Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014
By ARCHISMAN DINDA Correspondent
KOLKATA In the last decade of the Congress party rule, the much talked about ‘look east policy’ of trying to bring about a transformation to India’s Northeastern states has failed to achieve any real milestones of growth and development.
The region so naively conjugated by the Indian bureaucracy as Northeast starts from Sikkim and on to the interiors of Arunachal Pradesh is actually home to 230 ethnic tribes — who differ to each other like day and night — has deprived them of a central Indian identity.
The failure to understand this rich cultural diversity of the region and fathom the urge and need of the people to establish an identity within mainstream India is the key to the failure of any policy that Delhi had devised in the last 66 years of independence. The failure of the Indian polity to understand this urge, which is not only social but also political, has resulted in an emotional and at times violent expression to establish a self-identity.
“The geographical, social and cultural distance between Delhi and the people of Northeast are the primary reasons for the backwardness of the regions,” says Prof. Sanjoy Hazarika, Director, Centre for North East Studies of Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia University.
“Adding to this is the trust deficit that has evolved over the years leading to a feeling of animosity among the people of Northeast,” added Hazarika.
Development of Northeast has over the years remained more of a lip service by the polity, which has only deepened this chasm of mistrust that xists today, believes Binalakshmi Neparam, founder of the Manipur Gun Survivors Network and Secretary General of Control Arms Foundation of India.
“There are 45 million people in the Northeast and we are an integral part of this country. Then why are we still misunderstood and misrepresented? Why not a single chapter of the history of Northeast is included in our history books? Even contemporary politics and cultural movements do not find a mention even at the university level,” questioned Neparam. “The people of India only hear reports on the insurgency, people’s protests, being arrested or explaining how they deal with recurrent embargoes by the Indian army.”
At the heart of the troubles is a debate over “infiltration” by outsiders, which has led to ethnic tension between the state’s indigenous population and Bengali migrants from Bangladesh. Changing demography, loss of land and livelihood and intensified competition for political power has added a deadly potency to the issue of who has a right over the land.
During the last year’s ethnic clashes, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi described the region as a volcano that erupts occasionally. Activist and opposition parties believe that it is due to political malpractices that lead to such eruptions.
“The Congress (party) has been practicing vote bank politics which is why it has allowed this infiltration for political gains. Development of Northeast is basically a story of scams which has benefited the least of the people,” said Surinder Singh Ahluwalia, senior leader of the BJP in-charge northeast.
The latest clashes have affected four districts of western Assam, where the migrants — or their descendants from Bangladesh — are pitted against tribals such as the Bodos, Rabhas and Garos, said Naba Thakuria, a journalist. “Delhi has reportedly promised a replay of the 1985 Assam accord — disenfranchisement of the migrants who came between 1966 and 1971 for a period of 10 years, but nothing more.”
Developing Northeast of India could have started with the tourism industry, which has been promised eternally but not delivered. This could involve building cultural centers and museums to showcase and celebrate the cultures of the region’s many ethnic communities. This can attract tourists and, at the same time, respond to the urge for recognition that animates the region’s many movements for ethnic assertion.
Dong in Arunachal Pradesh is advertised in tourist brochures as the place where one can see India’s first sunrise. But the Indian armed forces do not let ordinary civilians to go there and enjoy it. Tourism in the region is mired around obstacles like the Restrictive Area Permits and the Inner Line Permits.
The security prism through which bureaucrats views the region remains a major hurdle. It is naive to think, for instance, that ethnic festivals held under the watchful eyes of gun toting soldiers’ is a huge success. A visible army presence due to counter-insurgency operations is not exactly tourist friendly. Security driven restrictions will continue as long as insurgency remains and India’s relations with some of its neighbours remain adversarial.
India’s ruling Congress party vice president Rahul Gandhi wants to solve insurgency problems through discussions, devolution of power and love, when asked about the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that was responsible for social disharmonies affecting women and students.
“We have to ensure that our heart to the northeast region before espousing any developmental mirage,” says Digvijay Singh, general secretary of the Congress party, responding to the development promises of BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, made during his campaign speeches in the region.
“Why weren’t they using love and discussion during the last 10 years, when the prime minister himself represents the region,” questioned Nirmala Sitharaman, spokesperson of the BJP. “They have inaugurated projects, but never started them. Diluted the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region started by the previous BJP government. Relations with Myanmar worsened giving rise to new problems that never existed,”
sitharaman said.
There is no line solution to a problem so complex, but a sustained effort to built trust through various measures of governance can bring peace to the convoluted psyche of the people that has so far failed to trust its own country.
By Archisman Dinda By Archisman Dinda Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
