As nation surges ahead, NE comes to a standstill

Guwahati, Aug 13 (UNI) The 60th Independence Day would see the nation tastefuly decorated with flags and festoons, but in North East, it is an entirely different scene.

The massive security bandobast across the region, especially in the capital cities and district headquarters, would give the impression that the place was in a state of war.

And war it is indeed, but for a cause forwarded with hatred and bloodshed. The 'ritualistic' Independence Day boycott call by insurgent outfits in the region ensures that the 'day of freedom' is observed as a 'day of confinement' in NE.

Kamrup (Metro) DC Avinash Joshi said that the Judges' Field, the venue of the central celebrations in Guwahati, has been sealed for the past several weeks as a security measure.

''Security arrangements have been made complete and we are leaving no stone unturned,'' he added.

Mr Joshi must be a worried man as the ULFA had succeeded in breaking through these arrangements on the Republic Day in 2005 and engineered a blast during the parade, though there were no casualties.

This year, too, four outfits, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), has called for boycott of August 15 celebrations. And not to leave any room for making the people take their call with the utmost graveness, the militants in Assam have been on a killing spree.

Since August 8, 28 people have been killed by tribal militants, backed by the ULFA, in a single district of Karbi Anglong in Assam.

The prompt and simultaneous strike called on August 14 by separate organizations to condemn the killings ensures that the state shuts down from a day before.

The fear that makes the people remain confined to their homes during the national day celebrations, including Republic Day, every year has its base not just on the outfits' boycott call, but also the violence that mars these days of celebrations in other parts of the country.

The worst was the massacre of 13 people, including seven children, on Independence Day at Dhemaji in Assam in 2004 in an ULFA blast at the site of the celebrations.

The celebrations venues are turned into virtual fortresses long before the D-day and security put at such a high that even if any common man wants to take part in it, the massive security drill at the entrance ensures that he is kept away.

The national day celebrations have become mere token and compulsory celebrations in NE.

The older generations tales of actively participating in these celebrations are lost on the youth as these days symbolizes for them not freedom, but days of bandh.

As the nation celebrates its surge ahead, NE comes to a standstill.

UNI