Editor,
These days we have seen the attempt of BJP to rally regional parties together under the banner of NEDA (North east Democratic Alliance). Even our own UDP has fallen prey to this attractive ideology. In my opinion a regional party would be ideal for North-east India as a whole region but not an alliance led by a national party. That would be the most unholy, impractical political concoction. What is special about NEDA if the BJP is still inside playing a manipulative role? Such an alliance would soon die a natural death. NEDA in fact is an intelligent and shrewd strategy of the BJP to get its strong foothold in North-east India. The great success that they had in Assam in the last election (which many say was the result of money-power) has emboldened it to stretch its tentacles to other States as well. The BJP is copying the strategy of the RSS who are infiltrating into tribal communities using their indigenous religions. So the BJP is using the indigenous parties to get into tribal States. It is a foregone conclusion that all the constituent regional parties in NEDA would have to follow the dictate of the BJP and toe its political agenda. What would happen to our regional parties is that they would degenerate into weak and fragile parties almost like toothless and clawless tigers. Joining NEDA in fact would spell the doom of regional parties. NEDA in my opinion would turn out to be a North-East Disastrous Alliance. A North-east Regional Party should be constituted on its own strength and political ideology and not mentored or patronized by a national party. This would be no different from political colonization. Years ago we had one authentic regional party, the APHLC which was a formidable conglomerate of tribal regional parties. The fact that APHLC could bargain with the Central Government for the creation of autonomous states, was proof enough of its strength and influence not merely at the regional but at the national level as well. It is unfortunate that our regional party leaders are falling victims to the carrot stick strategy of the BJP. Our leaders should weigh the pros and cons of such an alliance before committing themselves to it. One thing is clear that the BJP is dying to make a decisive entry into the tribal states of North-east India and it is using every possible tactic to achieve this goal. Our regional party leaders should not be blind to this scheming and make a foolish blunder of being a springboard of their leap to success. If they commit such a political blunder the people of this region will never forgive them. Let our regional leaders (whom I believe are intelligent, experienced and wise) emphasize on the common tribal identity and heritage that we have and come together to constitute one strong, formidable and influential party, one that can voice the concerns of our people even at the national forum. Imagine if 20 to 26 MPs from a Regional Party of North-East India are in the Lok Sabha, what a bargaining power they would have? Yours etc.,
Barnes Mawrie SDB,
Via email
Wastage of agricultural products
Editor, India is a major agricultural producer in the globe, yet it is one of the most prominent nations along with Russia, China, Pakistan and other countries in wastage of precious food and agricultural produce. Recently, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that China and India, two giant economies from Asia together contribute wasting around 1.3 billion tonnes of food per annum. India ranks 7th in the total wastage of agri-produce, poultry, milk and milk products. Russia adorns the top of the list of wasteful nations of the world. The factors responsible for the rampart wastage of agricultural products in India is poor storage and transportation facilities, lack of infrastructure and modern harvest and storage facilities, old and outdated agri-technologies that are wasteful and counterproductive, lack of major foreign investments and technology innovations in the agriculture sector, lack of awareness and education among the various farming communities about modern agricultural harvest and storage techniques, poor distribution facilities as well as lack of initiatives of both State and Central Governments in modernizing agricultural industry. A section of middlemen, dishonest businessmen and politicians carefully allow wastage of agricultural produce within the country in a systematic manner to keep the price of agricultural products high in the local markets to keep their profit output high. Indirectly, they often force the Governments to import the deficient agricultural produce to meet the internal market demands at the loss or precious foreign reserves for the nation. During this period of lower agriproductions and high price challenges within the nation, it is important for the State and Central Governments for serious introspection to significantly reduce wastage of agricultural productions within the nation. It is a great shame that the nation which regularly launches satellites into the space and releases new versions of cutting end missiles could not develop a proper chain of cold storages for storing agricultural produce and develop proper infrastructure and distribution channels for agri-products. The poor maintenance of government storage centers like warehouses, godowns, sheds and the thriving corruption channels operating inside them with full or partial support of local administration is another important are of failure of Indian agriculture. Unless serious and concrete approaches are taken in a stepwise and highly focused objective for the next 5-6 years, India will significantly impact local, regional and international food security. The worst sufferers will be the poorest section of the Indian population. Better connectivity with the SAARC and ASEAN nations should help the local farmers to sell their surplus products fast at a reasonable profit. For this purpose, SAARC and ASEAN nations need to come closer in developing some Joint Agricultural Program (JAP).
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu
Lethbridge AB
Canada