Search the Internet           Tips

The Rediff Interview/ Prafulla Mahanta

Onkar Singh

Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta says he is more concerned about providing security to the people of his state than discuss the prime minister's comments on the Ayodhya issue.

In an exclusive interview to rediff.com Mahanta said his party, the Asom Gana Parishad -- which is a partner in the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre -- has not had the time to discuss the PM's statement.

"I think this is not the right time for the AGP to talk about such issues. My immediate priority is to provide security to the people of my state," he said.

Asked if he is satisfied with his meeting with Union Home Minister L K Advani, Mahanta said: "The home minister has promised full assistance to the state government. He has given us 30 more companies of paramilitary forces. We had requested for 60."

Mahanta says he has knocked at every door -- from the Union home ministry to the prime minister -- to impress upon them the need to take up the issue of militants hiding in Bhutan and Bangladesh, but so far has not got any help from these quarters.

"I have not yet got a favourable response barring verbal ones. Militants kill innocent people in Assam and hide either in Bangladesh or Bhutan. We cannot enter these countries without the approval of their authorities. More than eighty per cent of the militants have surrendered. Only 20 per cent are giving us problems."

Mahanta denied that the 28 men killed in Assam recently were non-Assamese. "They were Hindi speaking Assamese. They have been living there for generations. We have identified 1,800 villages which are soft targets for the militants."

On starting a process of dialogue with United Liberation Front of Asom militants just as the government is doing with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland, the chief minister said: "So far as the NSCN is concerned, it is the parent body of the militant outfits in the northeast. But the ULFA and some other organisations are controlled so well by the ISI that they have no guts to start the process of dialogue. Even if they want they cannot do it, because the ISI has them in its pockets. Paresh Barua is hiding in Bangladesh and carrying out his operations from there. The problem of Assam is that it is surrounded by foreign countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. They are friendly countries by name only and give shelter to militants."

He claimed that extortion from industry and tea garden owners by the militants had come to an end. Earlier in the morning, Mahanta had assured industrialists at FICCI: "Each and every industry was being provided with security. I have asked industrialists from Delhi to come to Assam and invest. The state government will take care of the security aspect."

The Rediff Interviews

Tell us what you think of this interview