Poonam I Kaushish
What does hamara Hindustan think of its North-East? You mean those people with mongoloid features and chinky eyes. Are they really Indians? They look like the Chinese. This answer says it all. Agonisingly, the recent killing of teenagers from the ‘seven sisters’ in Delhi and Bangalore brings to the fore the region’s remoteness, isolation, alienation and grave neglect by the Centre. Dictated by the dictum: Out of sight, out of mind!
Not if Prime Minister Modi means business, “I am committed to realising the region’s potential, harnessing its rich natural resources with the youth’s talent to make it a key player in development, as India will not develop till it develops,” he tweeted during his four-day maiden visit to the North-East.
Towards that end, in a slew of measures he dedicated the first Meghalaya-Assam train, commissioned a power project in Tripura and inaugurated a festival each in Nagaland and Manipur, alongside addressing the country’s top police chiefs.
So far so good. But the moot point: Does Modi really mean business? What has brought about the change? Rushing there might attract headlines and photo-ops, but has New Delhi finally woken up to grim geo-strategic realities given the region shares boundaries with China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal resulting in changing its tune?
Are happy days here again for the picturesque, neglected North-East? Or, should one dismiss this as another ploy to hoodwink by grandiose assurances alongside a lackadaisical attitude towards the region. True, Modi has hit the nail on the head that a grave problem exists be it alienation, deep prejudices, feeling of injustice, economic neglect, identity management, ethnic violence, local-immigrants tensions et al. Primarily because there are no employment avenues, thanks to astonishing lack of development and infrastructure facilities. Leading to a hyper active ‘Underground’ and insurgents playing up the ethnic divide.
In Assam illegal migrants have affected State politics in a major way, already, 9 of the State’s 27 districts have a Muslim majority population and hold the key for 60 of its 126 Assembly constituencies. Over 85% of the total encroached forest land is with the Bangladeshis. According to intelligence reports, “In the last 70 years Assam’s population increased from 3.29 million to 14.6 million – a 343.77 % increase” over a period when the population of India went up by only about 150%!
This, despite the fact that the general fertility rate for Assam, 126.5% was lower than the all-India rate of 137.3%. Further, the Muslim growth rate in areas bordering Bangladesh was more than 60% compared to the districts far away, where the growth rate varied between 30-50%. Clearly, this unnatural growth is a byword for illegal migrants.
In Nagaland, the Muslims population, mostly Bangladeshi illegal migrants has more than trebled in the past decade. Worse, the locals view this as “aggression” which has “created a fear psychosis, made life of the people insecure and caused insurgency in alarming proportions,” said a senior Home Ministry official.
Tripura is a tragic example of the obliteration of the local identity due to large scale migration of Bangladeshi Bengali refugees. The dreaded All Tripura Tribal Force and the Tripura National Volunteers are making their presence felt. In Mizoram the anti-outsider feelings vents itself in frequent volatile student’s stir. The Naga are demanding areas of Assam and Manipur be merged to form a Greater Nagalim.
Manipur’s Chanu Sharmila hunger strike since 2000 demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act to curb insurgency, underlines the deep resentment against security forces who are often accused of extortion, arrests, torture and killing in cold blood. Adding to its woes is its political insignificance, only two MPs in the Lok Sabha. In fact, MPs of the seven States add up to 27 in a House of 543 with their voices going unheard, drowned by the raucous demands of powerful groups with numerical strength.
It is no secret that China covets Arunachal due to its strategic location, huge hydroelectric power potential and mineral resources which can help Beijing meet its huge demand for energy. Already Beijing has built several townships across the State’s border and given the ethnic and cultural affinity, the bustling township beckons the poor Arunachalis to partake the Chinese Las Vegas. Moreover, Arunachalis applying for visas are told they don’t require one as there are Chinese citizens!
The Centre’s callousness towards the region is best reflected in the growing economic, ethnic problems of the people and security issues. Various insurgent groups force locals to pay extortion money repeatedly, leading to massive unemployment. Consequently, many go underground and get remunerative “jobs” in any of the nearly 40 insurgent groups operating in the States.
Compounding this many Ministers specially in Manipur and Nagaland are reportedly hand in glove with the militants. Outfits like Nationalist Council for Nagalim (K), PLA etc. More. The ex-Manipur Chief Minister Okaram Ibobi had allegedly paid Rs 1 crore extortion money to some militant outfits. Endorsed by a Nagaland Governor who told me that he too had been told to cough up Rs 1 crore extortion money!
Worse, various anti-India outfits, specially Pakistan’s ISI are increasingly using Bangladesh as its base to infiltrate terror into India in the garb of migrants across the 4,096-km-long porous India-Bangladesh border. This makes for easy crossing and has significantly altered the region’s demographic complexion, particularly in the border districts of Assam its six sisters and West Bengal. With no method of differentiating between a militant and immigrant, a time bomb is waiting to explode.
Not only that. There are over 200 ISI camps operating across the border. The ISI has sent many Bangladeshis to undergo training as saboteurs in Pakistan. According to RAW sources, the ISI has unleashed “Operation PINCODE” to bring the entire North East under Islamic rule. Said a senior defence official, “The situation is more serious here than Kashmir.”
Further, bases, sanctuaries and madrasas are mushrooming for trans-border support for secessionist and separatist insurgency movements. The ISI has heavily infiltrated these and made them addas of propagating hatred. Leading to proliferation of Islamic fundamentalism, ostensibly a precursor to the ISI’s gameplan for the area; i.e. subversion, drug peddling and gun-running.
What now? The time has come for the Centre and States to think out-of-the-box. Fencing the border is not the answer as the BDR immediately removes the barbed wire. Local people need to be recruited for policing along the 4,990 kms porus border. The fact is that if one cannot stop infiltrators at the border, then there is no way one can push them back.
All bonafide citizens must be issued multi-purpose identity cards to establish their Indian identity. If necessary, Bangladeshis could be issued work permits for two years. With a firm rider: no voting rights and no permanent settlement. North Block also needs to look at its immigration laws and plug the loopholes.
It is time the Centre saw the writing on the wall. Prolonged inaction has already proved too costly. The need of the hour is to understand the seriousness, deal assertively with the issues and set up time-bound measures once and for all. Development, employment and infrastructure hold the success key. No longer can New Delhi afford to neglect the North- East. The wages are too grave to fritter away. INFA
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