The new Minister for the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), GK Reddy appears to be serious about the development backlogs in the North Eastern States and has stated upfront that speeding up the socio-economic development of the region will be his key focus. Reddy’s focus is also to complete ongoing projects on time to avoid time and cost overruns. DoNER should now also focus on making Prime Minister Modi’s Act East Policy a reality. This has been out of the radar of the NDA Government for a while now and is driven essentially by the Ministry for External Affairs (MEA) which in recent times seems to be more focused on events in Afghanistan post the departure of the US troops from there and the resurrection of the Taliban’s atrocities. The NDA Government’s stance vis-a-vis the turn of events in Myanmar where democracy has yet again been replaced by military dictatorship is problematic. In fact, India’s stand on this critical question of whether it supports democracy in Myanmar has been muted. Reasons given are that Myanmar’s junta had assisted India in flushing the North East militant outfits taking refuge in that country.
If Myanmar continues to remain in a state of flux we might as well say goodbye to the Act East Policy. Myanmar is the overland bridge between the North Eastern states and SouthEast Asia. The India- Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway that links to the Asian Highway in the North Eastern states is still under construction. This highway will connect Moreh the land customs station in Manipur, with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar. The Stilwell road in Assam too is linked to Myanmar, These are important trade routes which need to be given a fillip under the Act East Policy. DoNER could be that critical link to make sure that the Act East Policy becomes operational and the tag of “landlocked” for defining the North East is erased from the vocabulary of the people here.
Since the takeover of the new Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Sarma, talks of resolving the border disputes between Assam and the states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have been revived.Sarma has spoken about a give and take policy and recently he made a statement that the CRPF would be placed at the respective troubled borders to contain violence. But without a moderator in this conflict resolution process, things might not move in the right direction. DoNER, which is the agency overseeing all development aspects of the eight states, is best placed to be the interlocutor.
