Did India forgot its North-East Part ??
Whenever I read news either in the daily newspapers or online, I hardly encounter news regarding the North-East India.
For Everyone's information, North East India contains 7 sister states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. These states are connected to the rest of India by a very small area of land, called as the Chicken Neck Area near Siliguri. This part is very very important for India as the Chinese border is just a few kilometers away. If they could able to choke this point, India loses its Eastern part.
Is the Government of India serious about the Chinese incursions in the state of Arunachal Pradesh ? As the facts show, I dont think so !! There has been zero development in the area of infrastructure and the nearest border post is 4-5 walking days away. India deliberately kept these areas under developed so that there would be minimal outside traffic in these areas and it would be easy to identify outsiders.
The Government had banned sale of lands to outsiders - "outsiders" means Indians who are not from the state !! There are lot of areas which are off limits to Indians themselves. Why is the Government doing this and thus alienating the people of North East ? This is a failed policy which every Government since the 1962 lost war with China has been following.
On the other side, China had built huge infrastructure and most importantly, Railway Lines right near the McMahon Line bifurcating India and China. During future war, China can transport heavy military machinery within a day or two whereas India would be least prepared and has to forget about its north east part.
Because of poor infrastructure, most areas of Tawang District are not been provided by essential commodities. Chinese Rice and grain is found in the possession of Indian grazers in the border areas provided by the Chinese authorities. Since India is not able to provide them, they are accepting it from the Chinese.
The UPA Government is concentrating more on building up relationship with the US than China. Iam not saying we should move away from US but we have a real problem with China which sits on our borders. We need to quickly resolve all our conflict areas with China through constructive dialogue.
Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Itanagar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh but he shied away from visiting Tawang as China considers Tawang as its territory in India's possession and thus "disputed". The Prime Minister was trying to please China.
On one side, we are closely falling into the trap of United States in containing China and at the same time, we are trying to please China. This is a very bad foreign policy and it would some day affect us in a very negative manner.
India should not become a pawn in containing China but India needs to compete with China in all aspects - Economic and Military !!
Sametime, we need to develop our border areas by improving the infrastructure,Schools, Hospitals and Telecom Facilities.
We should realise that if we lose Arunachal, we can forget about Kashmir. Look at the map of Jammu and Kashmir. Half is not in our possession (Aksai Chin, Azad Kashmir, etc). Within the other half, half is Ladakh and one third Jammu. What is left is an 80 km valley between Anantnag and Baramulla. This small territory (12 percent of the state), takes all the energies of the politicians and our resources. For, 60 years our minds have been devoted to this small area.
At the same time, it is very unfortunate that a state of 84,000 sq km with the potential to provide 30 percent of the nation's energy is today ignored. It is unfortunate and it frustrates the youth of North East. Don't forget that Kashmir is claimed by a small country which does not economically or militarily match India, while Arunachal is claimed by a nation far superior to India.
It is time to wake up. Once you lose Arunachal, you can forget Kashmir. If Arunachal goes, the damage will be irreparable.
The people of India need to know the reality on the ground, they need to know China, the Himalayan region, the northeast and Arunachal. The rest of India does not pose any challenge for the nation. Unless we know what China is, India is not safe.
It is hightime our policy makers in Delhi take a hard look at the facts and would help in developing the forgotten North East India.
For Everyone's information, North East India contains 7 sister states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. These states are connected to the rest of India by a very small area of land, called as the Chicken Neck Area near Siliguri. This part is very very important for India as the Chinese border is just a few kilometers away. If they could able to choke this point, India loses its Eastern part.
Is the Government of India serious about the Chinese incursions in the state of Arunachal Pradesh ? As the facts show, I dont think so !! There has been zero development in the area of infrastructure and the nearest border post is 4-5 walking days away. India deliberately kept these areas under developed so that there would be minimal outside traffic in these areas and it would be easy to identify outsiders.
The Government had banned sale of lands to outsiders - "outsiders" means Indians who are not from the state !! There are lot of areas which are off limits to Indians themselves. Why is the Government doing this and thus alienating the people of North East ? This is a failed policy which every Government since the 1962 lost war with China has been following.
On the other side, China had built huge infrastructure and most importantly, Railway Lines right near the McMahon Line bifurcating India and China. During future war, China can transport heavy military machinery within a day or two whereas India would be least prepared and has to forget about its north east part.
Because of poor infrastructure, most areas of Tawang District are not been provided by essential commodities. Chinese Rice and grain is found in the possession of Indian grazers in the border areas provided by the Chinese authorities. Since India is not able to provide them, they are accepting it from the Chinese.
The UPA Government is concentrating more on building up relationship with the US than China. Iam not saying we should move away from US but we have a real problem with China which sits on our borders. We need to quickly resolve all our conflict areas with China through constructive dialogue.
Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Itanagar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh but he shied away from visiting Tawang as China considers Tawang as its territory in India's possession and thus "disputed". The Prime Minister was trying to please China.
On one side, we are closely falling into the trap of United States in containing China and at the same time, we are trying to please China. This is a very bad foreign policy and it would some day affect us in a very negative manner.
India should not become a pawn in containing China but India needs to compete with China in all aspects - Economic and Military !!
Sametime, we need to develop our border areas by improving the infrastructure,Schools, Hospitals and Telecom Facilities.
We should realise that if we lose Arunachal, we can forget about Kashmir. Look at the map of Jammu and Kashmir. Half is not in our possession (Aksai Chin, Azad Kashmir, etc). Within the other half, half is Ladakh and one third Jammu. What is left is an 80 km valley between Anantnag and Baramulla. This small territory (12 percent of the state), takes all the energies of the politicians and our resources. For, 60 years our minds have been devoted to this small area.
At the same time, it is very unfortunate that a state of 84,000 sq km with the potential to provide 30 percent of the nation's energy is today ignored. It is unfortunate and it frustrates the youth of North East. Don't forget that Kashmir is claimed by a small country which does not economically or militarily match India, while Arunachal is claimed by a nation far superior to India.
It is time to wake up. Once you lose Arunachal, you can forget Kashmir. If Arunachal goes, the damage will be irreparable.
The people of India need to know the reality on the ground, they need to know China, the Himalayan region, the northeast and Arunachal. The rest of India does not pose any challenge for the nation. Unless we know what China is, India is not safe.
It is hightime our policy makers in Delhi take a hard look at the facts and would help in developing the forgotten North East India.
Labels: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, China, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, North East India, Tawang, Tripura
posted by Madhav Prathapa at 12:12 pm
2 Comments:
I truly agree that North East has been neglected for years now. No wonder 15th August is banned there.
the people here look chinese dont they?
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