Assam’s popular singer and musician Zubeen Garg defied the ULFA diktat and sang Hindi songs at a Bihu Sammelan function in Guwahati. The Paresh Barua faction of the ULFA issued a statement warning him of dire consequences. A few days earlier the faction had banned singing of Hindi songs during Rongali Bihu. Garg is an icon of the Assamese people and could not be stopped. He said that no power on earth could dictate to an artist and that he would continue singing Hindi songs. The ULFA had put a ban on him in the 1990s. But he had won nationwide fame singing Hindi songs. Hindi is India’s national language and he did not believe that singing Hindi songs could destroy Assamese culture. He considered Bihu a festival which had no boundaries. Hundreds of people of Assam worked in Bollywood. The ULFA could not ask them to pack up and come home. Garg however said that he would sing in other Indian languages also.
The Paresh Barua faction of the ULFA is out to stir up cultural chauvinism which has been a cause of Assam’s alienation from the Indian mainstream and its social and economic backwardness. The ULFA had however been at one time close to the great singer, Bhupen Hazarika who had sung in many languages and promoted cultural fusion in the country. The Barua faction is against peace talks with the Centre. It sticks to militancy with the leader sheltering on the Chinese border. His throttling of a pan-India culture in Assam at gunpoint may not signify much. But unless the insurgency of his faction is wiped out, Assam will continue to be disturbed. The onslaught on Hindi music will antagonize the rest of India. Manipur had banned Hindi films decades ago but the attack did not last.