Agp Ally Passes Please-Ulfa Resolution

A constituent of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-led coalition government in Assam has passed a please-Ulfa resolution by demanding that the Constitution be restructured to give all powers of government to the states except defence, external affairs and inter-state disputes.

The demand, made by the United Peoples Party of Assam (UPPA), goes a step further than even the AGPs views on autonomy. The AGP wants that the Centre should retain only defence, external affairs, currency and communications. Apart from the AGP and the UPPA, the coalition government includes CPI, CPI (M) and the Autonomous State Demands Committee.

The UPPA representative in the ministry, Abdul Mohib Mazumdar, is the cabinet minister for education. He said the resolution was among the four passed at a meeting in Assam this week. By another resolution, the party demanded the scrapping of the 1993 Bodoland accord, and demanded the setting up of a commission to go into the ethnic issue in the state.

 

I am sure that if the CVonstitution is restructured along the lines suggested by us in order to give most powers to the states, secessionist groups like the Ulfa would have little to fight for, and would come for talks and a possible settlement. Even the militants know that an independent Assam is not feasible in todays geo-political context. Maximum autonomy should satisfy them and also the people of the state, he told `Business Standard.

In Assams fractious polity, the UPPA has been a recent phenomenon: it was formed on the eve of the last assembly elections in 1996, when it joined hands with the AGP. But what makes the partys resolution significant is the context of the partys formation and the forces behind it.

Mazumdar, a prominent Congress leader of long standing, had broken away from the party and formed the UPPA before the 1996 election. Behind him rallied one of the strongest minority organisations in the state: the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind led by Asad Madani and Maulana Abdul Haq. The population pattern being what it is in Assam, the minority vote has come to make all the difference in many constituencies.

But perhaps more important is the fact that ever since Ulfa set up base and received sustenance in neighbouring Bangladesh, the outfit has not targetted people of immigrant Muslim stock. Indeed, there have been a spate of intelligence reports that the Ulfa had agreed to protect the interests of the immigrant Muslims in return for material and financial help.

According to UPPA leaders, if the party had not extended support to the AGP, during the elections, the AGP would have lost at least 30 seats (the AGPs strength is 63 in the 124-member house). They said before the elections, Mazumdar promised the religious leaders that in return for their support, the AGP government would take several steps in the interest of the minorities.

These include the potentially explosive promise that the principle of population pattern would be reflected in government appointments (the minorities component in Assam is said to have increased considerably as reported by the last census). Other demands include the setting up of a department of minorities on the pattern of the West Bengal government, and the establishment of a minorities development and financial corporation.

However, after more than year in office, none of the promises have been fulfilled by the Prafulla Kumar Mahanta government. Mazumdar said the government had been involved with more pressing issues like militancy so far, and could not devote attention to the promises made before the elections. He said the religious leaders were feeling frustrated with unkept promises, but hoped Mahanta would take steps to fulfil them.