A for Assam, N for Northeast

Himanta Biswa Sarma’s sometimes Chief Minister, sometimes NEDA convener act makes illogical sense

On Monday, the Nagaland Assembly convened for a special session during which it demanded the repeal of the contentious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) not just from the State but everywhere in the Northeast. The resolution was triggered by the botched Indian Army operation of December 4 that led to the death of 14 civilians in Mon district. Even as the House was in session, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Act will continue to be in force in his State and the government would take a call at a later date “if this kind of peaceful situation continues”. Incidentally, the Nagaland Assembly is without an Opposition, with all parties becoming constituents of the Neiphiu Rio-led United Democratic Alliance in August to “work collectively towards achieving a peaceful and amicable solution” to the protracted Naga political imbroglio. On Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s orders, Mr. Sarma met Thuingaleng Muivah, the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), in September. He explained away his discordant note on AFSPA as “in the context of our State and not Nagaland because I have no jurisdiction to do so”.

As BJP’s point man, troubleshooter, Mr. Fix-it all rolled into one for the Northeast, the former Congressman often finds himself in situations where his role as convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), forged by the BJP in 2016 as an agglomeration of parties vying with the Congress, is at cross purposes with his helmsmanship of the Assam government. AFSPA isn’t a one-off. The starkest illustration came during the border crisis with Mizoram when six Assam police personnel and a bystander were killed in firing on July 26 on National Highway 306. Mr. Sarma swiftly donned the Chief Minister’s hat, issuing provocative statements that he justified as boosting the morale of his police force and trading charges with his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga, a NEDA ally, on Twitter while tagging the Prime Minister’s Office and Mr. Shah.

As a freshly minted BJP man, Mr. Sarma has tagged his older reputation of an efficient administrator to that of a firebrand Hindutva proponent, pushing issues such as beef ban, the need for a fresh National Register of Citizens exercise, and implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, and supposedly illegal land encroachments by supposedly illegal immigrants to the forefront of the governance agenda. This, in a culturally, religiously, ethnically diverse State surrounded by an even more diverse neighbourhood, is no enviable task. But it isn’t quite the paradox it seems to be. For one, a polarising rhetoric in Assam hasn’t worked to the BJP’s detriment. The party retained power and through open invitations to defect, extended by the Chief Minister to Opposition lawmakers, has inched towards the simple majority mark on its own. As far as the broader region is concerned, the NEDA convener knows all too well that frontier State politicians are instinctively loathe to alienate themselves from the patronage networks that flow from being in alignment with the Centre. A BJP-led government in Manipur, by that token, owes as much to this need for access to the purse strings as the manoeuvring skills of Mr. Sarma.