New Delhi: Amid the staccato of gunshots and a now-on, now-off peace process, the north-eastern state of Assam is going into a plebiscite on the question of its sovereignty -- the central demand of banned militant outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
While the plebiscite is being held under the aegis of an NGO as an entirely private initiative, yet the move is likely to put in perspective an issue that has held the state hostage to militancy for close to three decades now.
Interestingly, last fortnight the ULFA itself had called for a debate in the public domain on the issue of Assam's independence and asked the common man's response on the issue.
Now, the NGO -- called Assam Public Works (APW) -- has taken up the cudgels in an effort to make a meat and bones of the issue. Beginning Friday, the organisation is going to conduct this plebiscite over a period of one-and-a-half month.
"Lot of people claim the Assamese want independence from the Indian state, but there is no verifiable basis for this. We want to check out what do the Assamese people think. That's the objective behind this initiative," APW director Abhijit Sharma told ibnlive.com over phone.
The organisation has deployed some 5,000 youths to conduct the plebiscite, Sharma said. During this period, these youths will go door to door collecting public votes on two questions.
Firstly, do they support the case of Assam's sovereignty? The second question will be on the now-on, now-off peace process that the Centre has begun with ULFA. "We are trying to gauge the public opinion. Who is responsible for the failure of Centre-ULFA talks - the ULFA or the Government? That's the question we are going to ask," the APW director states.
APW claims itself to be an NGO with total confidence on the Indian Constitution. However, the organisation is believed to have a number of kith and kin of ULFA militants in its ranks.
"We are targetting to cover the entire voter population, which now stands at 1 crore 70 lakhs," Sharma says.
On September 26, APW held a similar public voting in Guwahati on the question of who is responsible for the failure of Centre-ULFA talks. Over 7,000 voters participated in the daylong voting.
Over 70 per cent people who took part in the voting said both Centre and the Ulfa lacked sincerity in the peace initiative and that's what led to the collapse of the talks.
Two days back, ULFA ‘commander-in-chief’ Paresh Baruah had again offered talks with the Centre "if the Government of India sends a formal letter to it through the People’s Consultative Group (PCG), indicating clearly that sovereignty will be discussed.” He said if sovereignty is not included in the main agenda, the ULFA will not sit for talks.
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