North-East, along with the scenic beauty of the Eastern Himalayas and the Hill Ranges that run almost parallel to Himalayan range, are spectacular centres of rich variety of Flora and Fauna. A land, traditionally inhabited by the Local Tribes, saw tensions mount as nations drew boundaries segregating men from men. The tensions manifested itself in the form of struggle for autonomy and insurgency which began right since later part of 1950s and continues to cripple the region of development and any prospects of development whatsoever. The Reply of the Govt. was deployment of Armed personnel along with AFSPA which further intensified the problem.
The ‘mainland’ India sees North-East as a one-single unit which in itself creates a distinctively wrong picture of the North-East. For the ‘mainland’ everybody from North-East is an Assamese and the whole region suffers from Insurgency. The media on the other hand never fails to use the word like ‘racism’, ‘alienation’ etc. whenever a violent attack on a resident of a north-Eastern State takes place in the ‘mainland’.
Assam suffers from the problem of Bangladeshi infiltration against which agitations have been rising right since 1978 which first manifested in the form of a boycott m movement started by Assam Students’ Union. It is alleged that Bangladeshi immigrants are denying the local Assamese of their share of job opportunities by encroaching upon the limited jobs. Another Bodo section of Upper Assam demands a separate state to be carved out of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal. Mizoram and Nagaland has suddenly seen a rise in violence against Civilians by the Insurgency groups like NSCM and MNF. The Kukis have joined the party in Manipur where the Traditional fight between Kukis and Nagas continues and at times takes a violent shape. Tripura grapples again with the infiltration problem but here the ‘infiltrators’ are the Indians from Bengal. Arunachal is a conflict zone between India and China for China contends it to be part of China on ‘Historical grounds’ while history suggests almost whole of China should be part of Mongolia.
The Centre has cleverly carved out a Ministry – Ministry of North-Eastern Affairs which deals ‘collectively’ with the North-Eastern matter while each of the states as mentioned above suffer from a different set of Problems. Recent Scams unearthed by IB shows how NREGA funds were being directed to Insurgent Groups who have been using it to procure weapons against the Union.
A further issue is that not much of North-East is covered by the popular media so that mass of the ‘mainland’ could opine on the matter. The attack and rape of Tribal women by Naga Insurgents was lost in the aura of general election results. Further, the media often work either under the threat if insurgents compromising their independence or are forced to write what government wants since government advertisements are the only revenue source for Local media. This makes the ‘Mainland’ Indians to opine basis what they think and not what they know.
The underdevelopment shield has often been used by the Insurgent and the Government cleverly. While the Blame Game continues the truth is that this underdevelopment has given rise to new forms of trade – Drug and Human Trafficking. North-East forms part of the ‘Golden Triangle’ from where the Drugs and Opium produced in Wa State of Burma reaches the Rest of the country and West Asia. The problem is so critical that North-Eastern states have one of the highest HIV infected Indians with Assam leading the race. Chinese policies further add to the Drug problem as they, in a bid to weaken India, supply Drug and weapons to the insurgent groups.
The need of the hour is connectivity. The recently held North-East Business Conclave does provide an opportunity for the Businesses expressing their willingness to set up firms in NER. The Transit route through Bangladesh may solve the issue but Haseena Govt. would not concede anything before the Teesta Agreement and Land Boundary Agreement are signed and ratified. In such a situation, insurgency operations by Bodos in and around the Chicken’s neck of Sikkim make things difficult.
The solution to the NER problem is looking at the problems separately and not collectively. A political consensus for Tessta and LBA will only help the Union in the long run as we would remove Bangladesh from the List of annoyed neighbors. In the meantime, BCIM corridor presents an opportunity for the NER.
Govt. shall have to make efforts to contain the Drug and Human Trafficking problem though. The same might need a cleverly spelt diplomacy wherein support of the neighbors shall be a key factor. This would call for a ‘give and take’ diplomacy pretty much missing in Indian Polity recently.
Chirag Goel's Blog 