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The sounds of the wilderness could cause fear and anxiety
in the hearts of others, but for former United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA) militant Raktim Sharma they sing to him.
After having spent seven years in the ULFA camps in Bhutan,
he had to suddenly flee from that safe haven one day. Dreams
of ‘freeing’ his Assam from the “colonial Indian
rulers” were shattered and this forms the core of his
debut novel, being published by Cambridge India in December.
A sense of betrayal and bitterness, with continued focus on
the goal and a search for a means to achieve it, could perhaps
sum up the emotions in the novel.
Writer Raktim was a ‘junior commissioned officer’
of the ‘central organisational cell’ of the proscribed
outfit when its cadres were flushed out of Bhutan by the Royal
Bhutan Army in December 2004. The book, titled ‘Boranga
Ngang’ (‘Song of the Jungle’ in Bhutanese)
is based on his first-hand experiences during the ‘Operation
All Clear’ and his flight through the dense jungles to
a safer haven.
ULFA ‘publicity secretary’ Mithinga Daimary recently
had his collection of poems released at the Frankfurt book
fair. Daimary, who writes under the name Megon Kachari, is
behind the bars now after being captured during this Operation.
Bhutan had been a safe place for the ULFA till in the December
of 2004 the Royal Bhutan Army descended on the ULFA camps
as per a pact with their Indian counterparts. The flush out
exercise, ‘Operation All Clear’, was a major setback
for the banned group, with many of its top leaders, including
the ‘grand old man’ of ULFA Bhimkanta Buragohain
(popularly known as Mama) and ‘publicity secretary’
Mithinga Daimary, taken captive.
Formed in 1979, the now banned ULFA had been fighting for
a sovereign Assam, free from the clutches of ‘colonial
India’. Its cadres are trained in the art of guerilla
warfare, with reports claiming that the group has backing
from the jehadi elements and Pakistani intelligence agency
ISI.
Talking about his book, which is released in December, the
former militant says, “My attempt is to present the picture
of the ULFA cadres during the operation and how we strived
to survive, with many of our colleagues dying before our eyes.”
He had joined the outfit in 1996 and had been in Bhutan till
2004, when he returned to the mainstream. A well-educated
youth, he had undergone guerrilla training in Bhutan and had
come in contact with top leadership of the outfit many a times.
Without giving a direct reply to why he had chosen the path
of violence, he explains, “People will rise against the
powers that try to exploit them.” On his flight from
Bhutan, which forms the subject of the book, Sharma says,
“We encountered many a hardships. Our group went without
food for 10 days at a stress, malaria created havoc for us,
besides the cold. Of the 15 people we started off, only eight
remained after a single night of encounter with the Army.”
He had also fallen victim to the disease and it was the illness
that led to his eventual surrender.
Sharma also endeavours to answer in his book the disturbing
question-why the Bhutan monarchy chose to ‘betray’
the ULFA after having being “a faithful partner for years”.
“The Bhutan King probably feared that the ULFA would
support the people there in an uprising against the leadership
since people were frustrated in that country and wanted a
change,” he says.
“However, such fears were totally misplaced. ULFA was
in a political pact with Bhutan and Asom enjoyed historical
bonds with the country, because of which it was chosen as
a shelter in the fight against India,” he explains.
The once-gun trotting militant recalls fondly the congenial
ties they shared with the local people in Bhutan. “When
the King tried to impose an economic blockade on ULFA just
before the operation, the people continued to provide us with
supplies on the sly,” he claims.
“Of course, in happier times, the King himself used to
send medical and other supplies for ‘Mama’ and the
grand old man of the ULFA enjoyed unrestricted movement in
Bhutan,” Sharma claims in his book.
“Perhaps it was this growing proximity and sense of one-ness
between the militants, for whom arms and ammunition were never
in short supply, and the dominated Bhutanese people that fueled
the anxiety of the Bhutan King,” he says.
Moreover, the growing influence of the Maoists in Nepal, which
was finding a way to Bhutan, through India, among its majority
Nepali population also triggered panic in the Bhutan’s
leadership, he reasons.
Sharma recounts the days prior to the operation in great detail,
with a tinge of betrayal and sorrow in his eyes. He says,
“Just a month before the Operation, the King and ULFA
leaders had met at Thimpu. The King had asked us to relocate
our camps and send away cadres from Bhutan for the time being.
Accordingly, most cadres left Bhutan and we started downsizing
our camps.”
He said a Major of the Royal Bhutan Army had come to the central
headquarters, where the writer was also staying, a day before
the launch of the Operation to inform that the King would
be visiting the next day. He recounts, “Women in the
camp baked pithas and we all waited for the visit of the monarch,
he had come on five occasions during my stay. We first heard
gun shots, which we took for a gun salute for the King. Then
mortar shells landed in the compound.”
“The King never came, in his place came his Army…,”
he adds as his voice trails off.
Betrayal was written plain in his tone while narrating the
events, which was mixed with shock on that fateful day, “It
was then that we realized that the Thimpu meeting was to deceive
is into believing that Bhutan was still the friend of old
times.”
Sharma’s book captures the pain of betrayal of the hundreds
of ULFA cadres and their families in Bhutan, who had chosen
a hard life for what they perceived was a greater cause of
‘freedom’ for motherland Asom. His book also portrays
the fire in the youths to work for their motherland as well
as the negative vibes in these cadres. “If tales of Che
Guevara can inspire millions world over, why should not the
sacrifices of the ULFA cadres also reach a wider audience?”
he questions on being asked the reason for writing a novel
on his experiences.
An educated man himself, who has now tried his hand at literature,
has also designed the cover of his book. He wishes to portray
the cadres as not just bunch of gun loving misguided youth,
but people driven by a vision. He, however, leaves it to the
readers to decide the correctness or faults in the path they
had chosen.
After having forsaken a life of violence, Sharma still has
a vision for a homeland, where all have equal opportunities,
“Revolution is not necessarily carried out by arms, there
can be other means to it.”
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