India's Look East Policy Integrating The North Eastern Region

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India's Look East Policy Integrating The North Eastern Region: By: R.S. Mooshahary

In 1992, our then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao launched the "Look East Policy" with the objective of establishing closer economic integration with the Southeast Asian states. It was a significant shift in India's policy prioritization because hitherto India did not have any concrete strategy to create an economic hub in its North Eastern Region by exploring the trade and commerce potential with its ASEAN neighbors.

Since then the government - especially the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region - DoNER - has made some fast track initiatives to reinvent NER economy, which depends heavily on the central funding. Clearly, the region is in economic limbo despite huge amounts allotted year after year for its development. The practice of grants and subsidies has generated not the economic growth but culture of corruption and parasitic mindset. People need opportunity to earn their living; not free lunches.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to India's northeast as the gateway to the 'Asian Century' while inaugurating the Asian car rally, which was a successful LEP event, at Guwahati in November 2004. This policy holds the potential to make NER the commercial corridor of India linking the ASEAN nations enabling its people to harvest economic well-being through trade, transit and tourism. NER then will no longer wilt in isolation and remoteness but prosper with business opportunities knocking at the door.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation among the BIMSTEC countries now comprising of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Bhutan and Nepal has identified 13 sectors for promoting trade and investment. These sectors are technology, energy, transportation, communication, tourism, fisheries, poverty alleviation, agriculture, cultural cooperation, counter-terrorism and transnational crimes, environment and disaster management, public health and people-to-people contact. With SAARC and BIMSTEC continuously formulating strategies for the advancement of the group nations, things will definitely happen in a faster pace.

For example redefining of Asian Highways - AH-1 AH-2 and AH-4 to provide India easier road connectivity with the neighboring countries, taking up Myanmar-India Kaladan multi model project including construction of road from Kalewa (Myanmar) to Saiha (Mizoram), restoring Stilwell road connecting Arunachal Pradesh with Myanmar, holding of Thailand and India ministerial level North East Business Summit in New Delhi April last year followed by Thailand ministerial visits to NER and showcasing North East India Trade & Investment Opportunity Week at Bangkok October last, setting up of Tourism Desk at the Embassy of Thailand and India Desk at Board of Investment, Thailand etc. are moves towards achieving the declared objectives. Just last week India and Bangladesh inked an agreement for opening up of air communication link and named Sylhet and Guwahati new ports of call for airlines.

India spends huge amount in transporting food items like pulses, poultry products, grains etc to NER for which the people have to pay more to meet the cost of transportation. Likewise, prices of all other items that come from our hinterland are higher in the region reducing the affordability of its people. Countries like Myanmar and Thailand - next door to NER - can provide many of the items at much cheaper price because of saving in the cost of carriage. Even a poor neighbor like Bangladesh can supplement our requirement of fish, which is a staple item. It always makes sense to trade goods with the neighbors.

India is considered as a bully among the SAARC states and it has done us no good. We can improve our relations considerably through trade and commerce because the countries that trade goods do not trade blows. We can turn to neighbors to meet our needs at much faster mode than it would take from far-off countries. We require to import cement to control its price spiraling and meet the growing demand of the booming construction business and Pakistan has it and we are getting it from them, Pakistan needs sugar and we have it and they are getting it from us. Bangladesh suffered extensively last summer on account of severe cyclone and India gave her 50000 tons of rice. That rice-eating country needed more and asked for half a million tons and we gave them. All this helps foster stronger fraternal ties with our neighbors.

For long, we have ignored Myanmar because of its nature of government. It shares 1600 km border with four of our insurgency-prone states - Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. It is too important a country for us to ignore on trade and security considerations. With the LEP in operation, India has emerged as the largest export market for Myanmar because it has the potential for meeting our ever-increasing need for items like pulses and beans. With it becoming a member of ASEAN, we should no longer harbor fear of Myanmar becoming a satellite of China. It is in fact fast becoming a 'land bridge' linking India with its economically dynamic ASEAN partners.

More importantly with Bangladesh unwilling to grant transit facilities for NE states, the construction of an inter-nodal road-water highway that will provide India access to hinterland and ports through Myanmar and Bay of Bengal is a desirable alternative. Bangladesh is also putting hurdles on India's request for laying a pipeline through its territory for transporting gas to India from an offshore project off the Rakhine Coast of Myanmar, in which both ONGC and GAIL have stakes. This proposal may however never be through because Myanmar has deep misgiving of Bangladesh soil being used to advance Muslim separatism in its Rakhine province. It will make better sense to establish a Tripura-Myanmar corridor to transport the much-needed natural gas bypassing Bangladesh.

The NER shares border with Nepal, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar and has less than 1 per cent land contiguity with the rest of India through a 22 km wide Siliguri corridor often referred to as India's 'Mongoloid fringe' or more commonly as the 'chicken's neck. ' It comprises about 8 per cent of the land area and 3 percent of the population of the country. It is one of the most complex spots in Asia with over 200 ethnic groups, languages and dialects and their own faiths and practices constantly creating conflicts of interests.

They are not only isolated from the rest of the country but also even among themselves physically as also psychologically and are clearly distinct from the 'Aryan-Dravidian mainstream' India. These 40 million citizens of India share more commonalities with their south Asian counterparts than with their fellow citizens physiologically and in physiognomy. Often their own compatriots ask them about their nationality making them wonder whether they are part of them.

The integration of these diverse groups is a big challenge. Communication and contacts are the best integrators of societies. And LEP may provide them that opportunity wherein they may find roots in their past while at the same time assimilating with their present weaving a tapestry of growth and affluence for the future.

(The writer is Chief Information Commissioner, Asom)