RECENTLY a video showing members of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) thrashing some people of a village in Garo Hills after accusing them of being police informers, went viral. National television news channels repeated the video which shocked the nation. Earlier a video showing the brutal killing of Josbina Sangma by the GNLA had also haunted the nation. The GNLA is supposed to represent the aspirations of the depressed sections of Garo people. At least that is what all insurgent outfits claim to do and many of them actually work for the uplift of their people in areas where development has not made any inroads. At its peak the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) built roads and rendered public service to win over people to their side. No social work of that nature has ever been undertaken by the GNLA or any of the militant outfits in Meghalaya. They have simply usurped the voices of communities and claimed to represent them through the power of the gun. And now the GNLA have gone overboard and reacted in a manner that any rogue organisation anywhere in the world would, which is to punish those of its own people who it suspects of being police informers.
The police can be credited with having a good enough intelligence network of their own without putting the lives of non-combatants in danger. In a situation where people are extremely frustrated and in perpetual fear from militants it can also be expected that some would in exasperation be telling the police what they suffer on a daily basis. It cannot also be denied that villagers might volunteer information if only to get the militants off their backs. But these are only conjectures. Perhaps the police have better listening devices that can track the conversations of militants deep inside the jungles. We will never know and the unthinking GNLA has only jumped to conclusions and unleashed its cruelty on unsuspecting villagers. One would like to believe that this action of the GNLA and its other brutal acts cannot endear the outfit to the people of Garo Hills. They are suffering in silence because they have no way out. In such situations the police are supposed to recover the space usurped by militants and to mobilise the public to take a united stance. Expecting a fragmented and highly fissiparous society to come together as an organic entity in a highly volatile situation is to expect too much. Some social engineering is needed. It is this social engineering that is missing in Garo Hills as the intellectual space has also shrunken due to militancy.
