Is India confident to connect its North-East with the neighbouring countries like China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. This is one of the questions that came up during a workshop on "Increasing Connectivity of the North East with Peripheral Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and China" at the Kolkata chapter of Observer Research Foundation.
Is India confident to connect its North-East with the neighbouring countries like China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. This is one of the questions that came up during a workshop on "Increasing Connectivity of the North East with Peripheral Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and China", organised at the Kolkata Chapter of Observer Research Foundation on October 3.
This question was raised by Mr. Subir Bhaumik, a former BBC Correspondent who covered North-East India and Bangladesh, questioning the centrality of connecting India’s North-East under the ’Look East Policy.’ He said unless India is going to open itself to China, centering India’s ’Look East’ on North-Eastern India is futile.
Mr. Bhaumik also said that resolving political problems in North-East must be a priority if connectivity has to be achieved. For recommending policy alternatives, taking stock of domestic situations of countries like China, Bangladesh and Myanmar also needs to be considered. He also cautioned that the North-East must not be treated as a monolith. Instead, regional and local differentials must be considered for suggesting policy alternatives. He rued the fact that New Delhi has not looked at the North-East in a holistic manner and called for the need to prepare policy alternatives for addressing this.
Former special secretary to the government of India, Mr Krishan Verma, said the whole notion of connectivity of North East with neighbouring countries should be looked at from a regional and bilateral context or from a multi-disciplinary perspective, if required. He said we should follow a specific, tangible route rather than a purely theoretical one which is of archival value only. The outcome should be of use to the government and worthy of implementation, he said.
Mr. Mrinal Talukdar, a journalist who takes interest in issues surrounding hard connectivity, tossed the idea that different road routes can connect the border shared by India and China in the North-East. He was confident that it takes not more than 11 hours to reach China from Guwahati. However, he had objections in using the Stilwell road as it will lead to huge deforestation. He raised the question whether alternate road routes can be brought to the attention of policy-makers? The challenge is to sell these ideas as feasible options to policy-makers, he said.
Ms. Hasina Kharbhih, who has been working on the challenges of human trafficking and founder of the Shillong-based NGO, Impulse, spoke about the need for taking into consideration the various aspects that are associated with these challenges. She emphasised that economic issues play a major role in human trafficking and this subsequently has an impact on connectivity and the larger issue of rights of the people in the north-eastern region.
Dr. Biswajit Mohapatra, of the Political Science Dept. NEHU at Shillong, said that while the Look East Policy had begun promisingly, it has largely failed to follow through. It was at that juncture that the task of exploring the policy needs to be undertaken by various academics, scholars and research organizations. This was being done to bring in the factor of China to give a clearer objective to the Look East Policy. In this regard, he said it was imperative for any policy to have clear deliverables. He also stressed the need to treat economic security as part of larger security concerns.
Col. P.S. Grewal (Retd) said that issues related to the northeast and India’s connectivity revolved around two key aspects - hard infrastructure and capacity building. Dr. Kakoli Sengupta, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, said that isolation often breeds enemies and in situations where isolation is what government policies preach, it is difficult to understand who the enemies are. Therefore, connectivity is important. North-East India is a case in the point where not just physical connectivity with India’s mainstream is important but also cultural connectivity, he said.
Dr. Sengupta also said that experience suggests that often residents of North-Eastern India do not consider themselves as ’Indians.’ Hence, Sengupta emphasised the centrality for dialogue which has the potential to bridge the gap among minds.
Presentations by the experts were followed by a brainstorming session which sought to incorporate the various facets confronting the topic of the workshop and the issues and challenges that need to be addressed. The discussions resulted in a structured framework which laid out the scope of the project that is to be addressed in the coming months.
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