Formal talks with United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) beginning on October 23 have suffered a setback with its general secretary Anup Chetia pulling out from path- breaking initiative.
Anup Chetia, who was giving feelers till recently that he was willing to join the tripartite talks, has suddenly switched sides and has chosen to close ranks with the anti-talks faction led by ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, top government sources told DNA. Chetia fate now hangs on his petition seeking political asylum which is pending in the Bangladesh high court since he finished his seven years sentence in 2005.
Though the news, just before the talks is a damper, it will not affect the process in the long run, sources said.
While most of the top leadership of ULFA has relented and decided to join the peace process through structured formal talks Barua still remains stubborn, trying to keep up the pressure on India by funding terror attacks in Asom from a place in the ungoverned northern Myanmar close to the Chinese border province of Yunnan.
Keen to get Chetia on board for talks to further weaken Barua’s hold on the dispirited ULFA cadres, Union home minister P Chidambaram had indicated possibility of getting his custody in August. ULFA “surrendered” leadership led by chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa also wanted Chetia to be on their side to get more acceptability.
Sceptics, however, point out that it was the watered down charter of demands submitted by ULFA which made Chetia opt out of the talks. In its charter submitted on August 5 to Chidambaram, ULFA was silent on their core demand of sovereignty. Instead, it demanded constitutional and political arrangements and reforms, including protection of the identity and material resources of Asom’s indigenous population.
Even these demands, sources told DNA, are posturing of sorts and cannot be agreed to and ULFA leaders will have to come around sooner or later during the unfolding sessions of formal talks handled by former director of the Intelligence Bureau, PC Haldar.
Chetia was arrested in Dhaka in 1997 and sentenced to seven years for illegal entry and possession of firearms.
