IT is unprecedented that an indefinite bandh should be called by a militant outfit and that villagers have to cower in fear because the state is unable to provide them security. This has turned into a battle of nerves. Considering that the bandh is localized in one district, the state should have taken on the militants head-on. Security forces from other districts of the state should have been mobilized to bring about a climate of confidence and to demonstrate to the militants that they cannot hold the citizens to ransom. Even administrative officers should have been drawn from other districts to ensure that basic public services are not affected and that government offices and educational institutions are functioning normally rather than in the breach.
Ampati is the Chief Minister’s domain and to that extent should have been a privileged constituency. The CM himself should be present in his constituency during these testing times. That there is a disjuncture in society is evident from the fact that civil society of Garo Hills has remained largely passive over the present bandh call. Would the same NGOs have remained as passive if an indefinite bandh was called in the entire district of West Garo Hills or in Tura Town? A section of the population is suffering for no fault of theirs. It is expected that the citizenry of Meghalaya should rise as one and stand in solidarity with the people of Ampati who are suffering in silence for no fault of theirs. Civil society should have condemned the bandh call and told the militants to lay off. No matter how grave the issue may be, for the GNLA to call an indefinite bandh is to take extremism to new heights. That the state with all its machinery and over-ground mobility has not been able to adequately respond to this challenge by a proscribed under-ground outfit that cannot operate overtly as state forces can, reveals a lack of Psy- Ops strategy.
The GNLA has exempted the three days of Christian observances – Good Friday up to Easter Sunday – from the purview of the indefinite bandh. But this is no act of kindness and people are unlikely to thank the militant outfit for this concession because the dark clouds of fear and uncertainty hang over Ampati with no sign of it receding any time soon. What a depressive and unhappy Easter this will be for the people of Ampati!
