By Patricia Mukhim
Militancy has hit Garo Hills with a vengeance yet again. The terrain, unfriendly for the police seems like a haven for the new breed of militants, including those who have been resurrected into a new avatar. The saddest thing to have happened in recent times is to have lost some policemen to gunshots from their own colleagues. What does this suggest? That there is fear psychosis even among policemen and that’s because they are unfamiliar with the terrain and the fire power of Champion Marak’s men, although this former cop who claims to be the GNLA supremo is holed up safe and sound in Bangladesh.
Fear is a real thing and does not afflict only those who are unarmed. It also haunts those who have to scale the thick jungles in the unfamiliar darkness and danger. Perhaps Meghalaya Police need to intensify and upscale their training module to meet the needs of the times. We cannot have a few militants sitting pretty and taking pot shots at targets. The GNLA has neither ideology nor a road map as to where it wants Garo Hills to be 20 or 50 years hence. All that the outfit has is a lot of money that it has extorted from specified targets over the short period it has been in operation. Perhaps the Government did not realise the vehemence with which the GNLA would hit out and literally cripple the police force of the State.
Those who know the ground reality say that Sohan D Shira the former ANVC militant who is presently the commander in chief of the GNLA virtually runs the outfit. He is the strategist, the daredevil and one who also controls the purse strings. In a sense he is the real leader – not Champion. So Sohan D Shira is the guy to watch out for. Intelligence sources say there are not more than 125 foot soldiers in the GNLA and that most of them are newly recruited young people who are yet to be trained. But the GNLA has an edge over the police because they have scanned their present habitat and some of the hardcore members of the outfit are trained guerrillas right from their ANVC days.
On Thursday, (July 7) a trio of high ranking police officials from Meghalaya were on a flight to Delhi. Their brief was to give the chief minister a run through of the ground situation in the militant afflicted areas of the East and South Garo Hills because the CM was going to brief the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram later that day. Our own man of the season when it comes to tackling militancy, Rajiv Mehta was part of the trio. Now anyone who looks at Mehta would never know he is a tough cop. He is more like Santa Claus, genial and kind to a fault and his forte is that he never discounts the strength of the enemy – in this case the GNLA. Mehta is a guy who also seems to have the nerve to rough it out in the jungle despite his girth. But no one will deny that he is a hands-on cop who knows what he is doing and is constantly doing a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) test of his own cops and also of the enemy. If the HNLC today is a spent force we owe much of that to the leadership provided by this policeman who was once part of the Special Protection Group guarding the prime minister of the country.
With him is DIG GHP Raju also known to be a tough cop but a kind soul. These are people who care for the welfare of the State beyond the policing boundaries. Time and again in my interaction with some of these officers I have found them concerned about their own tribe and the morale of the police force as such. They have never been defensive but rather willing to introspect where they have gone wrong. What perhaps drives the cops into a defensive mode is the civil society’s own adversarial position vis-à-vis the policeman. We are ready to believe the worst about them, to label them as corrupt and hang them from the first post. Yet they are on the firing line when our lives are at stake. This is something we hardly ever consider. Those cops who lost their lives recently were decent human beings on duty. They only have their families to mourn for them. There has not been a single dirge on their behalf from anyone of us, certainly not from Khasi and Jaintia Hills. I am quite appalled at this communalisation of tragedy which is so ingrained in our social behaviour.
I am told that Mr GHP Raju is stunned by the recent casualty in the ‘friendly fire’ and quite depressed that it happened. That’s the test of a real leader. To evaluate where one has gone wrong and to try and mend the faults, are, what I would call real leadership skill. It pains to see your men brought home dead especially in a misadventure. But that’s the price we have been paying for allowing militancy to take roots in this once peaceful state. And let’s also not forget that some of the spaces have been ceded to militants or militancy are our own doing or rather the mishandling of governance affairs by successive governments. Look at South and East Garo Hills. Are they not the most backward terrains in Meghalaya even after nearly four decades of statehood? How is it that the MLAs representing these backward constituencies are nicely settled in mansions in Shillong while their people languish in deprivation of even the most basic needs such as roads, bridges, livelihoods, health care, basic survival tools and anti-poverty schemes? And because people are so illiterate and so poor they have been taken advantage of by their elected representatives. The militants have simply taken over the governance vacuum created by the MLAs/ MDCs.
It is sad that today when things have gone almost out of control in a part of Garo Hills, policemen have to take the flak. Militancy is not just a law and order problem.. The militants enjoy clout among the villagers who are paid good money to bring them their rations and other necessities. While some of the Nokmas have been threatened with dire consequences if they do not cooperate and have therefore fled to safer grounds, others are more than willing to collaborate because it pays them something. Why would they be loyal to the government which has pushed them into penury and is consistently doing so by not giving them the dignity they deserve as human beings? It is not an accident that militancy thrives only where governance is invisible. Why do you think the Assam Rifles is carrying out a twin strategy of providing welfare schemes even while tackling militancy in the far flung areas of Manipur, in Chandel and Ukhrul districts?
This government has to show that it means business. There is a way to deal with militancy and policing is just one of them. First of all Dr Mukul Sangma has to have the political will to expose those of his colleagues in the party who have overt and covert links with the GNLA. Once upon a time the HNLC too had support from the political class and that was how they survived so long. Secondly, there is need for massive development interventions in South and East Garo Hills. Let the River Basin Development and Livelihoods Project be first implemented in these abandoned areas of the State. The people of these two districts must be given priority. The Government must show it cares in order to discredit the claims of militants. Today the GNLA can brainwash people and say that the Government does not care for them but that the outfit does. And if even a fraction of the loot is shared with the villagers they would be willing to switch loyalty. So why can’t government do better? Champion and his men have no resources to build roads or create livelihoods. The Government has all those resources and more. The battle against militancy is fought in the minds and hearts of people, as someone rightly put it. That is where the battle must begin before it comes down to hard core policing.
I salute those policemen who put their lives on the line, scaling the dangerous forests, and ravines, braving the forces of nature while we sleep comfortably and peacefully in our beds. To Rajiv Mehta and GHP Raju and all those men whose lives are imperilled we encourage them not to lose heart when the going get tough but to hang on there for dear life and carry on the good work! Sincere and dedicated service is it own reward!