Secure NE First

As the Government of India intensifies its focus on the Look East Policy, it is imperative that all-out efforts are made on securing the Northeast from being run over completely by anti-national, terrorist organizations out to destabilize the region. Unfortunately, however, the Centre still seems to be just grappling with the problem, without any sign yet that a firm system of internal security, complete with modern weaponry, intelligence-gathering and sharing mechanism, fully trained forces etc, would be in place by the time the Look East Policy actually gets going. For one, the government and India Inc cannot gloss over the fact that the Northeast, because of not just its close geographical proximity to the ASEAN countries but also the socio-cultural and historical ties between the two peoples, would play a crucial role in effecting the policy. In fact, if the policy has not taken off yet, it is primarily because India has not readied the ground yet, which is to say that the country has not laid as much focus on securing the Northeast to create a congenial environment for investment. The ministries concerned, on the other hand, still seem to toy with the idea that big players in the national economy from the rest of the country alone could implement the much-hyped policy, as project after joint-venture project is sought to be pushed through, to benefit such players and so-called mainstream States. The government must get its vision of the Look East policy clear — it cannot hope to move an inch on the policy if it continues to ignore the Northeast.

This brings us to the equally fundamental issue of securing the Northeast. The region continues to be the entry point for smuggled weaponry, drugs and terrorism. It is not that the Government of India — especially the agencies concerned — does not know their entry points along international borders, such as with Bangladesh and Myanmar. But the government even today cannot vouchsafe that it has secured the borders of the Northeast. And it also knows quite well by now that this is in sharp contrast to borders with Pakistan. But there still seems to be no urgency to rectify this criminal mismatch in the country’s defence and foreign policies in the Centre’s scheme of things. The problem with the Look East Policy emanates basically from the fact that India has had to adopt it under compulsions of the fast-changing global economic scenario, but about which it is still not ready perhaps. Is it because the hangover of trading with the West in the past so many decades is still too strong for our policy-makers to look up and actually look East? Whatever be the case, the fact remains that the Centre must now make amends for its grave mistake of having treated the Northeast as the country’s hinterland since Independence. And make it fast if it has not to miss the ASEAN bus. THE SENTINEL