SubscriberWrites: Is it the Act East Policy or the Lack East Policy?

Would it be that by default or design, means a revision of the objectives of the AEP, where the Northeast becomes irrelevant & that maritime cooperation alone is sufficient.

An arson attack during the violence that erupted in Manipur | Image by special arrangement

Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.

Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/

Manipur is growing to become a metonym for a new unsaid policy of the Government of India called Lack East Policy. The fact that Manipur shares ethnic, linguistic and cultural ties across the 400 km porous border with a worrying and uncertain Myanmar and its contingent international ramifications appear to have no priority.

It took the power of a viral video of two stark naked women being paraded and their genitals being fondled with, to shake the vitals of Prime Minister Modi to open his mouth on Manipur. The mayhem and insanity that afflicted Manipur 79 days earlier was treated as an infra dig. To add insult to injury it was also a monologue, not worth the discussion in the cathedral of democracy called Parliament.

India’s Look East Policy (LEP) was rechristened to Act East Policy(AEP) in 2014 by Prime Minister Modi. A move denoted by the emerging concept of the Indo-Pacific in an environment of changing geopolitical configurations which inter alia led to the formation of QUAD ( Australia, India, Japan and the USA). While also factoring in, the development of Northeast India. Reaping the benefits of linking with ASEAN  economies while also tackling the declining insurgencies. Under the LEP successive Prime Ministers had emphasized Northeast India as the gateway to South East Asia. Development of Northeast under LEP had begun by allocating 10% of the budgets of line Ministries. An exclusive Ministry for the Northeast called DONER (Development of Northeast Region) was also created.

AEP has further focused on Infrastructure development in the NER, including rail and road networks with timelines for completion of connectivity projects with South East Asia. The ambitious Kaladan Multimodal project, the Trilateral Highway and collaboration of ASEAN, Japan and other players were being obtained for infrastructure development. Besides more attention is being given to border trade which has all along remained a fraction of the total trade from India – mostly maritime.

The enormity of the quasi anarchy situation in Manipur is mounting every moment. Spilling over to other adjoining States. Uprooting and displacement of people. Within the State, outgoing from the State and incoming into the State. Besides 30,000 refugees from Myanmar are already in Mizoram. More are now coming into Manipur itself.

Questions that are being asked. Is there a functioning State Government of Manipur as such? Who is the Government then? Is it the Chief Minister or the Governor under Art 355? From whom do the bureaucracy and the Police take orders? Does the entity called Manipur Police still exist or it has been split right down the middle on ethnic lines? How can the security and defence forces operate effectively sans cohesion?

So what happens now to the connectivity Trilateral highway project which passes through Manipur and Myanmar? Not to talk of connecting further to Thailand and other South East Asian countries. What about the border trade through Moreh? What happens to all the gains of AEP in particular in the Northeast? Doesn’t it mean going back to square one?

Amidst all this chaos in Manipur is the perfect chance for transnational and cross-border crimes. Manipur has already been known as the entry point into India for drug trade from the golden triangle of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Evidence galore about top ruling personas being linked to the drug trade. Adding further is more opportunities for human trafficking because of the thousands driven into poverty.

Will the Prime Minister of India act on Manipur or allowed it to fester even more into a total metastasis? Or let his colleagues and sycophants to irrationally indulge in whataboutery and non sequitur by comparing Manipur with wrongs of the past and elsewhere. Or still, play around with political expediency over the compelling need for statesmanship. Only because Chief Minister Biren Singh is eternally indispensable to the larger hidden agenda of Hindutva.

It also means ignoring the recent past of the history of insurgencies in Manipur and Northeast as a whole. When arm groups were holding hostage of the administration and Government and forcibly siphoning of Government funds. Leading to the recrudescence of fragility in the region. And encouraging neighbouring external forces to exploit the situation as evident in the 60s and 70s.

Would it be that by default or design means a revision of the objectives of the AEP where Northeast becomes irrelevant and that maritime cooperation alone is sufficient? The logical inference would be, that the Act East Policy is now converted into a Lack East Policy.

These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.