Tata Tapes Controversy - History

History

In the 1990s, the banned terror outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was extremely active in Assam, and had been extorting money from tea companies to fund its activities. That most companies were paying up in fear was a well known fact. But Tata Tea never did, and this was confirmed by ULFA Commander-in-Chief Paresh Baruah in an interview published by Rediff.com, though according to Baruah, they did pay a ransom of INR ten million in 1993 to secure the release of their regional manager Bolin Bordoloi from the clutches of another banned terror outfit - National Democratic Front of Bodoland, something Tata Tea executive director S M Kidwai denied.

During 1997, the ULFA and Bodo militants were involved in many terror attacks and other militant activities, the biggest ones being the failed assassination attempt by ULFA on Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, head of the government of Assam formed by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) party, and the murder of social activist Sanjay Ghose by ULFA. And this last incident received wide publicity and focused attention on the deteriorating law and order condition in Assam, threatening the very survival of the Mahanta government; his previous government had been dismissed in 1990 in similar circumstances.

Before the assembly elections that brought the AGP back to power, Mahanta had visited Calcutta to raise funds for his party, and the tea companies had not responded well to the demand; Tata Tea in particular had refused to pay.