Let me now take up the Look East Policy, or LEP, as it is a part of the conference theme. When India launched LEP in 1991, the issue of geographical proximity of the North East region facilitating physical connectivity to South East Asia did not loom large until Myanmar became a full member of ASEAN in 1997. Indian policy makers realised the importance of physical connectivity, and initiated a few bilateral and multilateral projects. With the launching of the Look West Policy (LWP) by Thailand in 1997, there has been significant growth in bilateral trade between India and Thailand. LEP and LWP appeared to be symbiotic, and the bilateral trade took place mainly through sea routes.
The North East region loomed large in Thailand’s LWP only after the India-ASEAN car rally from Guwahati in 2004, when Thailand realised the potent potentiality of physical connectivity geographically facilitated by the North East. This led to the visit to Assam by a Thai delegation led by the Thai Commerce Minister in 2007, and the group identified agro-business, food-processing, energy, transport and tourism as areas for investment. For the North East, the crucial issues are the following: first, the completion of road and railways infra-structure connecting the North East the South East Asia is vital for any realistic boost from LEP to the North East. India is supposed to spend Rs.15,000 crores for this purpose, and I do not know whether some progress, if any, has been made. Second, inflow of foreign direct investment from the South East to Assam and other States is conditional upon creating a proper economic environment both in terms of adequate provisions of infra-structure and prevalence of law and order. Third, Assam and the other NE states must have production units to produce quality goods that could be exported when the opportunity finally arrives. In the absence of these, economic benefit from LEP remains merely an aspiration.
A vibrant discussion took place on tourism emphasizing product development and destination management. Attention has been drawn to eco-tourism and geo-tourism which have tremendous potential in Assam. It is revealed that terrorist activities have negatively affected the tourism sector. We need to develop proper infrastructure specifically for tourism. A disturbing finding is that the North East has suffered from loss of greenness at the rate of gain-loss ratio of 1 to 5. This has serious implications for tourism in the North East.
Before my concluding remarks, I would like to raise an important issue, and it is the balkanization of Assam. The various ethnic terrorist groups in Assam demand their own homeland or a separate state on the basis of their ethnicity, and perhaps it will be more accurate to state that terrorist groups, claiming to represent the aspirations of the Adivasis, Dimasas, Karbis, Kamtapuris or Rajbongshis, demand their own home land. This reveals that Assam‘s social and political fabric is torn asunder, as almost every ethnic group wants to assert a separate identity to be expressed in terms of its own separate state or autonomous council. The social osmosis that occurred during the freedom struggle has steadily waned away during the last twenty years or so, and this has dealt a vasovagal affliction on political and social harmony. This has happened not only because various ethnic groups have been suffering from economic deprivation and social backwardness but also because these groups believe that a form of ethnic discrimination has been perpetuated by Dispur in terms of perennial negligence of their concerns. The notion that each ethnic group will be able to usher in a golden period of economic prosperity for itself by being a separate geographic and administrative entity is not only dangerous but also it is cruelly delusionary.
Assam is at critical throes of history with her social fabric torn asunder, and with an economy struggling to shed poverty. We all know what should be done, but the problem always has been the successful delivery of planned projects. Only politically strong and intellectually wise leadership will be able to steer Assam out of the current economic and social turmoil, so that sunshine of economic prosperity and social harmony once again brighten up the land of the red river and the blue hills. Joi Ai Axom. Thank you.
[The article is an excerpts from the valedictory speech to the recently concluded 'National Conference on Economic Development of Assam, In the context of North-East Juxtaposition and Look East Policy', heldGuwahati, 13-15 December 2010.]
