Delhi’s north east

New Delhi’s concept of the country’s north eastern region comprising of – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim – stems mainly out of its security concern which has influenced formulation of related policies. Barring the state of Assam, which mandarins of North Block, consider closer to Delhi in terms of ‘nationalism’ despite ULFA activities since 1979; the remaining states remain under the radar of internal security. Several decades back, this newspaper had maintained that even the clubbing together of the states under the nomenclature- North East- is a carry over of colonial mindset which denies the intrinsic and varied characteristics of the individual states. It may be noted that each of the states in the north eastern part of India have different language groups, diverse culture and traditions, with some states having as many as 16 language groups. There are 220 languages and dialects spoken by 145 tribal communities besides others in the region. Since independence, Delhi has largely relied on the inputs of the other communities in the far eastern area from the babus. The carry over of colonial concepts even after India’s independence is therefore not surprising. It is for this reason that that the mandarins in North Block have been viewing the ‘north east’ through the prism of internal security and justify the imposition of the draconian Armed Forces(Special)Powers Act modelled from the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942, promulgated by the British colonial government on August 15, 1942 to suppress the Quit India Movement. The Centre has used the military in Nagaland, Mizoram Manipur, Tripura and Assam in counter-insurgency warfare. In fact, these states have a strong military presence and continue to be under the shadow of black laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), where the military and para-military are given free rein to shoot and kill a person on suspicion of him being a militant. On the contrary, the mandarins of North Block are wont to use the same yardstick on clubbing Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh as ‘North India’; UP , MP as ‘Central India’ ; Bihar and West Bengal as ‘East India’; or Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana as ‘South India.’ Unlike with the north east, the Centre does not rush commando units or various fighting brigades to ‘North India’, Central India’, ‘East India’ or ‘South India’ even where Naxalites have been waging war against some of these states and where hundreds of uniformed security personnel have died. The militarisation of the north east exposes the mindset of Delhi and the attempts to woo the people of the region with nice sounding policies such as ‘Look East’ or even “Act East’ has more to do with facilitating trade with ASEAN nations. Even in the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, which is nearing almost 50 days, the political rulers in Delhi have shown more inclination towards political interests and a shocking lack of empathy for the helpless civilians caught in the cross fire. The region has been bloodied with violent conflicts for decades and if analysed, it would suggest that the security view earlier and presently political view, have only confirmed that the alienated mindsets in Delhi have created the sense of alienation in the region.