First Published Feb 2006
Neglected, Deprived North-east:
Is it the Whole Truth?
There are two very popular and convenient views in New Delhi about India’s north-east.
One view is that the region, comprising the seven states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura, is the country’s pampered child.
That the Centre has been pouring in disproportionate amount of money into the region,
which is ultimately misutilized. The second school of thought holds that New Delhi and
New Delhi alone is responsible for the economic backwardness of the region and that the
neglect by the Centre is monumental.
The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between.
The region has indeed suffered from so much neglect and apathy in the past that it is
next to impossible to catch up with other parts of India. Therefore to say, as former
Mizoram Governor, Amlok Ratan Kohli said at a seminar that “the north-east is a spoilt
child of the Centre,” is also a bit exaggerated.
Yes, all the seven states in the region are granted a “special category” status by the
Government of India which means these States receive 90 per cent of Plan assistance as
a grant, and just 10 per cent as a loan, as against the norm of 30 per cent grant and 70
per cent loan for other States. As former journalist and first minister heading the
Department for Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), Arun Shourie was
wont to remark: “Funds are never a problem. Proper and timely utilization of the
allocated money is.”
And yet every state in the northeast is facing bankruptcy. Consider some more facts:
Fifty-six years after Independence, five of the seven state capitals in the region are not
connected by rail. Itanagar, Kohima and Shillong (all State capitals) do not have a proper
airport even now. The entire North-east has to import essential goods worth nearly Rs.
2,500 crore annually since the states in the region have not modernized their agricultural
practices.
Nearly 55 per cent of India’s tea production, 60 per cent of its plywood (till the timber
felling ban came) and a substantial part of its oil is produced in the region but not even a
tiny percentage of the profits is re-invested here.
Vital sectors like education, health care and communication are still in the primitive
state in the region.
Nothing illustrates the neglect of the North-east by the Centre like the figures of funds
released by All India financial institutions. Between 1996 and 2006, out of the Rs
72,000 crore plus sanctioned by these institutions, Assam got a measly 221 crore,
Nagaland received Rs. 4 crore and the rest of the states went without a single paise. All
the states in the region are today heavily in debt; Assam’s internal debt in fact stands at a
staggering Rs. 10,000 crore plus. Another development indicator, the credit deposit ratio
of commercial banks for all the states in the region at 26.9 is substantially lower than the
all-India average of 62.3.
Who is to blame for this mess? Not the Centre alone surely. After all, 10 per cent of each
of the Central ministries’ budget is earmarked for development of the region. Where does
the money go then? In reality, the isolation and backwardness of the North-east has as
much to do with the Centre’s failure to monitor the funds utilization as with failure of
local leadership and the lack of initiative on part of its own people.
For years, a section of the leadership and the educated elite among the North-Eastern
states, have become willing partners with the ‘exploiter’ class from Delhi. Today, the
entire North-east is dependent upon rest of India more than it ever was. There is no
internal revenue generation worth the name in these states, private enterprise is more an
exception than a rule and a majority of the population is dependant upon the
government one way or the other. Insurgency, political instability and unending violence
keep the region on a perpetual boil.
A high-profile study group constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2002 to draw
up a 25-year vision on development of the North-east has made some interesting
observations on the current state of affairs in the region. It blames corruption,
insurgency and “contractor Raj,” for the turmoil in the seven states of the region. “A
parallel system of governance by the insurgents on the one hand and ministers, MLAs,
the bureaucracy and police on the other, is responsible for the political instability and
backwardness in the North-east,” SK Agnihotri, Chairman of North-east Study Group
(NESG) has said. Former IAS and IPS officers like K. Saigal and KPS Gill besides retired
Lt. Gen SK Pillai were members of this group.
The group felt that the entire system of governance is in a state of collapse in the region.
“Whatever money comes into the region for development ends up in the hands of a
chosen few,” former senior bureaucrat Saigal said. The militants then get a major share
out of this, he pointed out. This happens mainly because of an inappropriate
development model, the group said wherein, the money gets concentrated in the hands
of contractors and suppliers instead of trickling down to the masses.
The region is clearly trapped in a vicious circle, which, despite best attempts, no one has
been able to break so far.
Economist Jayanta Madhab, formerly with the Asian Development Bank traces the
region’s problem to the country’s partition. “Northern India suffered heavily in terms of
lives lost during the turbulent period of partition, but the east and the North-east took a
body blow in terms of infrastructure and links to the mainland,” he points out. In one
stroke of his blue pencil, Sir Cyril Radcliffe isolated the region from the rest of India. As a
result, the region’s seven states are now connected to the main body through a 20 km
wide ‘Chicken’s neck’ corridor running through North Bengal. This has added to the
isolation of the North-east. For example, in the days of pre-partition era, residents of
Tripura could reach Calcutta overnight. Today, it takes a minimum of 60 hours to do the
same by road.
So the region’s first problem is isolation. Physical isolation has aggravated the already
existing mental quarantine. The British, as a deliberate policy followed the dictum leave-
them-alone in splendid segregation. The new rulers in post-independent India refined it
further by applying the yardstick out-of-sight-out-of-mind. The result: armed uprising in
many parts of the North-east. Contrary to general perception outside the North-east,
most of the insurrections in the region, except the Naga insurgency, are direct fallout of
this neglect of the area by the ruling class both in Delhi and in the region. Large-scale
misuse of Central funds has widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots
resulting in frustration among the youngsters. This frustration has often found
expression in the swelling ranks of the militant organization across the region. At last
count there are some 40-armed militant groups operating in the region.
According to conservative estimates, there are 20 lakh educated unemployed youths in
the region. So far the government has been the main employer. With time, however, jobs
in the government are becoming few and far in between. Naturally, with hardly any
employment available outside the government, the youths do not need much
encouragement to take to arms since it provides easy money when you have a gun in
hand. Insurgency today, therefore, has become a big business in the North-east. One
educated estimate of the turnover in this ‘industry’ puts the figure at something like Rs.
250 crore annually!
The question is: Why has it happened? There are no clear-cut answers, but endemic
corruption and poor management of funds are the two main reasons identified by many
analysts. The funding pattern, evolved over the years has given rise to a nouve rich class
comprising mainly of the corrupt politicians, a section of bureaucrats and businessmen
in the region.
The other issue is, people in the North-east have been indoctrinated by their leaders to
look at themselves as victims of a conspiracy hatched by Central leaders and people of
rest of India in general. The truth is, no one has the time or inclination to do so. The
reality is several other states in the country are also suffering neglect and poverty as
those in the North-east. In some cases like Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar, the human
development and poverty indices are worse than those in the North-east. For example,
Orissa’s poverty ratio at 47.15 per cent is far higher than Assam at 36.09 per cent. Or
Bihar’s poverty ratio at 42.60 per cent is much above any of the north-eastern states.
Even the credit deposit ratio in Bihar, Orissa or Jharkhand, is lower than the north-
eastern states. So why should the north-eastern states only get special attention, asks one
section of planners. My answer to that is: the North-east needs extra and focused
attention simply because they are the bulwark against balkanization of India. Having
said that, even the people of the North-east must admit that over the past decade,
matters have certainly improved in terms of more funds, focused attention and more
awareness about the region. And yet, we keep complaining about step-motherly
treatment. We, in the North-east must ask ourselves: Are we protesting only for the sake
of protesting?
So, have we lost the North-east forever? Many optimists, like me, are convinced that the
North-east has several things going for itself to catch up with the rest of the country.
Unlike most other states, the North-east has a very high percentage of literacy. This itself
should be a major strength. All that this pool of manpower resources needs is proper
direction. Take the natural resources available with the region. Arunachal Pradesh has
so much of water resources available that it can produce about 30,000 MW of electricity
through hydel projects. This energy is not only sufficient to feed the region’s states but
also to export to the neighbouring countries as well.
Another point that the North-east has in its favor is the proximity to South-east Asia.
Identified by economic experts as the boom area of the 21st century, South-east Asia is
best accessed from North-east India. The big question however is, who will do this? Not
retired mandarins. Not people from MHA. Not people from rest of India.
Ultimately, it is the civil society, well-meaning politicians and committed bureaucrats,
who will have to take up the lost cause and bring the North-east out of its current mess.
Only then the rest of India will start looking at the North-east more seriously. Only then
others will start treating the North-east not as an exotic faraway entity but as an integral
part of the idea that is India.
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