As pointed out by the North East Students Organization (NESO), there is no denying the fact that the Look East Policy (LEP) of the Central government should be a policy aimed at betterment of the people of the northeast rather than a mere foreign policy initiative to facilitate free trade with the neighbouring countries. The apprehensions raised by NESO is not unfounded given that the policy itself may involve using the northeast as only a corridor for facilitating free trade with India’s neighbours without keeping in mind the interest of the people of the northeast. What NESO has raised finds echo in what the Governor of Nagaland, Shyamal Datta recently stated during a regional conference on Good Governance held at Chumukedima, Dimapur. The point is that rather than ‘Look-East’ Policy, New Delhi’s attention must be first and foremost giving priority to the Northeast. Simply put, it should not be a case of putting the cart before the horse.
In this regard, what should also be of concern is that for any northeast specific policy to work, New Delhi’s ready money and schemes must find its way into ‘real development’. The rate at which funds flow to the targeted groups must be abysmally low and what former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi rightly calculated holds true especially for the Northeast region. Politicians of the region may feign ignorance, but there is a whole lot of truth to the saying that it is corruption that has dried up development funds and that there is no ground work but only plenty of paper work to show for the decades of working for the people. Therefore, even the demands to press the Centre for granting special constitutional status to the northeastern states by delegating more federal powers to the states including the rights over land and natural resources, will all remain meaningless unless corrupt politicians and other vested interest elements are made accountable for their acts of commission or omission. With whatever good intention the NESO is working towards, it should also give prior attention to securing a culture of democratization—of checks and balances, creating awareness on the Right to Information as a tool to empower the development process and to ensure that funds are properly utilized towards its stated objectives.
While some would also argue that development in the North Eastern Region has lagged behind the rest of the country due to historical and ‘political’ reasons, the Central government has also taken a number of initiatives in the recent past to bring these States at par with other States. The handicap of resource-constraint has been met through special dispensation for the States in the Region. All the eight constituent States of NER are treated as Special Category States. To complain that the region or Nagaland is not getting enough of funds does not hold ground. Against this backdrop, eyebrows are bound to be raised when someone as the Deputy Chairman of Planning Board, Nagaland comments that Bihar was getting larger funds than Nagaland. Rather it simply goes to prove that there is actually enough for every body’s need but not enough for everybody’s greed.
