Tripura, where militancy is an industry

They fought for a separate homeland, killed people and spilt their own blood. Now, they merely play at being terrorists, brandish false weapons and stagemanage surrenders. All for a fistfull of rupees.

The 20-year-old insurgency movement in Tripura has reduced itself to a farce, with many describing it as little more than a cottage industry. And from their hideouts, deep inside Bangladesh or in the remote interiors of India's North-East, has tumbled out a horrid tale of greed and manipulation. Also, a tale of the Indian government's inefficiency that encourages such deception.

Sources in the intelligence department said tribal youth these days "surrender"just to earn a fast buck and a rehabilitation package that temporarily takes them out of grinding povery. What they will not say is that these fake surrenders, which have led an already befuddled youth to opt for militancy just to be able to surrender, is a reflection of the government's skewed policies and irresponsible politics.

During the last two decades, more precisely since August 10, 1988, when the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) headed by Bijoy Hrangkhawl surrendered before authorities following tripartite talks, more than 6,600 militants formally surrendered before government functionaries and security forces. Here is the catch, though. The nearly 7,000 militants "surrendered"when, according to the government's own estimate, the TNV had just about 800-900 militants.

While some of the surrendered militants were indeed top guns in their outfits and were hardcore underground operators, the rest were never involved in militancy. They were, by and large, unemployed tribal youth brought to "surrender functions"by leaders who wanted to show off their strength. Intriguingly, many of the "militants"came bare-handed. Some made a mockery of the surrender show by coming to it with wooden guns made by carpenters in villages!

Not that this farce is specific only to Tripura. In Assam, during the height of the insurgency, students, small time political workers and petty goons lined up for surrender. They needed the money, the government needed to show the numbers to the Centre. Both benefitted. For those surrendering, the money was good -- Rs 60,000 in grant and Rs 1.50 lakh as soft loans for which the guarantor was the government itself. Some of the surrendered militants used the money to get married, others bought motorbikes and cars with it.

As per the Centre's surrender policy for North East militants, only those rebels who came overground with firearms were eligible for the rehabilitation package and financial assistance. Not those who brought kitchen knives and toy guns.
In Tripura, it touched a different level though. During the surrender of National Liberation Front of Tripura (both Nayanbasi Jamatia and Mantu Koloy factions), militant leaders openly "recruited"youths to join the surrender ceremony, demanding Rs 15,000 from them to be included in the list.

More surprisingly, leaders of militant groups often got the same set of people to surrender time and again. The "rebels"would surrender for some time, then head home or into the jungles after they got bored with "camp life".
Pleading helplessness, a senior police officer said, "What can we possibly do if the militants go back to insurgency after surrendering. Some of them get bored and others can't adjust to urban life. Moreover, we can't have security personnel following each militant."

Forget lower-level cadre, out of the top six senior insurgent leaders, three -- Kamini Debbarma, Binoy Debbarma and Dhanu Koloy -- have themselves surrendered thrice each. Kamini Debbarma, the NLFT's self-styled home secretary, got a jeep the first time he surrendered as a rehabilitation package. Unhappy with the reward, he returned to the jungles to form another outfit in 1991. Four years later he came walking to Agartala to surrender, got something and went underground again after a year. In 2004, he resurfaced and surrendered all over again.

Unable to justify or explain why this was happening, a top police officer simply said, "The matter is now being seriously looked into."