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Very few Indians know about the North-East. They should, because
the situation there is worse than what it has been at the height of
militancy in Kashmir. Most governments in the region exist only on
paper, being neither competent to enforce law nor powerful to bring
order. When the situation goes out of hand, the dependence is on
the army, which has no solution to political problems.
There may be exaggerations when military excesses come to be
listed. But there is no doubt that they have been committed. One
such instance is enough to smear the image of any force.
Ibis does not mean that militants are waging a clean or motivated
battle. Their brutalities or killings are even more henious. Still
the law-breakers cannot be compared to the law-protectors.
Another factor plaguing the situation. is the outsider. He is of
two types: one from outside India and the other from other parts of
India. A distinction is made between the two in all States, except
Nagaland. But, the outsider in both cases has come to be
associated with exploitation.
Also, the centuries-old isolation of the region has given the
indigenous people a separate sense of identity. Various ethnic,
tribal groups of the Nort-Eeast have always been allergic to
Central rule.
I was recently in the North-East. I could not go to all the States.
But I visited two - Assam and Meghalaya - and met journalists from
the entire region at Shillong. It was a discussion on "insurgency"
in the North-East and the role which the press should play.
Believe it or not, there was unanimity that force, by either the
security forces, including the army, or the militants, was no
answer to the area's problems. One point which all journalists
underlined was the lack of development and contact with the rest of
India.
Of the seven States (Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya,
Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam), three (Mizoram, Meghalaya
and Arunachal Pradesh) enjoy normalcy. The Laldenga Accord has
given Mizoram peace. In Meghalaya, tension between tribals and
non-tribals surfaced in 1990 but has subsided now. Arunachal
Pradesh has seldom been restive.
Nagaland is the thorniest problem. Most of its people believe that
they have never been part of India. They have been up in arms since
Independence, and the formation of Nagaland within India from 1963
has made little difference to them. It is difficult to make out
who is an overground or underground Naga because most of them wear
two hats.
I have heard that Prime Minister Deve Gowda met two
representatives of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN-Isak-Muivah) when he was in Switzerland a few months ago.
Since Nagaland Chief Minister S. C. Jamir is inclined towards the
NSCN, this may well be true. But he and the NSCN are hostile to
the other influential group of S. Khaplang. Both the groups are
busy liquidating each other, Jasmir playing an active role.
There is no let-up in violence, in the form of looting, extortion,
liquidation of 'informers' and attack on security personnel. There
is no easy hope of a solution even if peace talks begin in a third
country as some report indicate.
Corruption is endemic in Nagaland. There is hardly anyone in the
government who does not pocket public funds. It has been calculated
that in the past 25 years or so the Centre has spent about Rs
30,000 crore in Nagaland. In a population of 12 lakhs, that amount
comes to Rs 25 lakh per person. Obviously, everyone has had a
slice of the cake.
Manipur has suddenly burst into violence, though the extremist
movement was in a low key till some time ago. Now Kukis, also
Nagas, are being killed by the people from the Nagaland. Many other
organisations like the People's Liberation Army and the People's
Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak have joined the fray. "There are
so many underground outfits that it is difficult to make out who is
who," a woman journalist from Manipur told me.
In Tripura, tensions between tribals and non-tribals continue to
simmer. In January, there was a riot between Amra Bengali and the
All Tripura Bengali Force, two non-tribal groups, and the Tribal
Students' Federation and two more organisations belonging to
Tribals. Three persons were killed. This has only given a new edge
to the tribals' struggle, aimed at ousting the Bengalis, once
Bangladeshis, from the state. The tribals are now one-third and
the Bengalis two-thirds of the population. Meghalaya is peaceful in
the sense that there is no insurgency. Militants from Nagaland,
Tripura, Manipur and Assam use the State for rest and recreation.
But, as the Chief Minister says, the main problem is economic.
There is some rumbling among the Garo people who constitute the
State's population along with the Khasi and the Jaintia.
In Assam Valley, a dormant insurgency situation continues in the
three major sectors of the population - the ethnic Assamese, the
hill tribes and the plains tribes who have been raising various
demands from time to time for greater autonomy and preservation of
their identities, languages and cultures.
It was the Naga insurgency in the mid '50s for an independent
Nagaland which rekindled the spirit of revolt in the minds of
sections of people in Assam. Since then they have been voicing
their various grievances on economic neglect and exploitation of
the State by the Centre. Adding to their woes has been the influx
of foreigners from across the border. , The protracted Assam
agitation on the foreigners' issue spearheaded by the AASU came to
an end with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985.
But the United Liberation Front of Assam, born as an insurgent
outfit, picked up the thread from there to launch a war of
insurrection against the Centre for "liberation" of Assam from
India.
It is apparent that the non-implementation of the accord provides
grist to the propaganda mill of the ULFA. Still there is the
overall question whether a federal state of Assam would have been
better than the different States. A State Governor, during the
British period, described the Brahmaputra Valley as a broad central
corridor with small rooms corresponding to the hill districts on
both sides, but without connecting doors between them. This
description remains substantially true to this day.
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