WHEN security forces swooped on a clutch of documents from an ULFA hideout in chief minister PK. Mahanta's home district, Nagaon, they knew they were onto something important. But they realised the full import of it only when they raced back to the headquarters and studied the documents, an elaborate pointer to the ULFA's future plans.
The aims of the plan, drawn up by its central committee for district units: to replenish the outfit's coffers to take the ULFA's struggle nearer to the people to make everyone aware of the aims and objectives of the outfit, and to widen the outfit's network.
The aims of the plan, drawn up by its central committee for district units:
Police and intelligence sources say they were lucky to lay their hands on the papers. "But for this accidental recovery, we would have been in the dark about the ULFA's plans," admits a senior intelligence official. The documents list people under various categories and outline ways and meansto collect funds before ferrying the money to the central committee, the ULFA's highest decision-making authority.
The blueprint appears to have been drawn up after considerable study. It categorises industries as big, medium and small; traders and professionals are similarly split up; and government officials are divided into two sections. Even doctors have been grouped into two broad sections--doctors working in the state's three medical colleges are bunched together in one, while private practitioners make up the other. Contractors have been divided into five categories. Tailors, bicycle repair shops, barbers, butchers, cobblers and fruit and vegetable vendors are listed in the category of 'small' shops.
The detailed typology comes with strict instructions to district leaders that no one should be forced to cough up the amount. "The people should be dealt with respectfully, made aware of our aims and objectives," says one maxim. "No threats should be used if someone refuses to pay up and these people should never be treated as our enemies," says another. The manual also exhorts local leaders not to misuse funds for personal gains. This warning is perhaps a fallout of earlier incidents when several district and middle-level leaders were accused of lining their own pockets in the name of the ULFA.
Insurgency in the Northeast is big business with the turnover running into at least Rs 600 crore per annum. The militants levy "taxes" on big business houses, traders and even government officials. In states like Nagaland and Manipur, the "taxes" are deducted at source. In Assam, however, both the banned ULFA and the two Bodo insurgent groups--the Bodo Security Force (BdSF) and the Bodoland Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF)--have been mainly targeting big guns for funds. The man on the street has so far remained out of the ambit of fund collection by the militants.
But things are likely to change with the ULFA having reportedly decided to widen its "tax" base. The ULFA, at the receiving end of a prolonged army operation, is facing a severe funds crunch. The shortage became acute after Sheikh Hasina decided to freeze ULFA-controlled accounts in Bangladesh.
The reaction to the ULFA's plan, which found its way into local dailies, has been critical. Letters to the editor columns have spoken out against the ULFA. In private too, people question the outfit's right to slap "taxes" on the people. But not everyone is against the ULFA gameplan. Middle-level traders and contractors see it as a way of buying peace. As one businessman said: "If, by paying a certain amount, the ULFA can be kept off our backs, I would be more than happy to comply with the outfit's plan."
THE businessman may be talking from experience. His counterparts in Nagaland and Manipur have long accepted the system. The banned National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), which is part of the 'Government of Peoples' Republic of Nagaland', issues tax notices and then hands out receipts to the party concerned ( see photocopy ). In Nagaland and Manipur, rebels have devised an ingenious system to collect funds. The officer who disburses salaries in each office deducts a predetermined amount from everyone's monthly paycheck and then hands it over to the militants. The governments in the region are aware of the methodology but can do very little to prevent it. Admits Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir: "Militants are taxing people from all walks of life heavily, government servants included." As in most matters, the ULFA has decided to take a leaf out of the NSCN'S Operating manual but whether it will succeed in putting in place an elaborate revenue mobilisation network remains to be seen. After all, Assam is larger and comprises a patchwork of heterogeneous peoples.
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