The Tata Tea/ULFA Story

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Excerpts

Till the late 1980s, militants did not interfere with the functioning of the Assam tea industry, as it was the single largest employer in the state. Even during the bandhs declared in the state during 1979-85, tea gardens were exempted, like other essential services. The first victim of the Assam tea killings was D Choudhury, Assistant Manager, Ledo Tea Estate, who was hacked to death in February 1989. In August 1989, Amal Barua, a field clerk of Corramore estate of the Williamson Magor group was shot dead...

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The ULFA militants contacted Tata Tea for the first time in 1990. Unwilling to give cash to the militants, Tata Tea offered to invest in the 'upliftment of the Assamese people' instead. Over the next few years, the company set up 65 hospitals, 280 adult literacy centres, 173 childcare centres, a technical training institute and 110 schools...

Media reports claimed that Mahanta's decision to put an end to the Tata Tea case was because he had 'completed his revenge' by showing the tea industry the trouble he could put the companies through. Moreover, since the biggest segment of the Assam government's revenues came from taxes imposed on the tea industry, the former could not afford to be always at loggerheads with the latter...