The Tata Tea/ULFA Story

THE ASSAM TEA INDUSTRY TERROR STORY

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^[5] 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. In March 1990, a Tata Tea employee, P C Scaria was gunned down. The April 1990 killing of Assam Frontier Company Chairman and NRI tycoon Swaraj Paul's brother, Surrinder Paul (Paul), sent panic signals, as it now became apparent that appropriate measures had to be taken for the safety of life and property in the gardens. In October 1990, Bodo gunmen opened fire at a New Year's party at a planter's club, killing a manager and wounding ten others.

Alarmed by the killings and the industry's plight, the Assam government set up the Assam Tea Plantation Security Force (ATPSF) to protect the tea estates. The costs of hiring, training, and equipping the forces were borne by the tea industry. The tea estates were charged Rs 6 lakh per annum to hire one unit of the ATPSF. However, because of the high expenses, only 95 of the roughly 800 tea gardens in the state chose to maintain their own security forces. Also, the ATPPF just could not match the firepower of the militants.
Initially, the tea garden managers made direct cash payments to the militants. This was soon substituted by a system of paying via the tea garden contractors who could pay in cash and raise dummy bills on the companies. Exortion rates varied according to the size and number of gardens. Individual tea estate owners paid approximately Rs 5 per kg of tea, while larger gardens paid Rs 1-2 per kg. There was an atmoshpere of terror in the tea gardens, as is evident from the statement of the wife of a tea planter who said, “You begin to get really afraid if your husband doesn't return home by 5.30 in the evening.”

Though the companies officially denied it, it was common knowledge that they were paying the militants. Meanwhile, the murders resumed in 1994. By the end of 2000, over 15 tea management personnel were killed. All along, Tata Tea was reportedly the only company, which refused to pay the militants despite its own employees having been killed and kidnapped. ULFA's commander-in-chief Paresh Barua (Barua) also confirmed that Tata Tea had never paid money to the outfit.

The reasons as to why Tata Tea had been able to avoid making payments to the militants were rooted deep in a complex maze of events involving the Assam state government, the central government, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Assam police and Tata Tea itself.

^[5] A bandh is a forced closure of public and private businesses, resulting in a curfew-like situation.

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