One question that everybody in Assam is asking since last week is: Is ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua really ill? People have started doubting this after different local newspapers published different stories while trying to analyse or read between the lines of the four-sentence statement e-mailed by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa last week which said Barua would henceforth remain unavailable due to ill-health. One newspaper went to the extent of saying that Barua had actually flown to Bangkok, where he would be holding secret parleys with an emissary of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with noted litterateur Indira Goswami standing in as the mediator. Another newspaper has said that Rajkhowa, a softer leader, has finally pushed Barua aside to take over the responsibility of talks because he (Rajkhowa) is interested in finding a solution to the 25-year-old armed struggle. Officials in the Assam government however have refrained from any comment on the ULFA chief’s statement, preferring to wait and watch what exactly the militant outfit is up to. But not before Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said: ‘‘It is very difficult to believe ULFA statements. They are known for spreading wrong information.’’Assamese SenaWhat is the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) up to these days? Well, it is as active as before, and has just recently launched a new front named ‘Asom Sena’, with Amiya Bhuyan, general secretary of the student body, saying it would be a democratic, peace-loving but ‘hardcore’ army of vigilantes that would keep an eye on all who work against the interests of Assam. ‘‘The Asom Sena should not be confused with the Shiv Sena either,’’ said AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya, who had sometime last year indeed suggested that Assam needed something like the Maharashtrian outfit ‘‘in order to keep a lot of elements under check’’. The outfit would also act as a pressure group to force the government to solve the long-pending problems of the state, he said. AASU has been demanding 100 per cent reservation of jobs in central government organisations in the state for local people, apart from pressing for scrapping of the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which is said to be more sympathetic towards illegal Bangladeshi migrants instead of helping detect and deport them.Putting wraps on plasticEven as the Kamrup district administration (which covers the capital city of Guwahati) has failed over the years to impose a complete ban on use of polythene and plastic by citizens, the three districts of Cachar, Karb>How many bomb explosions does a state require per month to admit that the law and order situation has deteriorated? Well, ask the Assam Chief Minister, and he would probably say even ten blasts a month is not enough. His Minister of State for Home Rockybul Hussain last week told the state Assembly that Assam had recorded as many as 78 explosions in a period of eight months, which included the August 15 blast at Dhemaji that left, among others, 13 children dead. Hussain also stated that at least 54 persons had died in these blasts, while 294 were injured. During the same period, security forces had gunned down 68 extremists, which included 43 ULFA and 16 NDFB militants. Chief Minister Gogoi however refuses to admit that the situation is becoming bad. ‘‘There are more such incidents in other states every day. Even the US has not been able to control the situation. Why single me out?’’ he says.
