GUWAHATI, November 20: The Pope has come and gone, but in the Northeast, the debate over conversions and the right of the church to preach Christianity continues. On Wednesday, senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader K Sudarshan indicated in Tripura's capital Agartala that the organisation in collaboration with its affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad will launch an "anti-conversion" movement in the region. Sudarshan, speaking at a rally in Agartala, charged Christian missionaries with helping and encouraging militancy in the Northeast. "The church is playing a pivotal role of American imperialism," he told the rally. He stressed the need to launch a "vigorous" movement against attempts to convert "innocent" tribals to Christianity by offering inducements and allurements. The RSS rally was held to demand the release of four of its senior pracharaks, allegedly kidnapped by the militant National Liberation Front of Twipra in August. The RSS maintains the four RSS workers were abducted at the instigation of Baptist missionaries. The militants have refused to release the four RSS workers and have demanded Rs 20 million as ransom. Although it is the first instance of a direct confrontation between the militants and the Hindutva brigade, the battle between the VHP and the Christians has been going on in the Northeast for some years now. But it is a battle in which the Hindutva brigade finds itself on the defensive. Elsewhere in the country, the VHP may feel dominant because the majority of the population is Hindu, but in the Northeast, at least three states (Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland) have a Christian majority. The fourth, Manipur, has a substantial 34 per cent Christian population. The Christian religion is deeply embedded in these four states and the missionaries have been around for more than 150 years here. In this respect at least, the VHP and its sister organisations are at a disadvantage. Also the network of the Sangh Parivar in the Northeast is not as widespread as it is in other parts of the country. This has, however, not prevented a bitter war of words between the VHP and the church in the region. As the Archbishop of Guwahati, Thomas Menamperampil, says: "We are worried about the increasing inflammatory and aggressive tones used by the VHP leaders while speaking against the Christian community. It vitiates the atmosphere and creates unnecessary tension among the people." He blamed the leaders from outside the region, coming here on short visits, for the state of affairs. "We have cordial relations with the local leaders but it is the people coming from outside who make provocative statements," the Archbishop said. The archbishop was apparently referring to VHP leaders like Ashok Singhal who had made a statement in Guwahati in late 1997 accusing the Christian missionaries of having a hidden agenda to turn the Northeast into a theocratic state. Even Acharya Giriraj Kishore, another frontline VHP leader, feels that funds from abroad are used for converting gullible tribals into Christians. The VHP has its own reasoning over the issue. Says Arvind Bhattacharyya, the VHP's organising secretary for the Northeast: "We are opposed to forcible or induced conversion methods adopted by the Christians especially among poor Hindu tribals. In most cases, the church people offer inducements like financial help, free education etc in return for adopting Christianity. In many areas like the hill districts of Manipur, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim not only collects taxes from Hindu tribals but forces them to adopt Christianity." The VHP, which, by Bhattacharyya's own admission, has only about 400 full-time workers in the Northeast, as compared to 4,000 Christian missionaries, has a plan to increase its activities in the region manifold by 2000. The VHP convention at Jaipur last year apparently resolved to add about 10,000 new full-time workers. The Northeast, being a Christian-dominated area, would therefore have a special emphasis in VHP's plans, Bhattacrayya said. The Christian organisations in the region are also looking at the VHP plan to re-convert Christian tribals back to Hinduism with suspicion. As Reverend V K Nuh, general secretary of the Council of Baptist Churches in Nagaland, says: "We will not remain silent spectators to any forceful conversion plans." The RSS on its part accuses the church of acting as agents of foreign powers and working actively towards destabilisation of the region. "The Christian missionaries help secessionist and anti-national forces like the militant organisations in the region," Professor Birinchidhar Buragohain, the RSS chief in Assam, says. Leaders of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an organisation working for the tribals, say several tribes in the Northeast face torture and humiliation for refusing to adopt Christianity. Some tribals, say VHP activists, want to return to their old ways. Indeed, as Bhattacharyya reveals, about 14 Rabha families in Assam's Boko area have reconverted to Hinduism. Some tribal leaders however have objections to the Sangh Parivar worldview that talks about one religion, culture, one race. "People from the mainland have always failed to reconcile themselves to the Mongoloid race that dominates the Northeast, hence this conflict," says a social scientist. (Nitin Gogoi; Rediff.com; November 20, 1999)

IMPHAL, November 25: The All-Manipur Students Union (AMSU) has called a 18-hour statewide bandh tomorrow in protest against the arrest of its president P Premananda, secretary-general O Ratankumar and finance secretary H Chandreshwar Sharma. Educational institutions in the state remained closed today in response to the AMSU's call for a boycott of classes. The Imphal East and West district magistrates have clamped Section 144 of the CrPC, prohibiting assembly of more than four persons and carrying of lethal weapons. Premananda and Ratankumar were taken into custody on Monday during raids on the AMSU headquarters and a hotel where the students' body had organised a press conference. The AMSU finance secretary was arrested by Imphal East police last night. He was absconding since the Assam Rifles arrested self-styled Lt Col N Marjit, "vice-chief of army staff" of the United National Liberation Front, on Monday. The militant outfit was using Sharma's house as its publicity cell. The AMSU president and its secretary-general were remanded to judicial custody yesterday after being produced before the Imphal chief judicial magistrate. The AMSU leaders refused to move bail, saying they wanted an unconditional release. The "public curfew" announced by AMSU will begin at midnight and end at 6 pm tomorrow. The students' body has appealed to the people to remain indoors during the bandh. In another development, the Meira Paibis (women's groups) of Manipur have decided to rally around the arrested AMSU leaders. Women's activists today demanded that the three student leaders be released immediately. The Manipur University Students' Union has also sought the release of the AMSU leaders. The Assam Rifles, however, appears to be unwilling to let the arrested student leaders off the hook. Deputy inspector-general Brig Rajinder Singh told newspersons here yesterday that there was "enough evidence" to establish the AMSU-UNLF nexus. He said the students' body had extorted a huge amount of money from businessmen and the Assam Rifles was compelled to take them into custody after receiving several complaints. The W Nipamacha Singh government has chosen not to react to the developments, inviting criticism from the AMSU. The students' body today said the government's passive reaction to the arrest of its leaders was indicative of the Army's clout in Manipur. It said the state was being virtually ruled by the armed forces. It is for the first time since AMSU's formation in 1965 that one of its presidents has been detained by the security forces for over 24 hours. (Correspondent; The Telegraph, Calcutta; November 26, 1999)

GUWAHATI, November 26: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has demanded that the Union government should reserve two per cent of central jobs for Assam before the state signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on fiscal reforms proposed by the Vajpayee government. In a statement here today, AGP general secretary Nagen Sharma said the state government was now saddled with the problem of unemployment because of discrimination by the Centre in providing jobs to Assamese youth in the railways, the telecom sector, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), banks, the Army and paramilitary forces since Independence. The state government had not been able to do anything since all the offices of the fourth zone and other eastern zonal offices were located in Calcutta, he said. There is no reservation either for people from Assam in the central secretariat, he added. A fifth administrative zone should be created for the Northeastern states including Sikkim, he said, adding that five per cent of the jobs in the central secretariat should be reserved for Assam. "Otherwise, there will be reason to believe that the present government is no different from the previous ones as far as discrimination towards the region is concerned," Sharma said. (Correspondent; The Telegraph, Calcutta; November 27, 1999)

NEW DELHI, November 27: The Mizoram legislature's decision to increase the salary and allowances of an MLA to Rs 50,000 and pension to Rs 5,000 a month has come under severe criticism. Former Mizoram MLA Bualhranga, who has rejected his pension, questioned the very legislation - the Mizoram Salaries, Allowances and Pension of Members of the Legislative Assembly Act, 1999. Under the Act, Mizoram, one of the "poorest states" in the country, has increased the salary, allowances and pension of its present and former legislators to a whopping level that has never been done in any other state in the country, Bualhranga said. In his letter to the Speaker, a copy of which was made available here, the former MLA likened the Act to other "black laws" enacted during the Emergency. Bualhranga said the increase, with an annual increment of five per cent, "is morally untenable" and "in fact shameful." "The law now allows it (the increase in salary and pension) but my conscience does not," Bualhranga said in his letter. "We lured voters promising them paradise but as soon as we get ourselves elected we lose no time in imposing upon them the burden of heavy taxes for the sole purpose of building an exclusive paradise for us, the elected people's representatives. This can never be justified," Bualhranga said in his letter rejecting his pension. The view taken by the powers-that-be in Mizoram is that an increase in salary would curb corruption. Questioning this, Bualhranga wrote in his letter that "more money would never stop corruption and less money does not mean a man indulges in corruption. It depends on a man's integrity." (R Venkataraman; The Telegraph, Calcutta; November 28, 1999)

GUWAHATI, November 30 : The Union minister of tribal affairs, Jual Oram, on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that a proposal for declaring Koch-Rajbangshis and five other communities for inclusion in the list of scheduled tribes of Assam is under consideration of the government and pending for decision. He also informed the House that the Union government has sought opinion of the Assam government whether the communities of Moran, Matak, Chutia, Koch-Rajbangshi, Ahom and tea tribes fulfill the eligibility criterion for their inclusion in the ST list which would on receipt be forwarded to the director general (census) for examination and approval. Replying to a starred question raised by the Asom Gana Parishad member in the House, Joysree Goswami Mahanta, the minister further informed the upper House that the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed for the purpose had already recommended the proposal to the Union government. In reply to a supplementary question Oram said that the process of revision of the lists of ST and SC was on. However, no time frame could be given, he added. In reply to a matter of urgent public importance (Special Mention) raised by Goswami Mahanta, the Union home minister LK Advani informed the House that the government of India have always viewed with serious concern the problem of infiltration of illegal migrants, anti-social elements from across the Indo-Bangladesh border. A project for barbed wire fence along selected stretches of Indo-Bangladesh border was initiated in 1986 as a preventive measure, he said. Advani further informed that work relating to barbed wire fence at an estimated cost of Rs 1044.32 crore under this project is scheduled to be completed by March, 2001. Further proposals for construction of 797 kms of border roads and 2429.5 km of barbed wire fence along the remaining portions of the Indo-Bangladesh border are also under active consideration of the government, he added. (Staff Reporter; The Northeast Daily, Guwahati; December 1, 1999)