Anza Kanwal
Of late, an Indian army operation against a separatist group and his squad along the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam ended in failure yet again after the rebels managed to give the slip and sneak deep into the hilly terrain in neighboring Bhutan. The exercise to neutralise G. Bidai, vice-president and army chief of the outlawed anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and his group consisting of about 20 cadres is still on along a vast stretch of the remote border and especially at Manas National Park where a large presence of the army and police is still discernible. It is important to mention that Bodo insurgent group NDFB is believed to have aligned with United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFW), an umbrella organisation of terror groups in the north-east, responsible for the recent ambush in Manipur that killed 18 soldiers. Ironically, intelligence inputs suggest that Army’s continued operations in difficult and inaccessible jungles of Chirang District in Assam have forced the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) separatists to flee from their hideouts. The operation was intensified after over 70 people were killed in various attacks by NDFB(S) last year.
The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is a secessionist ethnic insurgent organization demanding an independent state for the Bodo ethnic group in Assam. Formed on October 3, 1986, and led by Chairman Ranjan Daimary, this is one of the most dreaded outfits of Northeast India and one that shared close ties with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). The group’s strength has dwindled since the 2003 operations in Bhutan. The group indulges in hit and run operations on security forces and explosions in public places. The original name of the group was the Bodo Security Force (BSF). The Bodos, a primitive tribe who are mostly either Hindus or Christians, account for about 10 percent of Assam’s 26 million people and live in the western and northern parts of the state.
The intensive phase of the operation lasting for close to two weeks till last month witnessed the deployment of more than a thousand troops and helicopters that were seen hovering over the park and adjacent areas located about 120 km west of Guwahati. All that the army was able to eliminate were a few temporary camps in the jungles that yielded utensils, clothes and polythene sheets. Bidai’s gang had been dodging the security forces continuously for the last one decade. In September 2015, a joint operation involving the army, police and paramilitary launched with the same objective achieved no results, which was followed by a similar exercise four months later. On every occasion, the group succeeded in jumping across the porous border to hideouts in Bhutan which were beyond the reach of the security forces.
India’s north-eastern region, comprises of seven states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, is home to more than 200 insurgent group. Some of the demands of these insurgent groups are similar such as preservation of local culture, local language and jobs for local people. Some of their demands are totally different as some groups demanded separate states within the Indian Union; some demanded autonomy whereas some demanded independence from India. These groups are engaged in violent clashes with the Indian army because of the discriminatory attitude of the Indian government towards them. When the Indian government starts crackdown operations against them, the members of these groups fled to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar to their safe havens. The question arises that why so many groups are operative in just seven states of India. The answer lies in the negligence of the Indian government towards the region and its strategy of handling the unrest in the northeast.
A widely visible characteristic of northeast India is its economic under-development. The region is one of the most backward regions of India. Abject poverty of locals alienated them from the Indian government. The north-eastern region has poverty levels ranging between 42-58 percent, making it one of the most backward regions in India. As the region was economically isolated from the rest of the country during the colonial period, it did not benefit from the process of industrialization and modernization. After independence, the Indian government also did not take any serious steps towards development of the region. Instead, the Indian government has exploited the natural and mineral resources of the region without benefiting it in any way. The north-eastern region is rich in natural and mineral resources such as forests, oil and gas etc. Despite these natural endowments, the region is industrially backward because of low investment from the public sector.
In a nutshell, India is facing potential as well as actual separatist movements in northeast India. Instead of addressing the real causes of insurgency in the northeast, the Indian government is maintaining India’s unity mainly through the use of force. The Indian counter-insurgency in the northeast depends on the deploying of the security forces. The Indian government has given the security forces vast powers to maintain law and order by implementing repressive laws such as Armed Forces Special powers Act, Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance and Disturbed Areas Act. Torture and bad treatment are strictly prohibited by the Indian constitution in all circumstances. But still human rights abuses by the security forces are continuously reported in the whole northeast.
