An interesting piece below. cm
Why is the North-east so special for PMO, South Block? Comment Gauri Sankar Kalita One must be amazed at the ingenuinity of the mandarins of the PMO and the Home Ministry in devising the special stratagem to keep the people of the North-east in good humour - telling them that they live in a "special land" since all their problems and issues are "special", requiring "special" solutions. An equally amazing thing is that this stratagem has been given the stamp of a "special" policy by the successive governments in Delhi over the past several decades. Examples of this 'special' treatment of the North-east are too many for any discerning observer to just pick and choose. We would only like to remind the privileged north-easterners of their "special" status by referring to just a few examples so that they could develop on them and, hopefully, write back to us about their own findings on how special they really are. Let us, for example, pick up the creation of Meghalaya in the early 1970s. The two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and N.C. Hills of Assam, which have a contiguous hilly terrain with the Khasi Hills district, were not merged with Meghalaya because the Karbis and the Dimasas, who inhabit the two Assam districts, resisted it. They opposed the merger because they were not quite sure as to how the new State would perform and, being Hindu-majority, the idea of merging with Christian-majority Meghalaya did not quite appeal to them. Nevertheless, they too, like the Khasis, Garos and the Jaintias, felt deprived in the socio-politico economic dispensation of Assam at that time. The issue was being tackled in the PMO and the Home Ministry. They came up with an amazing solution - the Karbis and the Dimasas will have two autonomous district councils. If they still found that the district councils were not good enough, they could hope for a separate State like the Khasis, Garos and the Jaintias had hoped for and straightaway got. But before they entertained any hope of a separate State, they would have to go through the transitory phase of an "autonomous State". But since the Constitution does not say a word about "autonomous State", the PMO and Home Ministry did the easy thing - got the Constitution amended to insert the Article 244(A) exclusively - nay specially - for Karbi Anglong and N.C. Hills. But if one asks anybody in the PMO or the Home Ministry or even at Dispur what an 'autonomous State' means, nobody has an answer. The Constitution speaks of full-fledged States or Union territories, or even autonomous districts or regions within a State, but not an 'autonomous State'. And as far as a State government is concerned, it enjoys a great deal of autonomy from the Centre unlike a Union Territory. The end result of this is that while Article 244(A) remains a constitutional aberration, it has come in handy for the politicians of the two districts to keep the people in a continuous state of agitation demanding an "autonomous State" but about which they too, like those in the PMO, the Home Ministry or at Dispur, know not what it means. But the classic, and the most glaring example of special treatment of the North-east remains the IM (DT) Act which passes as an immigration law at the service of the minorities of Assam. This law was conceived and enacted in 1983 when the PMO or the Home Ministry did not have an idea about immigration, far less an engineered demographic invasion from a foreign, albeit neighbouring, country. The immigration issue, mercifully, started itching those in the corridors of power in Delhi when some other States of mainland India too started complaining that it was really a problem. But if the itching was confined to their armpits at that time, it spread quickly to their groin when the immigrants from the same neighbouring country almost invaded Delhi. This was also the time when some of them started to talk in terms of repealing that special law for Assam, the IM (DT) Act. As of today, both the itching and the talk of repealing the special law continue. The latest speciality to arrive in the North-east from Delhi is the Home Ministry's proposal to the NSCN(I-M) that the Naga Hoho would be given a constitutional status and both political and money powers to preside over all Naga-inhabited areas outside Nagaland. The State governments of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, where such Naga population is spread out, will have no jurisdiction over the Nagas - only the Hoho will. This idea has been conceived as a strategem to keep both the NSCN(I-M), which is demanding a greater Nagalim comprising Naga-inhabited areas of the three neighbouring States of Nagaland, and the governments of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, which are staunchly opposed to the NSCN(I-M)'s demand, in good humour. The NSCN(I-M) has rejected the idea before it could be broached before the governments of the neighbouring States mainly for two reasons: (i) accepting the proposal straightaway would give one the impression that they are not quite firm on their demand, and (ii) ipso facto, this would dilute their bargaining power. The PMO and the Home Ministry, which have already achieved the expertise of pushing "special solutions" down the throats of the north-easterners, must have safely assumed that they could coax and cajole the three State governments neighbouring Nagaland into accepting the latest speciality of a solution to the 'Nagalim' demand. After all, it is none of their business to worry that by offering such a solution, which could only seek to create yet another 'super government' besides the NEC in the north-eastern States, it could be setting another bad precedent, again in the North-east. The great votaries of Akhand Bharat, who today man the PMO and the Home Ministry, will not, however, muster up the courage to tell the NSCN(I-M) that any Indian can live in any part of the country, that people of various communities live in several States in India, that the Nagas too should learn to live with their fellow citizens outside Nagaland, that since the very purpose of negotiating with them is to integrate the Naga society further with the Indian mainstream, the NSCN(I-M) has a special responsibility to tell their Naga brethren that they must learn to live with other citizens as Indians, and that therefore, their demand for Nagalim cannot be accepted, etc. Instead, they are "negotiating" this unjust demand. Obviously what else can they offer except a special solution as a 'super government' of the Hoho thrust upon Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh? TAILPIECE: The BJP, North-east recently expressed grave concern over the insurgent-government nexus in the region and suggested that a "special security zone" be created exclusively for the North-east. Since the BJP is the principal party in the NDA Government at the Centre, one could assume that the idea would be lapped up by the PMO and the Home Ministry sooner than later. The people of the North-east now need to watch out how the latest speciality from the Centre would taste - if the ministers and MLAs would be booked under the POTA or the Armed forces given special powers all over the region to even legislate on matters in place of their civilian counterparts who would be languishing in jails? _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
