Sanjoy Ghose was a rare human being. One who did not measure personal success in terms of self-aggrandisement. One who preferred to transcend barriers of space, class and language and reach out to those who lived perpetually on the margins.

Above all, one whom this country, strapped by the venality of its politicians and the insensitivity of its system in the 50th year of its existence, needs desperately. Not many today would have ventured into the malaria-ridden heartlands of Rajasthan, or the isolated river islands on the Brahmaputra out of personal choice and conviction. Ghose did. Against great odds. When he organised a shramdaan in order to build a 1.7-km embankment at Majuli in which 20,000 people participated, he could not but have known that many corrupt contractors were deadly opposed to the move.

From all accounts, the country has now lost Ghose. He fell victim to his ideals and to the ruthlessness of an organisation that has battened itself over decades on sectarian hatred and corruption. The story of Ghose's abduction on July 4 from Majuli village in Jorhat, Assam, and his subsequent death is shrouded in cloud of misinformation and contradictory reports. News of his death surfaced on July 23 only to be contradicted by the ULFA.

Finally, on August 6 the ULFA revealed that Ghose had indeed died. For his family members, caught between hope and despair, the past month must have been a truly hellish experience. To date, they don't have any concrete evidence of his death.

Ghose's death is an indictment of an entire system of governance. It revealed, first of all, the ineffectiveness of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's Asom Gana Parishad Government. Despite its professed commitment to protect its citizens and fight the extremists in the state it had even led an anti-ULFA rally on June 30 its response to the Ghose abduction was weak-kneed and directionless.

In fact, government administrators must have been well acquainted with the local tensions at Majuli but did little to protect the vulnerable AVARD secretary. This when, according to its own figures, more than 70 people have already been abducted by the ULFA this year. There was also a clear lack of coordination between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh governments in tracing the abductors. Till the end, the chief secretary of Arunachal did not seem to know very much, although Ghose was evidently brought into his state. The Army's role had been necessarily circumscribed by the ULFA demand that if Ghose was to be released the Army had to withdraw from the area. But its role in revealing sensitive information to the media before informing the relevant ministries or Ghose's family has rightly been criticised. But the entity that most bears the blame for this tragic death is the ULFA. Whatever pretence it had of being an organisation fighting for a better deal for fellow Assamese has long disappeared. Today, it stands exposed as a bunch of extortionists and murderers, who gain their strength from spreading terror among ordinary people. They must be defeated. Given a choice, Assam's people would much prefer Ghose's way of improving their lives, to the ULFA's. The ploughshare is ultimately more powerful than the sword.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.