The North East region comprising eight states viz, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura have 25 seats in the Lok Sabha. The polling for 11 seats spread over some of these states is just over. Unlike at the national level, both the electoral competition and the political parties contesting the elections are fairly straight forward. This is despite the presence of many fringe parties. However unlike the national scene the issues are complex and highly localised. In Mizoram it is more or less a straight fight between Congress and Mizo National Front; Assam it is between Asom Gana Parishad-BJP combine and Congress; in Sikkim the contest is essentially between the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front and Congress and in Tripura it is between the ruling Left Front and Congress. Interestingly, in Meghalaya the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) headed by PA Sangma is fairly well placed. In the adjoining Darjeeling district in West Bengal the candidature of a BJP heavyweight Jaswant Singh in alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has again catapulted the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to a new height. The Left parties remain embarrassed and perturbed by the vocal exposures made by Jaswant Singh on how Left front Government has consistently and consciously converted the world famous ?Queen of Hills? into a literal hail. Arunachal Pradesh has come up with its own model of alliance called Arunachal Democratic Alliance with a literal cocktail of NCP, Peoples? Party of Arunachal, Arunachal Congress, Janata Dal (United), Lok Bharati and Lok Janashakti Party.
The essentially local electoral issues have in fact overwhelmed and overshadowed the political parties and the candidates. The issues of illegal immigrants in Assam, income tax exemption and seats reservations for two newly recognised scheduled tribes (Tamangs and Limboos) in Sikkim and withdrawal of widely condemned Armed Forces Act in Manipur have once again come up in a big way. Interestingly, corruption which is a core issue in the entire development dynamics in this region, has not noticeably figured .
Five very interesting trends have emerged in the region. Firstly, the hot national issues like reforms, fostering communalism, economic recession- meltdown, India-US Nuclear seem to have no place in this region of contrasting topography and varied demography. Even a serious national security issue like terrorism ? despite being its frequent victim and being highly vulnerable ? has been pushed to the back burner. They remain over- shadowed by the very local issues. In a state like Sikkim where the impact of global warming has been widely visible on its magnificent glaciers and river course like Teesta, this issue does not even figure in some of the manifestoes.
Secondly, the region has somehow lost its commonality based collective approach at the national level. The term North East region is no longer a wholesome cultural and geographical entity. It is just a political jargon. This also means the region remains fragmented today despite a very uniquely shared geographical spread and politico-historical evolution. Even the regional planning body like North Eastern Council, despite its revamping in 2004, remain totally bereft of programmes that cut across the entire North Eastern region. The concern is about how to add few seats in the kitty of national party, whereas the debate should have been on how to make the North East region a critical bastion and launching pad of India?s Look East policy.
The region as a whole has almost 98% of its border with the neighbouring countries yet no political party seriously addresses the issue of broadening the parameters of cross border interactions. The issue is insurgency that actually constitute a negligible fragment of this region?s society whereas the approach should have been to make the overwhelming majority as stakeholders of the national security and development dynamics. For long the borders have remained exclusive symbols of national security frequently breached by insurgents and terrorists. No political party has seriously taken up the issue of opportunities that really lie dormant on the borderland including cross border trade, tourism, natural resources sharing, institutional net working and also cultural intercourses.
Thirdly, the very fact that there are only 25 representatives in the huge and complex parliament of India, makes the voice of regional aspirations faint and feeble. These 25 representatives have never collectively made any difference though they have tried to come into a joint forum in the past. Whenever there is a political crisis in the centre, these representatives are individually poached and brought into fold making them mere individuals rather than the representatives of the North East region.
Fourthly, many positive things have happened but many of them could not sustain. For instance, a number of far reaching institutions including on power, education and health sector were established but most of them are fledgling today. After the LC Jain and SP Shukla Commission Reports, a vision document exclusively for the North East region was released last year by the Prime Minster himself but it also tended to remain in paper only. The Centre pumped in money without thinking about the needs and priorities, institutions and development managers. Despite this the pathetic state of development particularly poor connectivity remains a symbol of national apathy and neglect. Since development institutions were never set up in a planned manner, the related issues always remained in the arena of ad hocism, departmentalism and marginalisation. There has been no cohesive and scientific attempt to build institutions which could provide continuance, consistency, effectiveness and sustainability to development actions.
Finally, the national political parties are not doing any good to the region on very sensitive regional issues also. For instance, in states like Assam, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh and nearby Darjeeling district also the sensitive issue of illegal immigration has been vociferously raised. However, in the absence of firm and sound national policies, the national parties have maintained diametrically opposite views on this issue. If it is illegal immigrants for BJP, it is economic migrants for Congress and if it is environmental refugees in Tripura it is the most assured and sustainable vote bank in West Bengal.
Against this very backdrop, the elected representatives will have a major challenge both in terms of raising their respective electoral issues in the Parliament and also convincing the Union Government in changing the entire fulcrum and paraphernalia of development strategy in the region. So far, development issues have been handled in such a way so as to give an instinctive impression that development is a prerogative of only the government and the state machinery. It has made people far too dependent on the government. It damaged their creativity, innovativeness and undermined the very ethos of otherwise traditionally voluntary societies. Community-based development ethos which was a pillar of the North East has been seriously eroded by government actions.
In the daily life of a north-eastern person today, the government?s contribution is 90% and his/her own contribution is 10%. In addition, it never really got the benefits of a modern system of governance backed by good technology, professional management and modern technical inputs. Private entrepreneurs and political parties also started devouring public funds for private gain. This has built a visible but unchallenged nexus between politicians, rent seeking bureaucrats and private groups or individuals.
Important issues related to tourism, energy, bio-diversity, market and human resources as well as the region?s importance as a gateway to East and South East Asia need to be effectively debated and considered. The present discourse, including making the North East a hub of the proposed South Asia Growth Quadrangle, has also been driven more by external agencies than the people of the North East. This is where the national parties could have made a major difference to the region in this election also instead of just reeling out usual electoral doles.
The writer is Member, National Security Advisory Board