By H. Bhavan Meitei
North Eastern States of India, which are
home to more than 260 different tribes and speak a number of language and
dialects are now witnessing a lot of conflicts and problems. Women are being
raped by army personnel, mothers keep waiting for their disappeared sons,
children wait for their parents – who don’t return, and much more. These are
some of the common problems in the North Eastern states. But it is kept hidden,
people from mainland India do not know of this and the media does not want to
show.
The Northeast region of India comprising of
eight states with a population of about 40 million inhabitants, is a region
poorly connected to the Indian mainland and surrounded by many countries such
as Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and China, setting for a huge number of
conflicts that undermine the idea of India as a prosperous and functioning
democracy.
The Naga insurgence, which started in the
1950s, is one of the oldest unresolved armed conflicts in the world. Currently,
most of the states in the region are affected by some form of conflict and
rapid rising of insurgents in some states. The insurgents in this region often
target the civilians. They have no common agendas, fight for individual causes
and are set up for their personal benefits only. Some of the reasons for the
respective conflicts are wide ranging from separatist movements, to
inter-community, communal and inter-ethnic conflicts like Boro conflict,
naga-kuki-meitei conflict etc.
Unfortunately, the data and information on
the region is not sufficiently analysed and conversed between the region and
the Central Government, contributing to further misinformation, mismanagement
and alienation. At another level, conflict in the region has been an all
pervasive phenomena, and in its violent form, it has not only affected the
territorial and political sovereignty of the Indian state, but also the life of
the common man in the region, in impenetrable and unfathomable terms. In a
radical and dreaded sense, there is a “culture” of conflict, and unfortunately,
people have submitted to such continuation. However, amidst the widespread
sense of helplessness, there is also an overwhelming desire and force to be
free from such a situation of conflict which cripples the people from all
sides.
Due to this conflict, over 50,000 people
have been killed since independence and a large number have also been
displaced. The archaic draconian and black law, which was used by British to
suppress the Indian freedom movement, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
adds more woes to the people of this region. In the name of suppressing
insurgents, army officials have often been observed misusing their powers. One
is bound to question that if this act is supposed to suppress the insurgents, then
why does the Central Government not impose this same law in the Maoist affected
areas and not leave it only to the North Eastern states and some parts of
Kashmir. As a North Eastern myself, I ask, are sons of lesser god and are we
not included in the Preamble of Indian Constitution? I really hope our Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has the answer to this question.
Hundreds and thousands of illegal
Bangladeshi migrants are entering North Eastern states, the intrusion of
Chinese in Arunachal Pradesh and even the economic blockade that is often
organized in this region are problems which have no solution, either from the
State Government or the Central Government. They come and stand with the common
when elections arrive, to prove that our country is a democratic one, but when
it comes to solving real problems, they ignore us. To conclude, this torn
condition of the states will only be resolved when people are actually given
their fundamental and constitutional rights and efforts are made to bring the
North East India to the mainstream.
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