[Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East

Sat Feb 3 12:09:22 EST 2007

Hello C'da

I have not analysed but given a narration of what transpired at the seminar.
KPS is too old now for anything physically viable or possible. But lot of
what KPS said are now fact. Like when I went to Borduwa two decades ago I
was surprised to see the surroundings.

-manoj

On 2/3/07, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>  Hi Manoj:
>
> I, a grown man, am almost in tears! It is about time you all hand over the
> Keys of the Kingdom to KPS Gill -- Assam's last best hope :-).
>
> Sorry for opening up in this manner Manoj. But you left yourself very wide
> open for sarcasm. What does this all have to do with the questions mm asked
> or the points I raised? Jairam Ramesh's admission that LEP has miles to go
> is good enough?
>
> What I see here is an attempt to evade the issues, inadvertent as it might
> have been on YOUR part. So now, it is B'desh that is at the root of Assam's
> woes, is that it? I have seen lame excuses and alibis of all stripes. But
> this one takes the cake Manoj. You must not have been paying attention to
> what you are writing about. I just hope it is not the specter of the
> omnipotent and omnipresent ISI or the DGFI that has so clouded your
> thinking, resulting in this non-response. I expect much better from people
> of your caliber Manoj. If people like yourself take refuge in this kind of
> alibis, I see no hope for Assam.
>
> I have a desire to analyze the points KPMSG,Jairam Ramesh and you try to
> make here, line by line. But right at the moment I will have to set it
> aside. Maybe sometime later this weekend.
>
> c-da
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> At 10:47 AM +0530 2/3/07, Manoj Das wrote:
>
> Hello C'da
>
> I was also at the seminar on LEP as part on the sponsors. In the security
> session KPS Gill (former DGP of Assam, Punjab, CRPF)  Sunil Nath (former
> ULFA  publicity secretary) Kirip Chaliha (MP, Congress) Arun Sarma (MP. AGP)
> Nitin Gokhle (Editor NDTV) were present.
>
> KPS Gill said during 62-64 during his stint as SP in Nagaon, he had thrown
> out more Bangladeshis (East Pakistanis, EP then) than 10 years of AGP rule
> (winking at Dr. Arun Sarma, who was sitting next to him). He used to take
> the refugees to camps near the border.Tthe EPs used to throw out Hindus
> from the border areas, thereby creating a crisis. At Nehru's behest, a home
> minister level meeting was held between India and Pakistan, and Nehru
> instructed  'no more evictions of EPs'. Gill and Bishnu Ram Medhi, then CM
> wrote a letter to Nehru stating the grave danger this decision will pose in
> future. Nehru decided not to act on the letter. He also said that Assam had
> a long  string of very honest CMs from Gopinath Bordoloi to Sarat Ch Sinha.
>
> He said in '64 Nagaon had a clearly demarcated Hindu -Muslim area and a
> line. Assamese Muslims had no problem. and relationship was very cordial. He
> had to set up special police station to protect a lone Hindu village near
> Muslim areas. When he visited the area in 74 the Muslim line had advanced by
> 15 km and Borduwa, the birth place of Sankaradeva was overran. He was sorry
> to use the communal sounding words but he said these situations are better
> explained by  using the right word. When in 80s Indira Gandhi decided to
> bring in the army, KPS opposed it and suggested that police be trained and
> strengthened to deal with the situations. On the contrary, the army moved in
> and now they will never move out as it is an industry for them.
>
> KPS also used to write poetry in the IIllustrated Weekly of India, which
> was disclosed by Kirip Chaliha. Supercop preferred to keep the poetic part a
> secret
>
> Nitin Gokhle of NDTV was also candid. He said we are unnecessarily giving
> too much credit to ISI. Actually he said the DGFI of Bangladesh and certain
> functionaries of the establishment  are dead against India and are capable
> of fomenting trouble in India without ISI. After partition as per groupings
> Assam was to goto EP, that they have not forgotten. Even Mujib in his
> autobiography has written that Bangladesh will need Assam's fertile valley
> to support its hugely expanding population. They see denial of Assam to EP
> as a historical deceit to deprive them of the north east. The Bangladesh
> Ranger boss who engineered the butchering of  BSF Jawans a few years  back
> claims in his recent book  that  Assam will  be theirs' one day.
>
>
> Nitin said that when you look east from Delhi, first you see is
> Bangladesh.
> Bangladesh will not allow India a transit  because it feels  India did not
> give  it a transit route to  Nepal  once. Bangladesh will never give the
> transit to India, be it through river Brahmaputra or Trans Asian
> Highway/Railway. Their policy is that if they can throttle the Northeast,
> the region will suffer from underdevelopment and India will have limited
> access through the chicken's neck. The chicken nack is so crowded now that
> only 1.2 km is available for public works, you cannot build a transmission
> line to evacuate the huge hydro power of Arunachal, even if it is exploited.
>
> In the inaugural address Mr Jairam Ramesh, MoS (Commerce) admitted that
> the infrastructure is pathetic and LEP has miles to go. He said that LEP
> needs a byepass surgery on Bangladesh. Govt. of India is going to develop
> Akyab port by investing 100m $. Govt. is also going to fund Rs. 2500 crore
> in Assam to replant the ageing tea plants.
>
> -manoj
>
> On 2/2/07,* Chan Mahanta* <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
> It will be interesting to hear what the powers that be might have to say
> about this.
>
>
> Maybe Hazarika will forward it to the 'hard-hitting' minister to get some
> answers.But I won't hold my breath.
>
>
>
> >There is nobody to redress.
>
>
> There never was. And  I cannot imagine when it will be there under the
> prevailing system.
>
>
>
> All the big talk about industries and entrepreneurship are always from
> people who never held a hammer in his life, or ever had to produce anything
> to make a living.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> At 10:25 PM +0530 2/2/07, mc mahant wrote:
>
> Look East Policy is yet a farce.
>
>  Look what insults/losses I suffered in the last month:
>
> With expensive bank loans I ordered 2 MIG/MAG 630 Amp Welding Machines ex
> Tianjin China@ $1510 FOB.
>
> As I wanted  to do some critical construction job I asked them to
> Airfreight   the machines to L.G.N.B.International Airport,Guwahati via
> Bangkok. No airlines would carry there. So I said--via Delhi  then(They care
> for the EAST and Care Dearly for the North East!-I THOUGHT).
>
> Only Korean Air will carry the cargo--gross 200 Kg~ -- and they charged
> $680. These arrived Delhi on 15 January. On one pretext or the other("Why
> are you buying Chinese", "We don't accept E-mail" This Print is Hazy"----)
> these were not released till today -after paying 37.5% DutyonC.I.F. and
> "Delayed  Collection charges". In spite Of "Hon'ble Finance Minister
> announcing Pre-Budget      "We are pleased to reduce Duty on Capital goods
> from 10% down t0 5% (on FOB).There is nobody to redress.
> NEDFI-DONER-OXOMmp's-Assam Govt-Look East--all are Bekaar!
>
> "Look East-" is also copied from Willy Brandt's Drang nach Osten(towards
> USSR) in '70s .
>
> "Look East " will be real only in Sovereign Oxom where the main Trade will
> be from Kakopothar  to Chengdu in 70 minute hops.
>
> And when bargeloads of Yunnan Phosphorites will travel  Da-li to Mytkina
> -to Patkoi-to Luit valley daily.
>
> mm
>
> P.S. Pradip -maybe you would copy this to your big address list -to whom
> you posted the original
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> From:  *Pradip Kumar Datta <**pradip200 at yahoo.com* <pradip200 at yahoo.com>*>
> *
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> *
>
> Subject:  *[Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East*
> Date:  *Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:28:55 -0800 (PST)*
>
>
> *Look East Policy and development of North East
> **- Rejaul Karim Laskar*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *T*he agreement reached during the fifth India-ASEAN Summit held in Cebu,
> Phillippines on January 14, 2007 on the proposed Free Trade Agreement- which
> will be ready by July 2007- is a significant achievement of the Look East
> Policy. It is to be hoped that such a free trade agreement will open the
> door to new opportunities for the development of North East which has been
> stagnating due to lack of economic development for the last six decades.
> With the establishment of India-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the North East will
> no longer be handicapped by the Physical inaccessibility from the rest of
> India, the way it has been for the past six decades. Rather, it will be the
> centre of this vast Free Trade Area
>
> which may, in all probability, be one of the largest and most dynamic free
> trade areas of the world in the twenty-first century.
>
> Though in the first phase of the 'Look East Policy' - unveiled by the
> Narsimha Rao Government in the early nineties- the Government of India
> focused on renewing political and economic contacts with the countries of
> East and South-East Asia, in the second phase of this policy the Government
> of India is giving special emphasis on the economic development of backward
> north eastern region of India taking advantage of huge market of ASEAN as
> well as of the energy resources available in some of the member countries of
> ASEAN like Myanmar.
>
> The 'Look East Policy' started achieving success as early as in 1992. In
> January 1992, India became able to establish the first institutional linkage
> with ASEAN by becoming a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in specific
> areas like trade, investment, science and technology and training. The
> institutional
>
> linkage was upgraded in 1995 when India became a full dialogue partner of
> ASEAN. In 1996 the institutional linkage was further upgraded when India was
> admitted in ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)- which deals with security issues and
> has a tremendous clout in Asia Pacific region. India also became a founder
> member of East Asia Summit and has participated in both first East Asia
> Summit held in December 2005 and the just concluded second East Asia Summit
> held on January 15, 2007. But upgradation of institutional linkage with
> South East Asia is not the only benefit of the Look East Policy, but more
> importantly, this policy has led to a steady expansion of India's trade and
> investment links with the East and South East Asia region. From a meagre $
> 2.5 billion in 1993-94, India-ASEAN trade is now more than $21 billion.
>
> But the most important beneficiary of this Look East Policy will,
> obviously be the north eastern region of India. In the second phase of the
> Look East Policy
>
> the Government of India is giving special emphasis on the development of
> North East by taking advantage of the physical contiguity of this region
> with the ASEAN. With the admission of Myanmar into ASEAN in 1997, North East
> has now become India's gateway to ASEAN. As the process of establishment of
> India-ASEAN Free Trade Area progresses North East will have the potential to
> become the hub of this future growth engine of Asia. But, of course, road,
> rail and air linkages will have to be improved to realise this potential.
> This is the reason why the Government of India is giving special emphasis on
> improving the road connectivity between North East and Myanmar by investing
> in transport infrastructure in North East as well as in Myanmar. India and
> Thailand have also planned a trilateral project with Myanmar to link the
> three nations through a road corridor. The India-ASEAN car rally held in
> November 2004 was also a conscious effort to strengthen the road linkages
> between ASEAN
>
> and the North East.
>
> The ASEAN-India Partnership for peace, progress and shared prosperity pact
> signed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with leaders of the ASEAN
> countries at the third India-ASEAN summit on Vientine on November 30, 2004,
> which outlined a multi-pronged action plan for boosting trade, investment,
> tourism, culture, sports and people to people contact will not only go a
> long way towards economic integration between India and ASEAN but will also
> facilitate development of the North East. The plan to 'build institutional
> linkages for intelligence and information sharing, exchange of information
> and cooperation in legal and enforcement matters' and to 'explore developing
> anti-terrorism cooperation and assistance packages covering among others
> immigration control, customs cooperation, land, air and sea safety' will
> contribute immensely to curbing terrorism in North East.
>
>
> Another dimension of Look East Policy is the Bay of Bengal Initiative for
>
> Multi-Sectoral Economic and Technological Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
> established in June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India- Sri Lanka-Thailand
> Economic Co-operation) but renamed as BIMST-EC (Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri
> Lanka-Thailand- Economic Co-operation) in December 1997 and again renamed as
> Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Economic and Technological
> Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in July 2004. Presently its members are Bangladesh,
> India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The members of this
> grouping have also been working for quite some time for a Free Trade
> Agreement among themselves. But the postponement of the second BIMSTEC
> Summit, which was scheduled to be held on February 8, 2007 has given a
> setback to this endeavour. Incidentally, the North East lies at the centre
> of both the proposed India-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the BIMSTEC Free Trade
> Area and has the potential to be a hub of these two future growth engines of
> Asia.
>
> (Source: Assam Tribune 19th January 2007)
>
>  ------------------------------
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> --
> Manoj Kumar Das
> C 172 Gr Floor
> Sarvodaya Enclave
> New Delhi 110017
> Tel: 91 11 26533824
> Telefax: 91 11 26533829
> Hand Phone: 91 9312650558
>
>
>
> Be so unselfish that when God writes your destiny; he can be free to ask:
> What do you want?
>
>
>

-- 
Manoj Kumar Das
C 172 Gr Floor
Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 110017
Tel: 91 11 26533824
Telefax: 91 11 26533829
Hand Phone: 91 9312650558

Be so unselfish that when God writes your destiny; he can be free to ask:
What do you want?
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