Talks completed between Centre and pro-talks ULFA faction in Assam; accord likely after completion of NRC

The peace talks between the Centre and the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) have been completed with all the issues discussed and a consensus hammered out more than seven years after they were initiated. While participating in a discussion on Pratidin Times, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said, “Discussions with the government are over on the charter of demands submitted by us although the date for the signing of the agreement has not yet been decided.” Rajkhowa’s revelation on television came after allegations that he had a role in the “abduction” of peace negotiator Rebati Phukan who disappeared from his residence in Guwahati on 22 April. Phukan is a close aide of ULFA chief of staff Paresh Baruah who heads the anti-talks faction and had played a key role in the earlier peace process with the banned outfit in 2005-06. [caption id=“attachment_4457847” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa (centre with spectacles). Reuters[/caption] According to informed sources, the entire focus of the current dialogue had been upon “ensuring the security of the indigenous communities in the state, accelerating the pace of economic development and plugging the loopholes of the 1985 Assam Accord.” Interlocutor AB Mathur, a former chief of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), was in Guwahati on 10 March for another round of talks that mainly reviewed the agreement arrived at between the two sides. For the government, an agreement with the pro-talks faction of ULFA is a strategy to further isolate the hardline group that has camps in Myanmar and hideouts in Bangladesh. Baruah, who lives in Ruili in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, has been putting in efforts to unify all the separatist groups from the North East that have camps in Myanmar and has been carrying out occasional strikes against the security forces. Accord after NRC and Supreme Court judgment A senior government official, however, said that “fine tuning” would be necessary for the final accord to take shape which would be possible only after the Supreme Court delivers its judgment on the contentious issue of citizenship in Assam. The apex court will decide on the cut-off date for citizenship in the state — whether it should be 1951 as argued by Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha which comprises indigenous organisations, or 1971 as laid down in the Assam Accord, and the status of the children born to illegal migrants. The official added that the agreement would also have to wait until the completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which is currently being updated in the state for drawing the list of genuine citizens. The Supreme Court has fixed 31 May as the deadline and the next 30 days for cross-checking data in the list. The peace process was initiated in 2010 after several top functionaries from different rebel outfits including ULFA were apprehended in Bangladesh and handed over to India. Finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, foreign secretary Shashadhar Choudhury and military spokesperson Raju Baruah were among the other leaders who were interned besides chairman Rajkhowa. The peace talks began in the middle of 2011 after the pro-talks group submitted a 38-page charter of demands that touched almost all spheres of life in the state, from the economic to the environmental. According to informed sources, while a majority of the demands in the charter have been accepted, some have been rejected while the government has been unable to decide on granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six indigenous communities in Assam. The demand for ST status is perceived by the group as a safeguard against illegal migration since it would also entail reservation of seats in the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies. Scheduled Tribe status to six indigenous communities The demand for ST status had been a sticking point in the discussions that eluded an answer for several years. The process to grant the ST status to these ethnic groups in Assam got stuck after a large number of organisations, who are already in that category, raised objections that the entire exercise was a “conspiracy” to deprive them of their rights. They are of the opinion that these six communities who are in the OBC category do not possess traits to be included in the ST category. This development was a further reason for a section of officials in the home ministry to scuttle the inclusion of the six communities since they felt that it would only result into more chaos and turmoil in the state. Subsequently, the pro-talks group and the government decided to move on with and reach a consensus on the rest of the issues in the charter. On 15 March, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal told a delegation of these six communities that the matter would be taken up with the Centre and a new committee would be formed to expedite the grant of ST status. A participant in the talks who did not wish to be named claimed that the BJP would not prefer to give the credit to the pro-talks ULFA of granting ST status to the six communities since the general elections are approaching. He said that unlike the previous agreements with rebel groups in the North East, this accord would be placed before the Parliament for ratification to ensure its smooth and timely implementation. (The author is a senior journalist in Guwahati and author of Rendezvous With Rebels: Journey to Meet India’s Most Wanted Men)