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region

region

Sixty Years of the Northeast

Countering crisis

As the world enters into a state of constant rapid change that touches every conceivable sphere of life, the land-locked region expresses willingness to undo the mistakes of the past and accept these changes. TNT attempts an insight into this changing trend. Development is a comprehensive economic, social, political, and cultural process that aims at the improvement of the quality of life of all people and the full enjoyment of all fundamental freedoms and human rights without distinction as to race, gender, religion, status, or political belief. It is though a genuine development that the full potentials of the human person and the whole human race can be fully realized. This is how the United Nations goes about its Declaration of the Decade of Development. This has remained mostly ineffective for India, which has been struggling for six decades to bring the country onto the right track of development. The 34

June 08

Northeast has been suffering the most from not only under-development, but also social unrest spanning out over six decades. The Governor of Goa, Mr S.C. Jamir, pointed out that the region, once a haven of beauty and charming people with rich social and cultural heritage, has, over the years, degenerated into one of disorder, economic stagnancy and social disarray. “Caught up in an insular world, our leaders resist constructive change, which would lead to overall development for the benefit of the beleaguered people, irrespective of tribe, clan or region, so as to save them from floundering in the depths of despair, distress and degradation,” he said, railing that geographical isolation and economic backwardness and lack of infrastructure were hampering the desired growth of the region. The comment of this former Chief Minister of Nagaland came during a

brain storming session at the Round Table Conference on Sixty Years of the Northeast in Shillong this month. The event organised by Divya Jeevan Foundation Society and Aurbindo Institute of Indian Culture brought many academicians under one roof for a comprehensive discussion on the Northeast’s progress report during the past 60 years. Mr. Jamir took this opportunity to float his idea of unifying the region both politically and culturally so that it would make the region stronger against the backdrop of the current political situation that “is one of disarray, discord, disunity and without direction.” “Without undermining the autonomy of the seven sisters, a system, whereby the states act as a unified body for the good of all the people of the northeast, should be formed. Without such unity, our individual voices will be like dust in the wind. Furthermore, all development work undertaken in the region should cut across state boundaries depending solely on the economic and geo-physical viability,” he proposed. But this proposal for political unity spread an air of confusion among the speakers and someone intervened questioning the validity of such political unity within the framework of the Indian constitution. However, it is remotely possible for a person like Mr. Jamir, who himself is a constitutional head, to propose something outside the Indian constitution. The discussion further went into economic issues, the Look East Policy and the issues relating to transition including security and immigration, social tensions and federalism. Maj. Gen. Vinod Saighal believed that the region

would benefit most if it was allowed to be used as the bridge between the rest of India and the South Asian countries. For him, the viability of road, rail and air connectivity with the neighboring countries are of utmost importance. The session entered into a heated discussion when one of the speakers pointed out that the time has arrived for the Northesat to go into serious introspection and find out what actually went wrong during these many years for which the region has not progressed. The speaker sounded a little brash as he questioned – “What has the Northeast done for itself?” He said the main problem with the Northeast has been in its approach towards the Centre, which it believed has a step-motherly attitude towards it. But this did not go down well with many and they got embroiled in a hot debate till the chairperson intervened.

Mr. Sanjay Hazarika, a renowned journalist from the Northeast, drew the attention of the audience to the fact that when the region was bleeding profusely for various reasons, it would be wrong to blame it for under-development and illegal migration. In his paper, Mr. Hazarika blames various factors in connection with migration problems and castigates politicians for encouraging illegal migration. For him, migration takes place because of push and pull factors and largely it is because of economic reasons that people from neighbouring countries migrate in large numbers to India’s Northeast. “The demographic structure of the region is fast changing because of such migration,” he said, sending a message to politicians who harbour such migrants. Nevertheless, Mr. Hazarika believes in good relations with neighbours that could put an end to illegal migration.

He advocates introduction of work permits and citizen cards to tackle this menace and wants the respective governments to take steps to build up a data bank covering the illegal migrants in this country. The striking feature of this event was the involvement of some Bangladeshi academicians and journalists who presented a fair picture of the state of affairs in that country. They said that it was not India alone, Bangladesh too was suffering from Islamic terrorism. “HUJI has been a cause of concern for us. They have close links with the ULFA, which had actually orchestrated an attack on Sheikh Hasina sometime back,” they said. They said Bangladesh wanted a better understanding with India and that it should take a pro-active role in stabilizing the South East Asia – a wake up call for the policy makers and diplomats in actual terms. June 08

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