GUWAHATI, May 27 � Bad governance is the major threat facing Assam now and the divisive politics by the State and Central Governments may break the State into pieces, warned former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), RN Ravi.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Ravi, who recently retired from service and is well versed with the situation in Assam and other parts of North East, said that over the years, the State Government has been playing divisive politics instead of �inclusive politics�, while, the Centre is also patronizing, which is very dangerous.
Ravi pointed out that Assam is the most heterogeneous State in the country with more than a hundred ethnic groups living in the State and the Government�s move to play ethnic politics might break up the state. He said that a number of Autonomous Councils have been created on the basis of ethnicity, but instead of solving the problems, that has gradually given rise to new problems and created unrest. If the Government creates political and administrative entity for one community, it aggrieves the people of other communities living in the area and leads to unrest, he pointed out.
The retired IB officer said that instead of looking into the development issues as a whole to benefit all sections of people, the Government is playing divisive politics on ethnic lines by forming ethnicity based councils. Giving an example, he pointed out that only around 30 per cent of the population in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) area is Bodos and in recent times, the area is witnessing agitations by other groups of people.
Similarly, in the Rabha Autonomous Council, the non Rabha people are joining hands to launch agitations and the area has started witnessing unrest. The problem will not be solved even if the Government creates more than a hundred autonomous councils for all the ethnic groups of the State as the people of one ethnic group do not live together in any particular area of the State, he added.
Ravi further pointed out that in the recent accord signed with militant outfit United People�s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), the Government agreed to reserve more than 80 per cent seats for the Karbi people in the Karbi Along Autonomous Council at a time when the Karbi population in the district is around 42 percent. Of course, more than 80 per cent of the members of the Council at present are Karbi, but if the reservation is applied, it may lead to feeling of deprivation among the other communities and lead to unrest, he pointed out.
