North East – India’s low-hanging fruit

It is good that the verdict of the 2014 general elections is clear and not a fractured one like in 1996 or 1998.

The outgoing government was guilty of letting the scepter fall into the hands of an unconstitutional authority, thus destroying the cohesion of the executive.

Politics, by its very nature, abhors a vacuum. The power vacuum in UPA-2 was filled by the judiciary, the media and some NGOs. But while the new government fights these battles and begins to implement much-needed changes and economic reforms, there are three doable, non-controversial policy decisions that can easily yield double-digit economic growth. An economic institute has estimated that each one point rise in GDP propels six million families out of poverty. The three non-economic measures suggested here are capable of minimally raising GDP growth by one percentage point each! The trinity of measures are: Focus economic and foreign policy on the east. The west can wait; Re-orient defense policy and reorganize the vast defense machine; and Prioritize ‘soft power’ export as a major foreign exchange earner and employment generator.

Sanjaya Baru’s book, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister: The making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh,’ has one intriguing revelation. It says that the outgoing PM’s initiative on open trade with south-east Asia was stalled by Sonia Gandhi and her National Advisory Council (NAC). As someone who has been studying the north-east insurgencies for the last 25 years (including the last few years as the Chhattrapati Shivaji Fellow of the USI), one can say without contradiction that trade with ASEAN via the land borders of the north-east will save millions of taxpayer rupees by reducing subsidies, generating employment and ushering peace that in turn will reduce defense expenditure.

The first obvious step in this Look East policy is to look at our own North-East first. For instance, the Kaladan river project to connect Sittwe port in Myanmar with Mizoram has been in limbo for the last 30 years! The border connectivity at Moreh in Manipur is primitive with only head loads permitted
to be carried across the border!

Contrast this with the fanfare and attention given to our trade with Pakistan via the Wagah border or via Uri and Chiken Di Bagh in Kashmir. At the risk of sounding harsh, one can say that Indian foreign policy in the last decade was reduced to a Pakistan policy. Unfortunately for us, the fundamentals of the Pakistani ideology are such that any progress will be a mirage for a few generations.

The ground situation in the Indian North-East is extremely favorable for ending the insurgencies and unrest once and for all. There is a great yearning to join the Indian mainstream and progress economically. A bold initiative in the North-East and the opening up of trade with ASEAN can work wonders for the region as well as the national economy.

Buddhism is India’s greatest cultural export to the world. In the whole of South East Asia, there exists a vast reservoir of Indian cultural capital. To tap it and make India the favorite destination of the world’s Buddhists is not rocket science. If only the Bihar CM, instead of demanding a central package, had spruced up Bodh Gaya, he would be rolling in tourist dollars.

By: Anil Athale