The Meghalaya Assembly passed a Resolution demanding that the Inner Line Permit (ILP) be implemented in the State, but getting the Central Government to ratify that Resolution is a tall order, as Meghalaya is a transit state opening into the Barak Valley of Assam and onwards to Mizoram etc. There are implications that need to be understood with pragmatism and not from the prism of fear alone. The demands of pressure and interest groups are not always rational. Take the resistance to the railways in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills. Has a cost-benefit analysis been carried out as to whether the railways will bring in more benefits or cause harm to the state simply because there is a fear that trains will also bring in more influx? Can fear be the underlying factor for not implementing a project that actually is the gateway to progress? Look at Meghalaya today. Its only outlet to the world is through Assam. The main airport connecting us to different cities is in Guwahati. Flights to Umroi airport are still unreliable. The nearest railway station is at Guwahati. If there is a bandh call in Assam, Meghalaya is cut off from the world. Even essential food items cannot be transported to Meghalaya if there is unrest in Assam. Just the few days of curfew in Assam owing to the CAA protest had resulted in shortage of food items, petrol and diesel here. If the violent protests had lasted longer, then not just Assam but Meghalaya would have suffered as a result. The interdependence of states is a crucial factor and the ILP is a barrier to that interdependence.
Recently, Health and I&PR Minister, AL Hek told a section of the media that the ILP is not something that can be plucked from a tree at will. There are several factors that need to be taken into account. Hek also stated that there are a whole range of stakeholders, mainly those surviving on tourism and its ancillary units and other institutions that need to be consulted before passing such a far-reaching Resolution. act, Hek should have in fact made this pragmatic statement in the Assembly on December 19 last, when MLAs seemed to have lost their sense of balance, including the Congress MLAs, who had kept the demand for the ILP in the backburner during their own tenure in the Government. What tends to be forgotten in the cacophony arising from the fear of the CAA is that Shillong has been the capital of undivided Assam and is therefore a city with a cosmopolitan profile that cannot be wished away. There is a substantial non-tribal population here with connections to different parts of the country. Why should they need a permit to visit their relatives here? Meghalaya can never be equated to other ILP states. But are there statesmen today that can tell the crowd that the ILP is detrimental to the growth of Meghalaya? Some argue that ILP is just another permission – a piece of paper and tourists that really want to come here should just as well apply for it. These forget that the ILP is a psychological barrier that deters people from visiting a state where the ILP is a necessity. It is a psychological barrier that will harm tourism in the long run. Meghalaya’s plight is that its politicians have a limited vision because they are elected not because of their ability as legislators but by paying money for votes. Their only objective is short term business and political gains; never the larger interests of the State. We indeed get the Government we deserve!
