The government is preparing to hold talks with the banned outfit Ulfa, and the modalities to initiate the dialogue are expected to be finalised soon. Following consecutive meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram in the city, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday said, “Majority of Ulfa
leaders are in favour of talks. The government may appoint P.C. Haldar, the former Intelligence Bureau chief as interlocutor for Ulfa talks.” Mr Haldar, who had served long years in the Northeast and is currently assigned the task of brokering peace with other militant outfits in the region, is likely to be entrusted with initiating the peace process with the Ulfa.
With both the Assam government and the Ulfa having expressed willingness to start negotiations, Mr Gogoi said that the state government is in the process of chalking out modalities for holding a dialogue. Mr Gogoi said he is consulting the Ulfa leadership, most of whom are in jail in Assam, in this regard. “We can’t wait for Paresh Barua for an indefinite time. We have appealed to him to come. But so far the response is not positive,” Mr Gogoi said adding, “We are sincere in holding talks.”
The home ministry has maintained that the government is open for talks with insurgent outfits, including Ulfa, on the condition that they abjure violence.
Mr Gogoi had briefed the Prime Minister on Tuesday on his government’s preparedness to hold dialogue with Ulfa. Mr Gogoi had also briefed the government about the initiative taken for peace talks by some intellectuals including Sahitya Akademi awardee Hiren Gohain.
Meanwhile, Mr Gogoi joined chorus with outfits supporting the inclusion of caste in Census 2011. “There should be a caste-based census. Caste is a fact of life and it is a reality so there should not be any problem in conducting the caste-based census,” he said after meeting Mr Chidambaram at his North Block office. Mr Gogoi’s comments come at a time when the Centre has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to go into the contentious issue of inclusion of caste in census. The GoM has to take a “political decision” on whether to include caste in the census operation.