Assam Cm Refuses To Lead Security Operations

Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has thrown the ball in the Centres court over the issue of tackling militancy in the state. He wants Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to resolve the problem and has refused to take charge of the proposed unified command of the army, security forces and the police suggested by the Union home ministry.

Mahanta has come at the head of an all-party delegation from the state to meet Gowda, finance minister P Chidambaram and home minister Indrajit Gupta. The idea is to demonstrate unity of perception of all the parties in the state on its financial woes and the issue of militancy.

Though this is the first time that such an all-party effort has been made, the underlying political message to Gowda is: Dont take the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a constituent of the United Front (UF), for granted. The immediate provocation for this is the spate of Bodo militancy and the need to counter the perception in the home ministry that the AGP government either lacks the will or is not doing enough to handle the situation. This places the party in an awkward position. For, one of the premises of the AGPs raison d