Mahanta plays game of one-upmanship

GUWAHATI, August 20: The Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's, lauding of the successful joint operation by the Assam and West Bengal Police at Rajshahi, 207 km inside Bangladesh, during his Independence Day speech was not a gaffe. It was a calculated, deliberate statement. An unrepentant Mr Mahanta, in a interview with a local daily has said, "Bangladesh cannot deny the fact that.... the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan is using its territory to create disturbances in Assam and other parts of the region." Mahanta's expos? triggered a flurry of activity. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed promptly endorsed the statement. But the Union home ministry and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu launched a damage control exercise. GK Pillai, joint secretary, home (Northeast), claimed that "Mahanta misunderstood the joint police operation which took place in West Bengal and not inside Bangladesh." Reportedly, the Prime Minister's Office was "unhappy with Mahanta's hasty disclosure" about the operation. Pillai's statement, however, compelled Basu to concede that a joint operation had indeed taken place. Basu is keen to dissociate himself from the controversy. On Tuesday, Mahanta upped the ante by requesting Basu to return the consignment of 30 kg RDX to enable the Assam Police to book the ISI agents under the Indian Explosives Act. This publicised request appeared to be multi-edged: To trumpet the achievements of the Assam Police, embarrass the central government and drag Basu into the controversy. Mahanta 's request was intended to expose Basu's involvement in the decision to conduct a secret joint operation by the police of both the states inside Bangladesh from North Bengal's international border in Cooch Behar. The decision to conduct the operation was taken only after a team of West Bengal police airdashed to Assam to interrogate the four ISI agents arrested by the Assam Police officially on August 7. The police chiefs of both states had informed their respective chief ministers about the operation to be conducted between August 10 and 12. Officials of both states kept the Centre in the dark until Mahanta chose to spill the beans. Basu, a seasoned politician and statesman, aware of the economic and socio-cultural links and the political ramifications of the operation for the Sheikh Hasina Wajed government, washed his hands off the matter initially. Basu merely admitted that ISI agents were operating in West Bengal and the police had arrested several of them. Basu deflected focus from the controversy by highlighting the subsequent seizures of RDX and ammonium nitrate in fuel oil (ANTO) from the Sealdah railway station. This was intended to lead everyone to believe that all RDX consignments were seized from within West Bengal's territorial boundaries. He even went to the extent of indicating that his government would keep the consignment as part of its own police seizures. For Mahanta, the retrieval of the explosive consignment is important legally but the issue is politically crucial. Legally the consignment is necessary to book the ISI agents under the Indian Explosives Act. Politically, the issue is as potent. Mahanta wants to emphasise the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)'s role in aiding and abetting Pakistan's designs in Assam. Mahanta is harping on the fact that ISI agents during interrogation exposed the hostile neighbour's plan to carve out an Islamic nation from several Northeast States, especially Assam. The AGP and the BJP are targeting the Hindu votebanks and are accused by Opposition parties of covertly working in tandem notwithstanding the AGP's refusal to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Mahanta, by embarrassing the BJP-led Centre, wants to show the national party in poor light. Attempts to cover-up the joint operation inside Bangladesh will hopefully sway the rural masses into believing that the BJP, like the Congress, is merely exploiting their sentiments to get votes but is not serious about it.