Welcome move in Tarai

It is no secret that Tarai is becoming dangerous by the day due to the deteriorating law and order situation that has led to mushrooming of armed outfits. Taking advantage of the volatile political situation in the country, hundreds of armed outfits that are involved in kidnappings, killings and other criminal activities have flourished. Businessmen, journalists, other professionals, school-children and commoners have to live in fear due to the criminal activities of these armed outfits. Although some of these armed outfits have genuine political agendas that need serious consideration of the state, many are just using the political cover to carry out their criminal activities and terrorize locals. In this context, an armed outfit has handed over its arms to the government and forayed into peaceful politics. On May 21, the All Tarai Mukti Morcha (ATMM) headed by Bibek Chaudhary handed over its arms to the government in the presence of Minister for Peace Rakam Chemjong as per the six-point agreement reached between the armed outfit and the government on May 7.



This is certainly a welcome development because it is the first time that an armed outfit operating in Tarai has surrendered with such a large cache of weapons to the government. We hope that this is genuine and the outfit, like some groups in the past, is not using this as an opportunity to get its detained cadres released. This act should be commended and the government should, on its part, sincerely work toward fulfilling the promises made to the outfit. Similarly, other such outfits claiming to fight for the rights of the Tarai people, too, should give up on the violent tactics to foster their agendas and jump on the peace bandwagon. In the meantime, it is the duty of the state to bring the armed outfits to the negotiating table and address their legitimate and valid concerns. Both sides need to realize that violence only breeds more violence and the only way to guarantee people’s democratic rights is through talks. There are no problems or issues that cannot be resolved through sincere talks. Thus, we believe that ATMM’s denouncing violence is a positive step forward and that it would encourage other armed outfits to rethink their means, and opt for peaceful politics instead.



The people of Tarai have already suffered a lot from the criminal and violent activities of the armed outfits and the government’s total negligence to the deteriorating law and order situation there. Now it is the responsibility of all to make sure that the people living there can go about their daily lives in peace, and without any fear. Those who are carrying out criminal activities should be brought to the book, and those fighting for the rights should be brought to the negotiating table.

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