Just a decade ago, there was near-unanimous agreement among the people of Assam that the cadre of the United Liberation Front of Assam/ Ahom (ULFA) should lay down arms and join the 'mainstream', a euphemism used by the Government and pro-establishment intellectuals to mean surrender. And so, many of the ULFA 'boys' did, to become known as the Sulfa, an abbreviation of "surrendered ULFA".
Today, there is an about turn in the public's attitude, and a cross-section of the Assamese population now says that, given a choice between the two, it would prefer the ULFA to its surrendered counterparts, the Sulfa. If an opinion poll were conducted now in the state, the diffuse grouping known as the Sulfa would probably come out on the top only in a measure of unpopularity. Indeed, it is an interesting phenomenon when nearly everyone continues to urge the ULFA cadres to surrender while abhorring the ULFA boys who have in fact surrendered. Understanding how this came to happen will provide a window on the state of the insurgency in Assam today, and the complicated nexus between the politician, political parties and the insurgents, which makes the problem so much more than a simple fight of good versus bad.
The Assamese middle class played the role of Frankenstein when it applauded from the gallery at an emerging ULFA, which rapidly grew in strength during the late 1980s in the adulatory atmosphere created by the middle-class led Assamese media. When the ULFA started to threaten seriously the integrity of the Indian union, the central Government swung into action by proscribing the organisation and carrying out a military crackdown. However, Paresh Barua, the crafty commander of the ULFA, managed to earn a respite from the military operation, code-named 'Operation Bajrang', by promising not to disrupt or interfere in the ensuing general elections to the State Assembly.
Immediately after the new state Government assumed office in May 1991, the ULFA struck back by resorting to numerous kidnappings in different various parts of the state. The victims included senior bureaucrats and foreign engineers. The Government, after initial attempts at buying peace by releasing some jailed ULFA cadres, retaliated by re-launching the suspended military operation. This time, the Indian Army's counterinsurgency action went all the way and a significant number of the ULFA's second-rung cadres were either killed or captured.