Hi Manoj:
I, a grown man, am almost in tears! It is about time you all hand
over the Keys of the Kingdom to KPS Gill -- Assam's last best hope
:-).
Sorry for opening up in this manner Manoj. But you left yourself very
wide open for sarcasm. What does this all have to do with the
questions mm asked or the points I raised? Jairam Ramesh's admission
that LEP has miles to go is good enough?
What I see here is an attempt to evade the issues, inadvertent as it
might have been on YOUR part. So now, it is B'desh that is at the
root of Assam's woes, is that it? I have seen lame excuses and alibis
of all stripes. But this one takes the cake Manoj. You must not have
been paying attention to what you are writing about. I just hope it
is not the specter of the omnipotent and omnipresent ISI or the DGFI
that has so clouded your thinking, resulting in this non-response. I
expect much better from people of your caliber Manoj. If people like
yourself take refuge in this kind of alibis, I see no hope for Assam.
I have a desire to analyze the points KPMSG,Jairam Ramesh and you try
to make here, line by line. But right at the moment I will have to
set it aside. Maybe sometime later this weekend.
c-da
At 10:47 AM +0530 2/3/07, Manoj Das wrote:
Hello C'da
I was also at the seminar on LEP as part on the sponsors. In the
security session KPS Gill (former DGP of Assam, Punjab, CRPF) Sunil
Nath (former ULFA publicity secretary) Kirip Chaliha (MP,
Congress) Arun Sarma (MP. AGP) Nitin Gokhle (Editor NDTV) were
present.
KPS Gill said during 62-64 during his stint as SP in Nagaon, he had
thrown out more Bangladeshis (East Pakistanis, EP then) than 10
years of AGP rule (winking at Dr. Arun Sarma, who was sitting next
to him). He used to take the refugees to camps near the border.Tthe
EPs used to throw out Hindus from the border areas, thereby creating
a crisis. At Nehru's behest, a home minister level meeting was held
between India and Pakistan, and Nehru instructed 'no more evictions
of EPs'. Gill and Bishnu Ram Medhi, then CM wrote a letter to Nehru
stating the grave danger this decision will pose in future. Nehru
decided not to act on the letter. He also said that Assam had a long
string of very honest CMs from Gopinath Bordoloi to Sarat Ch Sinha.
He said in '64 Nagaon had a clearly demarcated Hindu -Muslim area
and a line. Assamese Muslims had no problem. and relationship was
very cordial. He had to set up special police station to protect a
lone Hindu village near Muslim areas. When he visited the area in 74
the Muslim line had advanced by 15 km and Borduwa, the birth place
of Sankaradeva was overran. He was sorry to use the communal
sounding words but he said these situations are better explained by
using the right word. When in 80s Indira Gandhi decided to bring in
the army, KPS opposed it and suggested that police be trained and
strengthened to deal with the situations. On the contrary, the army
moved in and now they will never move out as it is an industry for
them.
KPS also used to write poetry in the IIllustrated Weekly of India,
which was disclosed by Kirip Chaliha. Supercop preferred to keep the
poetic part a secret
Nitin Gokhle of NDTV was also candid. He said we are unnecessarily
giving too much credit to ISI. Actually he said the DGFI of
Bangladesh and certain functionaries of the establishment are dead
against India and are capable of fomenting trouble in India without
ISI. After partition as per groupings Assam was to goto EP, that
they have not forgotten. Even Mujib in his autobiography has written
that Bangladesh will need Assam's fertile valley to support its
hugely expanding population. They see denial of Assam to EP as a
historical deceit to deprive them of the north east. The Bangladesh
Ranger boss who engineered the butchering of BSF Jawans a few years
back claims in his recent book that Assam will be theirs' one
day.
Nitin said that when you look east from Delhi, first you see is Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will not allow India a transit because it feels India
did not give it a transit route to Nepal once. Bangladesh will
never give the transit to India, be it through river Brahmaputra or
Trans Asian Highway/Railway. Their policy is that if they can
throttle the Northeast, the region will suffer from underdevelopment
and India will have limited access through the chicken's neck. The
chicken nack is so crowded now that only 1.2 km is available for
public works, you cannot build a transmission line to evacuate the
huge hydro power of Arunachal, even if it is exploited.
In the inaugural address Mr Jairam Ramesh, MoS (Commerce) admitted
that the infrastructure is pathetic and LEP has miles to go. He said
that LEP needs a byepass surgery on Bangladesh. Govt. of India is
going to develop Akyab port by investing 100m $. Govt. is also going
to fund Rs. 2500 crore in Assam to replant the ageing tea plants.
-manoj
On 2/2/07, Chan Mahanta
<<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
It will be interesting to hear what the powers that be might have to
say about this.
Maybe Hazarika will forward it to the 'hard-hitting' minister to get
some answers.But I won't hold my breath.
>There is nobody to redress.
There never was. And I cannot imagine when it will be there under
the prevailing system.
All the big talk about industries and entrepreneurship are always
from people who never held a hammer in his life, or ever had to
produce anything to make a living.
At 10:25 PM +0530 2/2/07, mc mahant wrote:
Look East Policy is yet a farce.
Look what insults/losses I suffered in the last month:
With expensive bank loans I ordered 2 MIG/MAG 630 Amp Welding
Machines ex Tianjin China@ $1510 FOB.
As I wanted to do some critical construction job I asked them to
Airfreight the machines to L.G.N.B.International Airport,Guwahati
via Bangkok. No airlines would carry there. So I said--via Delhi
then(They care for the EAST and Care Dearly for the North East!-I
THOUGHT).
Only Korean Air will carry the cargo--gross 200 Kg~ -- and they
charged $680. These arrived Delhi on 15 January. On one pretext or
the other("Why are you buying Chinese", "We don't accept E-mail"
This Print is Hazy"----) these were not released till today -after
paying 37.5% DutyonC.I.F. and "Delayed Collection charges". In
spite Of "Hon'ble Finance Minister announcing Pre-Budget "We
are pleased to reduce Duty on Capital goods from 10% down t0 5% (on
FOB).There is nobody to redress. NEDFI-DONER-OXOMmp's-Assam
Govt-Look East--all are Bekaar!
"Look East-" is also copied from Willy Brandt's Drang nach
Osten(towards USSR) in '70s .
"Look East " will be real only in Sovereign Oxom where the main
Trade will be from Kakopothar to Chengdu in 70 minute hops.
And when bargeloads of Yunnan Phosphorites will travel Da-li to
Mytkina -to Patkoi-to Luit valley daily.
mm
P.S. Pradip -maybe you would copy this to your big address list -to
whom you posted the original
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Subject: [Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:28:55 -0800 (PST)
Look East Policy and development of North East
- Rejaul Karim Laskar
The agreement reached during the fifth India-ASEAN Summit held in
Cebu, Phillippines on January 14, 2007 on the proposed Free Trade
Agreement- which will be ready by July 2007- is a significant
achievement of the Look East Policy. It is to be hoped that such a
free trade agreement will open the door to new opportunities for the
development of North East which has been stagnating due to lack of
economic development for the last six decades. With the
establishment of India-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the North East will no
longer be handicapped by the Physical inaccessibility from the rest
of India, the way it has been for the past six decades. Rather, it
will be the centre of this vast Free Trade Area
which may, in all probability, be one of the largest and most
dynamic free trade areas of the world in the twenty-first century.
Though in the first phase of the 'Look East Policy' - unveiled by
the Narsimha Rao Government in the early nineties- the Government of
India focused on renewing political and economic contacts with the
countries of East and South-East Asia, in the second phase of this
policy the Government of India is giving special emphasis on the
economic development of backward north eastern region of India
taking advantage of huge market of ASEAN as well as of the energy
resources available in some of the member countries of ASEAN like
Myanmar.
The 'Look East Policy' started achieving success as early as in
1992. In January 1992, India became able to establish the first
institutional linkage with ASEAN by becoming a sectoral dialogue
partner of ASEAN in specific areas like trade, investment, science
and technology and training. The institutional
linkage was upgraded in 1995 when India became a full dialogue
partner of ASEAN. In 1996 the institutional linkage was further
upgraded when India was admitted in ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)-
which deals with security issues and has a tremendous clout in Asia
Pacific region. India also became a founder member of East Asia
Summit and has participated in both first East Asia Summit held in
December 2005 and the just concluded second East Asia Summit held on
January 15, 2007. But upgradation of institutional linkage with
South East Asia is not the only benefit of the Look East Policy, but
more importantly, this policy has led to a steady expansion of
India's trade and investment links with the East and South East Asia
region. From a meagre $ 2.5 billion in 1993-94, India-ASEAN trade is
now more than $21 billion.
But the most important beneficiary of this Look East Policy will,
obviously be the north eastern region of India. In the second phase
of the Look East Policy
the Government of India is giving special emphasis on the
development of North East by taking advantage of the physical
contiguity of this region with the ASEAN. With the admission of
Myanmar into ASEAN in 1997, North East has now become India's
gateway to ASEAN. As the process of establishment of India-ASEAN
Free Trade Area progresses North East will have the potential to
become the hub of this future growth engine of Asia. But, of course,
road, rail and air linkages will have to be improved to realise this
potential. This is the reason why the Government of India is giving
special emphasis on improving the road connectivity between North
East and Myanmar by investing in transport infrastructure in North
East as well as in Myanmar. India and Thailand have also planned a
trilateral project with Myanmar to link the three nations through a
road corridor. The India-ASEAN car rally held in November 2004 was
also a conscious effort to strengthen the road linkages between ASEAN
and the North East.
The ASEAN-India Partnership for peace, progress and shared
prosperity pact signed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with
leaders of the ASEAN countries at the third India-ASEAN summit on
Vientine on November 30, 2004, which outlined a multi-pronged action
plan for boosting trade, investment, tourism, culture, sports and
people to people contact will not only go a long way towards
economic integration between India and ASEAN but will also
facilitate development of the North East. The plan to 'build
institutional linkages for intelligence and information sharing,
exchange of information and cooperation in legal and enforcement
matters' and to 'explore developing anti-terrorism cooperation and
assistance packages covering among others immigration control,
customs cooperation, land, air and sea safety' will contribute
immensely to curbing terrorism in North East.
Another dimension of Look East Policy is the Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi-Sectoral Economic and Technological Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
established in June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India- Sri
Lanka-Thailand Economic Co-operation) but renamed as BIMST-EC
(Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand- Economic Co-operation)
in December 1997 and again renamed as Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi Sectoral Economic and Technological Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in
July 2004. Presently its members are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The members of this grouping have
also been working for quite some time for a Free Trade Agreement
among themselves. But the postponement of the second BIMSTEC Summit,
which was scheduled to be held on February 8, 2007 has given a
setback to this endeavour. Incidentally, the North East lies at the
centre of both the proposed India-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the
BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and has the potential to be a hub of these
two future growth engines of Asia.
(Source: Assam Tribune 19th January 2007)
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Manoj Kumar Das
C 172 Gr Floor
Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 110017
Tel: 91 11 26533824
Telefax: 91 11 26533829
Hand Phone: 91 9312650558
Be so unselfish that when God writes your destiny; he can be free to
ask: What do you want?
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