenting surplus budget. The state government is not only paying the salaries in time, we are also paying dearness allowance which is at par with the Centre’s.
We have constructed almost 10,000 km of roads so far, provided funds to all educational institutions.
Starting from zero, we now have 1,60,000 SHGs working across the state and creating earning opportunities for the common people. Again, we are helping in farming mechanisation by distributing power tillers and tractors to the farmers.

With the Union government implementing the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, the Assam employees too are expecting a hike in salaries. Is there any such move?
The state government has already constituted a new pay commission and we hope to get the report may be in six months time. But keeping in mind the impending hike in state employee salaries, we want the Centre to share the additional burden that awaits us.
But as interim relief, we have declared a 15 percent DA to the state employees recently. Earlier we had announced a 10 percent DA and thus cumulatively, it now stands at 25 percent.

What are the future initiatives that the government contemplates?
We are setting up three more medical colleges in the state at Jorhat, Tezpur and Barpeta and the foundation stones for them have already been laid. With these projects, the total number of medical college in Assam would rise to six but we want one or two more.
Next year we are going to recruit one lakh people in various government departments. Already, during the past few years one lakh recruitments have been made.

But the IIM-Northeast slipped out of Assam and has now been set up in Shillong.
I tried my best and even the experts committee opined that the IIM should come up in Guwahati. But then there were some who felt that Assam already has too many higher education institutes like the IIT etc and other northeast states should also get a few.

There is this talk about upgrading Guwahati University into a Central university. What is the possibility?
There is no such proposal as of now. We already have two Central universities in Assam.
But a world-class Central university will come up in Guwahati and the Union government has already announced its decision to this effect.

What is the Assam government’s stand on the demand for inclusion of North Bengal in the North East Council (NEC)? 
No, we are not in favour of this. With the inclusion of Sikkim, the NEC is already overcrowded and now if North Bengal were to be included, we would be deprived of the allocation that we are enjoying now.
Then, once North Bengal is included, demand would crop up from other adjacent states as well and there is no end to it.
But we don’t mind if the Centre adopts some other special schemes for North Bengal or other backward areas of the country.

With Ulfa turning 30 this year, militancy in Assam seems to have become more vigorous than ever and they are now targeting the common masses mostly?
Not only in Assam, subversive activities have increased across India. Earlier there were no blasts in the North and South of the country, but now there are blasts in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and even Delhi. No place is safe today; none can give hundred percent guarantee.
As far as Ulfa is concerned, its public support base is fast eroding and that is why it is now targeting the masses to create a fear psychosis. If they had public support, what was the need for triggering blasts every now and then, killing innocent people.

Why do you think Ulfa is losing popular support?
Because the people have realised, this (insurgency) is not the way to solve the problems of Assam. The problems can be solved by development and political will and not by mindless violence.
By its insurgency, Ulfa has retarded the progress of the state and has made Assam more backward. If you go on killing people, who would come and invest money here to give employment to your youths. People of Assam have realised this.

You have been iterating time and again that Ulfa has its base in Bangladesh and that the anti-Assam militancy is being bred in from there. Then why isn’t the government exerting diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh?
Pressure is being put on the Bangladesh government. We are categorically telling Bangladesh that it must flush out Ulfa militants from its territory and extradite the arrested leaders to India.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has himself raised this issue several times, but unfortunately the Bangaldesh government has not acted on this so far. Now, with the change of guard in Bangladesh, we hope that the new regime will realise the dangers of global terror and would dismantle all Ulfa camps from its soil.

Is the Assam government still open for talks with Ulfa? 
Yes, we are. But the conditions are that Ulfa must drop arms and the demand for independent Assam. 

The insurgent group DHD (J) is hampering national projects like the Lumding-Silichar broad-gauge rail route. What is the state doing?
We have provided sufficient security cover for the project to run smoothly. The Assam government is committed to the rail project.

Bangladeshi infiltration into Assam is being viewed as a national threat. What is your government doing?
Infiltration into Assam has been blown out of proportion for political reasons. Isn’t there infiltration into West Bengal? Then why blame Assam alone?