I don’t know how many of you have ever visited the Northeast of India (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura & Sikkim). But I’m sure you must have heard or studied that northeast is also the part of our country. Although these states are the part of our nation but we don’t know much about them. It’s just because we don’t pay any kind of attention to the Northeast and the second most important factor is northeast is not well connected with the rest of India (Minimal rail network and dusty Roadways). Even being highly blessed with natural beauty, these states receive a low number of tourist and attention from the people living in any anywhere else in India and abroad, because it’s really a challenge to visit the places here.
(Pangsau Pass)
As we all know that in current time elections in U.P., Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur are going on. The Indian media is busy in doing coverage upon the U.P. and Punjab Elections only. Few of you might be aware of the fact that apart from this election the two northeast states (Manipur and Nagaland) were facing Curfew since months. But no one cares about the life of people in these states. For all the media channels the drama in “Yadav family” was more important than the life of the Naga and Manipuri people. According to the 2015 data northeast got only 1% of the total media coverage.
If we talk about the Literacy rate of Northeast then except Arunachal Pradesh all other have the literacy rate higher than the National literacy rate. But when we talk about the GDP of these states then while combining all the 7 states they give only 2.64% of the National share. They are among the least performing states of the country. Nobody is investing their money there, nobody is going there for visit, people are not getting jobs, health and education facilities are in the pathetic condition; it’s not their failure at all. It’s the policy failure of all the governments because all of them didn’t pay much attention to the northeast. In the year 1991 Narasimha Rao government made “Look East Policy” under which a module to develop northeast was made, but I think now this policy is dying in “Government Files” only. You will be surprised that Government is planning to build the Bullet train corridor Between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, but Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Imphal the capital cities of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Manipur respectively don’t have a railway station. The poor people who are already facing a lot of problems they can’t afford the Airways. I don’t know what the Government is doing for the people of these states, but they are totally in the state of isolation from the country. The Road are also not well developed here, only the major cities are connected to the Highways, and in the case of road blockade and Bandh the region get totally isolated from the rest of country and it makes the life of the people living here terrible. In the time of economic blockade, petrol price was pushed over ₹300 per liter. People are not even getting water, facing hunger, starvation, unemployment and apart from all these we are adding one more thing to the list and that is “Ignorance”.
If we talk about the Literacy rate of Northeast then except Arunachal Pradesh all other have the literacy rate higher than the National literacy rate. But when we talk about the GDP of these states then while combining all the 7 states they give only 2.64% of the National share. They are among the least performing states of the country. Nobody is investing their money there, nobody is going there for visit, people are not getting jobs, health and education facilities are in the pathetic condition; it’s not their failure at all. It’s the policy failure of all the governments because all of them didn’t pay much attention to the northeast. In the year 1991 Narasimha Rao government made “Look East Policy” under which a module to develop northeast was made, but I think now this policy is dying in “Government Files” only. You will be surprised that Government is planning to build the Bullet train corridor Between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, but Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Imphal the capital cities of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Manipur respectively don’t have a railway station. The poor people who are already facing a lot of problems they can’t afford the Airways. I don’t know what the Government is doing for the people of these states, but they are totally in the state of isolation from the country. The Road are also not well developed here, only the major cities are connected to the Highways, and in the case of road blockade and Bandh the region get totally isolated from the rest of country and it makes the life of the people living here terrible. In the time of economic blockade, petrol price was pushed over ₹300 per liter. People are not even getting water, facing hunger, starvation, unemployment and apart from all these we are adding one more thing to the list and that is “Ignorance”.
(Tripura's Road due to blockade)
(A view of Assam's village)
For the Study, Living, Health and Other problems and needs the people from these states comes into the major cities of the country but most of them face Racism, discrimination and crime they are called as “Chinki, Chinese, Nepali”, it’s not at all easy for them to find a living in these cities either it’s Delhi, Mumbai or any other part of India. It’s really horrifying situation when a large section of a country gets a second class treatment from all other citizens, how we can let this happen. In a country that ‘prides’ itself on its diversity it’s a shame how we discriminate against our fellow countrymen. It proves that there is something terribly wrong in our society. We know all the problems whatever they are facing, but instead of debating about the problems of Northeast, people are indulging upon JNU, Kejriwal’s allegation on PM, Rahul Gandhi's funny speeches, and blah, blah, blah…. But nobody is debating about problems in Northeast. We need to take a strong stand for the Northeast so that their life should change. Otherwise, the scenario is going to be worse and it will definitely affect the integrity and sovereignty of the Nation. We can’t keep everyone silent forever by the means of “Arms”.
(Kaziranga National Park, Assam)
(Prayer Wheels at Rumtek monastery, Sikkim)
(Angami, Nagaland)
Your Valuable Comments are always welcome!
