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IIt is unfortunate that I had to speak to mid-career police officers a few days after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s address at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. To many in the police, Doval is a role model of sorts, once the director of India’s premier intelligence agency – the Intelligence Bureau. Doval, the former ghost, has inspired many with stories of his escape to Pakistan as an undercover agent and has become an urban legend. Doval, while addressing the probationers at the academy recently, cautioned them to beware of civil society activists – NGOs, left-liberal minded people, etc. likely to be funded and hence throw the spanner in nation building exercise. One might have thought that internal security depends much more on being on the side of the state than on isolating citizens. But it seems Ajit Doval thinks differently.
With such a mindset, it would be fair to assume that the National Security Advisor (NSA) only considers those who openly support the current government; Those who do not spare a moment to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his second-in-command, Amit Shah; who use their social media networks to constantly brand critics of the government as loyalists to the Indian state. Here’s a curious trick to compare the state to the government.
As one who was part of an inspiring group of individuals under the banner of ‘Shillong We Care’, we are probably also the first group who stood against extremism in Meghalaya from its early days. In fact, we have tried to assist the state in combating extremism since 1996, when extremism reared its ugly head here. Civil society groups have been at the fore in dispersing the militants in Meghalaya.
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Step into ‘Shillong We Care’
In the 1990s, fear was rampant. Extortion became widespread, especially in Shillong where non-tribal traders – mostly in Shillong city, Police Bazar and Bada Bazar area – were asked to spend lakhs of rupees. As is the case with all extremist groups, he informed the victims of the meeting where the funds would be received. People paid because those who didn’t were shot in broad daylight. The first to be shot in the streets of Laitumkhara was a certain Rajesh. Sehgal Who had a motor spare parts shop. It demonstrated the firepower of terrorists. They were taken seriously. As soon as it got dark, the shops downed their shutters. Shillong, once known as a safe place, turned into a ghost town by 5 pm. It was now like Kohima, Dimapur and Aizawl, other state capitals, where life ended in the evening.
It was very disappointing for us at Shillong We Care as we thought that if we did not do something then there was every possibility that like other insurgency affected states, some parts of Meghalaya would be declared as “disturbed” area and disturbed area act. called upon; The Army will be brought in following the invocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Another horrific shooting took place at the television store Aristo In wealth farming. The shop owner, a Bengali gentleman, was probably asked to pay, but he resisted. The seller and two other customers were shot; One of them was a tribal boy from Malki. Shillong We Care called a meeting at Malki Maidan to condemn this heinous act. Hundreds of people arrived for the meeting, which was presided over by the head of the Malki (Rangbah Shong) HP Olin Dohling. Tony Curtis Lyngdoh, the then-legislator for the area where the shooting took place, was the first politician to openly rebuke the Hinwtrap National Liberation Council (HNLC) militants whom he held single-handedly for the horrific deaths in Dhankheti . In fact these series of murders defied all norms of Khasi society – an otherwise civilized society which believed in human virtues and had a healthy respect for human life.
Shillong We Care organized street meetings in the evening. Some youth became a part of our movement and we trained them for street plays where they demonstrated the evils of extremism in front of a silent public who are too afraid to speak up and express their fears. Some leaders of Latumkhara’s local grassroots institutions (Dorbar Shnong) joined us in a procession, on which we carried placards that read, “Say no to terrorism”, “Down with extortion”, “Let’s fight back”. and “Report the extortion.” All these exercises were meant to encourage citizens to take back their voices as it seemed that they were scared and unable to speak.
At that point we also decided to take the police into confidence about our intentions and see if we could work together with them without actually working for them. We asked the then DGP Lalngheta Selo whether he had received any FIR from any businessman who was extorted. Silo said no. We asked him if the police took suo motu action and filed an FIR as the extortionists were too scared to report. He said that the police cannot do this as it does not come under the purview of the law. We requested the police department to put up hoardings that read “Say no to extortion”, “Are you a victim of extortion? Call 100”.
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How terrorism was controlled without army
This was the first time that HNLC felt that a group of citizens in Meghalaya was standing against them. As might be expected, those of us who were at the forefront received calls late at night telling us they knew how many children we had and where they were studying and that we should do what we were doing. . Once, a person who identified himself as a member of a “seng” (organization) called me and said that the group wanted to meet me. At that time we only had a landline. I told the person at the other end to come to my house if he or his Seng wanted to meet me. “That’s a great way,” I said with a voice. “We are being monitored and it is unsafe to enter your area,” he said. I said, “In that case I’m sorry but I can’t come to see you.” This strange meeting ended there.
Like other insurgent organizations in the Northeast, the HNLC will call for a bandh on Independence Day, August 15, and Republic Day, January 26. He said that we should not celebrate these two days as they mark the colonization of Khasi states after the British left India. HNLC didn’t bother to read history and check what their ancestors did in 1948. In fact, 25 Khasi Sardars (Sims), signed on Instrument of Accession (IoA) to an Indian state. True, some Sims were forced to sign the IOA, but the fact remains that Meghalaya is a state of the Indian Union. But flagging issues of real or perceived deprivation was attractive to a population that faced poor governance and where the rule of law is more enforced in violation.
Members of Shillong We Care will come out on these two days and walk to the Polo Ground, the place where Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations were celebrated by the state. Its purpose was to encourage others to break the bandh call and the extremists dominated the civilian population. Over the years, others also gathered courage and organized concerts these days at Police Bazaar, a commercial area where all shops were closed and no one came out on the streets.
All the time we were trying to make citizens aware of the devastating effects of extremism on the economy, education and how it was hindering entrepreneurship.
I was a schoolteacher then and a single parent to four teenage children. But after school hours, there will be a meeting of Shillong We Care to chalk out a strategy on what to do next. I felt we had to do this for our future generations, and Shillong We Care lived up to that belief till 2001. That’s when we got a crap Congress Home Minister, who adopted a strategy to stop money from flowing. HNLC’s kitty. The Home Minister, RG Lyngdoh, fortunately had the support of the then Chief Minister, Dr. FA Khonglam, and fought the militants firmly using both CI-ops and tactical pressure.
Lyngdoh registered an FIR against all the shopkeepers of the police market and other businessmen who regularly paid to the militants. The shop owners had to run to the rescue and had to take anticipatory bail. Now they are caught between the devil and the deep sea. They decided to rise above their fears and chose to show the FIRs they had landed with to HNLC and use this as an excuse for not paying the organization. When funding dwindled and they felt the heat of decisive police action, the HNLC began sending feelers to the government for peace talks. The Home Minister said there was nothing to talk about as their demands were meaningless. In addition, Lyngdoh said that the government will talk to those who want to surrender, counsel them and provide them support to start a new life.
He refused to talk to them as a group SayingMILF in an interview with shillong times, “We had made it clear that if an extremist really wants to return to the mainstream, he has to surrender with his arms, individually, and not as a group. Then each surrender has its merits and demerits. and the law will take its course as per the cases pending against that person. We refused to talk with the extremists as a group or an organization. This is mainly because we saw that with the group The interaction would reduce the responsibility and accountability of each person in the group. Adding, “Individual members remain anonymous and the identity of the group is revealed. As a result, even though the group agreed to comply with the law, many individuals return to their illegal activities.” This was then seen in the case of Sulfa, and later with the surrendering ANVC and then with the surrendering GNLA. The group did not take responsibility for the individual’s actions.”
In this way militancy was contained in Meghalaya without the need to come along with Army and AFSPA. Above all, it was an insurgency that was contained without the baggage of peace talks. Lyngdoh himself admitted that civil society has played a big role in enabling the police to tackle terrorism in Meghalaya. Now the HNLC is reduced to around 20 cadres, most of whom are undercover on the Bangladesh border.
idea of indians
Ajit Doval would not only do well to understand the dynamics in India’s hinterland and formulate his theory taking into account the country’s vast diversities, a subcontinent that rejects the idea of one nation. To consider this country’s mass of citizens and those involved in activism as “the new frontier of war” and to equate the war against civil society as a fourth generation war that is a Seems to be serving a short-term political agenda. No, Mr. Doval! The idea of India is much bigger than your imperfect vision.
The author is a journalist and editor shillong times, Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Neera Mazumdar)
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