The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : ANOTHER PROMISE TO KEEP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

ANOTHER PROMISE TO KEEP

FOLLOWING PRIME MINISTER Manmohan Singh's very worthwhile visit to Jammu and Kashmir, it was natural that expectations at his next port of call and the country's other trouble spot, the Northeast, were high. Dr. Singh did not disappoint. In Manipur, where outrage over the alleged rape and death in custody of a young woman, Thangjam Manorama, in July this year developed into a popular movement for the repeal of the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), the return of the Kangla Fort to the State Government is a gesture that goes beyond the merely symbolic. The fort has a special place in the history of Manipur. Its occupation by the Assam Rifles, the main paramilitary force deployed in the State and associated with several atrocities including the Manorama killing, was for the people of Manipur nothing less than deliberate humiliation. They had long agitated for its vacation by the Assam Rifles. With regard to the repeal of AFSPA, the Prime Minister had already promised leaders of the agitation (who met him in New Delhi earlier this month) that the Centre would review the Act and consider replacing it with an alternative, presumably more humane, law. This is no easy task and during his visit to the State, Dr. Singh was justified in asking that those spearheading the agitation must give the Centre adequate time to deliver on this promise — instead of imposing unrealistic deadlines.

But these were the relatively easy bits. The real challenge is to restore peace in the entire region. Through the three-day visit to Manipur and Assam, both insurgency-hit States, the Prime Minister's emphasis on peace signalled the Centre's readiness for negotiations to end the Northeast insurgencies. The National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the Government of Assam, with the Centre's backing, have set out on the path towards peace talks through a ceasefire. Dr. Singh's appeal to the youth of Assam to shun violence was evidently aimed at the United Liberation Front of Asom. ULFA, one of the most violent and intransigent separatist groups in the region, recently made overtures for talks with the Centre through the noted Assamese writer and Jnanpith award winner, Indira Raisom Goswami. Even though the group still holds the position that its demand for sovereignty should form the core of the negotiations, the fact that it wants to talk is a positive sign. Without lowering its guard or diluting its stand against terrorism, the Central Government must assess the prospects of talks with the extremist organisation coolly and objectively.

It has long been evident that economic development must be at the core of any peace plan for the Northeast. The region shares boundaries with Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China. The Prime Minister's articulation of its potential to play a key role in India's "look east" policy and in its relations with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) revealed fresh thinking. In effect, by emphasising that India's economic and foreign policy interests are tied to the development of the Northeast, Dr. Singh has upvalued the region and its people and ruled out any question of their being treated as peripheral. The challenge now is to translate all this into a concrete plan for the economic transformation of the Northeast from an underdeveloped arm of India into a region of education, employment, technology, entrepreneurship, and real opportunity for its upstanding people. Ultimately, this is the only way to integrate this part of India fully with the rest. The people of the Northeast have been waiting for rather too long for promises made by visiting Prime Ministers to come true. It is time they did.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

ANOTHER PROMISE TO KEEP

OF DISCRETION AND ALLOTMENTS

"Fast-breeder reactors more important for India"