As nation surges ahead, NE comes to standstill

Guwahati, Aug 13 (UNI) The 61st Independence Day would see the nation tastefully 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 state capitals and district headquarters, in the wake of the now ritualistic Independence Day boycott call by insurgent outfits active in the region, ensures that the ''day of freedom'' is observed as a ''day of confinement'' in the 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.

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

Mr Joshi must be a worried man as ULFA had succeeded in breaking through these arrangements on 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), have called for a boycott of August 15 celebrations. And not to leave any room for making the people take their call with the utmost gravity, the militants in Assam have been on a killing spree.

Since August 8, 28 people have been killed by tribal militants, backed by the proscribed outfit, in a single district of Karbi Anglong in Assam. The prompt and simultaneous strike called on August 14 by separate organisations 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 roots not just in the outfits' boycott call, but also the violence that mars the celebration on these days of national importance.

The worst was the massacre of 13 people, including seven children, on Independence Day at Dhemaji in Assam in 2004 in a blast triggered by ULFA.

The celebrations venues, thus, are turned into virtual fortresses long before the D-day and security put on such a high alert 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 the entire NE.

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

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

UNI