NEW DELHI: Indian railways minister George Fernandes said he had definite information as member of the government that the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) had succeeded in forging links with in Kashmir and Punjab and Tamil nationalists.
“I am not saying this as an innocent bystander but as a member of the government as I know for sure that the ULFA is succeeding in becoming a lynchpin for nationalists all over the country” Fernandes said at a seminar on nationalists.
Fernandes said the growing militancy by youth in the country was a clear indication that politicians had failed to tackle the problems of the country.
He said the only answer was to have ‘a new constitution providing a genuine dencentralised state with development activity made the responsibility of people.
Fernandes said the growing militancy of the youth was a result of acute economic problems being faced by them.
He said as railway minister, he received reports of trains being looted every day. In fact there was not a day when trains were not being looted in one part of the country or the other, he said.
This phenomenon could not be related to political terrorism as most of these persons were doing it for a living. The issue of reservation of government jobs for backward classes and tribes was another issue which had surfaced primarily because of the failure of the country to solve its economic problems, the minister said.
Fernandes said if the country had adopted decentralisation instead of going in for centralisec planning, there would not have been a single village in the country with a drinking water problem. I is only because of such planning from Delhi that we have Pepsi and Colas today” he said.
The railway minister also hit out at the electronic media for what he termed their “utmost efforts” to destroy the culture and ethos of the country.
Fernandes also alleged that the bureaucracy and the military had failed in uniting the country because of their elitist approach. He said it was the people and not the elite that could keep the country together.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 7, 1990
