Big chance for North-East to change its fortune

Bijay Sankar Bora in Guwahati

When Biblab Kumar Deb was about to be sworn in Tripura chief minister over a week back, he did to Prime Minister Narendra Modi what the PM is famous (?) for: hug him tightly. That event went viral. There are reasons why the BJP can’t hide its glee over its recent gains in the North-East comprising seven contiguous states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura as well as new entrant Sikkim. 

These states together have a population of over 5 crore people. The figures provided by the North East Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) are eye-opener: the combined Gross State Domestic Product of the eight states, barring Tripura, at the current prices of August 23, 2017, is Rs 3,43,679 crore with Assam having the lion’s share of Rs 2,26,276 crore. The figure for Tripura is not available with the NEDFi. 

And it is from the N-E that the Centre wants to look at East Asia for more trade and tourism opportunities. The Centre, through the Act East Policy, wants to transform this landlocked backward region. 

The party is in total command in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura where it is heading the governments. In Nagaland and Meghalaya, it is now a part of the ruling alliance. In Sikkim, the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) is a BJP ally at in the Centre. So, only Mizoram is a stand-alone island in the region ruled by the Congress.

Prospects & progress

The government is planning to build a trans-Asian trilateral highway to connect the region to the Asian neighbours. The highway will link Myanmar through the Moreh trade point on the Manipur border. Efforts are being made to improve facilities in the International airport in Guwahati as well as well as in Imphal and Agartala

So, the stage is set for the BJP to translate the much repeated promise of converting these ‘Asta Lakshmi’ states to India’s ‘new growth engine.’ The first step is: ‘transformation through transportation’ model in the landlocked, mostly hilly region. Second is these state governments are now better placed to resolve some common as well as inter-state issues that have been hanging fire for long.

Third, these states can set up effective and real-time coordination among the state police forces as well as other counter-insurgency agencies to tackle militancy through checking cross-border movements of militants within the region. Militants from Assam, including ULFA-I and NDFB-S, take shelter in forest areas of neighbouring Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya to dodge counter-insurgency operation in Assam. Hit-and-run operations and extortions in Assam are common. Similar is the case with militants’ groups in Manipur which take shelter in parts of Nagaland, hills of Assam and Mizoram besides jungles of Myanmar. 

Naga talks & Assam gains

Then there is the vexed Naga political problem. The Centre has already entered into a secret ‘framework of agreement’ with the NSCN-IM since August, 2015. The BJP government is now in a better position to resolve oppositions that may arise out of neighbouring states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh while solving the Naga problem.

Inter-state boundary disputes between Assam-Nagaland, Assam-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya have been a nagging problem for both the people and successive governments in these states. Now, with BJP being in power in all these four states, the BJP-led government in Assam will find the situation conducive to resolve the disputes especially with Nagaland as people-to-people conflicts along the disputed Assam-Nagaland border often turns violent.

The pending disputes and ‘politically instigated’ people’s opposition to expansion of railway network to Meghalaya may get resolved. The efforts to expand railway network in tiny Tripura will also get a boost. The international internet gateway (IIG) is set to become a reality for bordering state of Tripura that will benefit Assam the most. All surface communication projects for the region will benefit Assam as it is advantageously placed in the region having borders with all the states.

The changed political situation thus raises hopes for the resolution of vexed opposition to some development projects, especially hydro-power projects and hydro-carbon exploration ventures involving multi-states in the region.