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ULFA backs 'jobs for locals' campaign

In a move aimed at provoking the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad's heated "jobs for locals" campaign, the United Liberation Front of Asom said the youth body should push its "quit Assam" campaign against jobseekers by serving notices to "all Indians" in the state.

In an editorial in its mouthpiece Freedom, the banned outfit said the AJYCP's threat to serve "quit Assam" notices only on "Indian jobseekers" was "like an order to keep alive a person after decapitation".

"If Indians can live in Assam," it said, "how can it be possible to expel only jobseekers? All Indians residing in Assam are economic migrants or jobseekers."

Stating that such protests were not "necessarily worthless", the ULFA said it was not the "proper antidote" to the "Indian attitude".

It asked whether the influential youth body would "consider" serving the same notice against "all Indians". That, the terrorist group said, would be a "silver lining in the political darkness of Assam".

The AJYCP had on September 6 threatened to serve "quit notices to outsiders" employed in Assam by central, semi-central, and private-sector establishments.

The All Assam Students Union has also mounted pressure in recent months on various establishments, seeking jobs for locals.

At least three offices, including the Guwahati Doordarshan Kendra, were ransacked by activists belonging to the AASU and AJYCP, alleging discrimination against locals in filling up vacancies.

Meanwhile, the ULFA has asked the authorities concerned to treat only those candidates who have had their primary education in the state and were enrolled in local employment exchanges as "local candidates".

The ULFA said the recent AJYCP protest was merely a reflection of the "annoyance of the new Assamese generation against Indian occupation".

The AJYCP, which is planning a united movement with the AASU against the recruitment policy of the government, has already warned that it should not be provoked to resort to "extreme protest programmes".

"New Delhi does not listen to peaceful democratic movements, which is one of the reasons behind a section of youth resorting to armed struggle," AJYCP president Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya said.

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