Militancy tends to reinvent itself if not tackled in the right spirit. While the Government has been adamant about not having a dialogue with the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) which went on a kidnapping, killing and extortion spree in Khasi-Jaintia Hills for nearly a decade beginning around 1994, the same Government adopted a different stance in Garo Hills. Many feel that the Garo Hills based, Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) should have been tackled in the same manner that the HNLC was. It was a deliberate policy of the then Government headed by Dr FA Khonglam to go all out against the militants. His contention was that you cannot soft-peddle with militancy and if militants use strong arms tactics the government too must adopt similar methods. That’s how militancy was tackled in Punjab. But Meghalaya is not Punjab. Meghalaya continues to be a state sharply divided by ethnic loyalties. So while all the Khasi-Jaintia legislators were of one mind that the HNLC should be taken on in their own turf and brought to its knees, the politicians of Garo Hills chose to play footsie with the ANVC. It is a fait accompli that some politicians used the ANVC for their election campaign, to terrorize voters and capture booths.
It is strange therefore to hear the present Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma now turning around to say that the tripartite dialogue between the ANVC, Government of India and Government of Meghalaya was a bad deal since the militant group had already split and only one faction had come to the talks table. Dr Sangma was very much part of that Government and one can be sure that he would have been consulted if any decision was to be taken regarding Garo Hills. If memory serves us right Dr Sangma was also Home Minister at the time when militancy raised its ugly head in Garo Hills, but he remained non-committal. Hence Dr Sangma’s recent outburst against militancy during the Chief Minister’s conference at New Delhi and his demand for sophisticated weapons from the Union Home Minister, to tackle the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) presently under the command of the ruthless Sohan Shira is perplexing. Dr Sangma has some explanation to do about why the ANVC is being given a long rope while the GNLA is seen as a killing machine. Sohan Shira was formerly an ANVC hardliner. There are tales of how he was rescued / protected during a police operation by some politicians. These are games that politicians regularly play with militants. No wonder militants never target politicians but prefer to kill defenseless targets including children. Politicians have as much to answer for the crimes that militants commit on hapless citizens.