The abduction and reported death of voluntary worker Sanjay Ghose in Assam has led to panic among NGOs even as private investors are having second thoughts about operating in the insurgency-riddled state.
Analysts here say the incident will definitely be a deterrent for non-governmental agencies engaged in development work and is also likely to impede outside investment in the underdeveloped state.
The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the separatist group abducted Ghose, claimed yesterday that the leader of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development (AVARD) died when he fell off a cliff in a bid to escape.
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Army intelligence had earlier claimed that Ghose had been killed by ULFA.
Ghose was kidnapped on July 4 from the worlds largest river island of Majuli in Jorhat district. He had for the last two years engaged the locals to try and save the island from being eroded by swirling waters. The ULFA had charged him with being an agent of the Research and analysis Wing (RAW) and also an Army informer.
This kind of incident, particularly the one involving Sanjay (Ghose) who was committed to saving Majuli from the brink of extinction, does not bode well for an underdeveloped state like Assam, Natwar Thakkar, a noted Gandhian worker and winner of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for social services, now engaged in development work in Nagaland, said.
People should have been happy that AVARD was trying to do something for them and I think this will dampen the morale of outside NGOs willing to come over to Assam, he added.
Following preconditions by the militants for Mr Ghoses release, the AVARD had wound up operations in Assam and moved out with the hope of getting its leader back alive.
Though local NGOs are not under direct threat from ULFA and other rebel outfits, they have expressed anguish at Mr Ghoses case. The ULFA have sent a very wrong signal to the world by kidnapping a man who came here to save our own people from being washed away by the flood waters, a Guwahati-based NGO leader, who did not wish to be identified, said. It is sad and deserves to be condemned.
Leading environmental journalist Usha Rai, who is an aunt of Mr Ghose and was here recently to lobby for his release, said: This incident is definitely going to send a very negative signal to people outside Assam and in the process will only hamper the services rendered by voluntary agencies for the states development. After this very few people might dare to start work in Assam.
Ghoses abduction apart, frequent attacks on the states beleaguered Rs 20 billion tea industry by militants has already scared away potential investors willing to pump in money for Assams industrialisation.
More than a dozen of our tea executives have been killed by rebels and over a score of them kidnapped for ransom, a senior tea industrialist, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of attack, said. Can any industry grow or is there any congenial climate for investment if such incidents go on. I think the scenario is very gloomy.
It is estimated that the tea industry in Assam has already paid two million rupees as ransom to extremists to secure the release of abducted executives in the last seven years.
Analysts have warned that if this trend continues, and if the militants do not shun violence, no investors will come to Assam.
Chances are that many prominent businessmen and industrialists who are now doing good here will leave the state and invest somewhere else, Mr G.L. Aggarwal, managing editor of local English daily The North East Times, he said.