Principal Correspondent
Kohima, May 26
The ‘Look East’ or ‘Act East’ Policy of the Central Government, which aims to make the North East Region a corridor of India to the South-East and East Asia needs to be debated robustly by the main stake holders, i.e. the people of this region in order to have full advantage from the policy.
“Look East Policy” was introduced in the early 1990s when the Congress party’s PV Narasimha Rao was the prime minister. It was endorsed by former prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh while PM Narendra Modi has upgraded it to “Act East Policy”.
The expression was made by former Ambassador, Government of India, Yogendra Kumar, IFS (Rtd) during a Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Distinguished Lecture Series on the topic “India’s Look East and Act Policy in the present international context and role of North Eastern States” held at Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema today.
During the interactive session, which was participated by professors and students of NU and Naga intellectuals, the prime concern was made towards the willingness of the Central Government not only make North East, or for that matter Nagaland, just a mere corridor but help the people of the region have all the infrastructure and human resources development to be at par with the rest of the country.
Expressions were also made towards resolution of the prolonged insurgency problem of the region, especially with regard to the decades old Naga political issue and also the influx of illegal immigrants. Is the GoI serious towards solving these concerns of the region, asked a student participant while a professor queried on the policies initiated by the Centre towards tackling the issues.
A young assistant professor questioned whether the GoI is serious about implementation of the Policy as it has already been 25 years that the Look East Policy came into being, which has now been changed into Act East Policy.
Responding to the queries and doubts of the participants, the former diplomat said, Act East policy is a great opportunity and advantage should be felt by the North East people. He however lamented that the people of the region has not been taking the centre stage to express their opinions and views before implementation of the Act, unlike the hot debates that have been taking place elsewhere in the Country.
“The people of the region should develop a sense of ownership of the Policy and conduct robust and more informed debate, but not impulsive, to come forth with their requirement towards the advantageous implementation of the policy,” he said, adding that “North East is the central gravity of the Act and the required opportunity has to be created”.
Earlier in his lecture to the participants, Kumar said that there is clear recognition both at the Centre and at the regional level that the north eastern states should be fully involved in the shaping of the central government’s ‘Act East Policy’ because they are, now, are at its centre of gravity.
“There is need for all programmes of the government, under this policy, to have a regional aspect,” he said.
Maintaining that North Eastern Council should be better engaged with ASEAN, he said “the think tanks from the north eastern region should also be part of the think tank network of ASEAN.”
The north eastern universities, such as the Nagaland University, should be part of the university network with ASEAN. There should be institutional arrangements with MEA and the latter should consider opening a branch secretariat at one of the north eastern state’s capital to cover the entire region.
He said there is the need for greater engagement of north eastern states to become driver of this policy and take advantage of the same.
Kumar said the new government at Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken decision to upgrade India’s policy towards South-East and East Asia from ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’.
He said ever since the launch of ‘Look East Policy’ but, most importantly, in recent times especially since the opening of Myanmar, the success of this policy hinges on the full involvement of the north eastern states.
“The reason for that is that India’s influence in the South-East Asia cannot be tangible unless it takes advantage of the opening of the neighbouring economies with the help of various connectivity projects. Equally, this is critical to the growth of the north eastern states themselves who suffered the adverse consequences of partition in 1947 due to the disruption of road, rail and port links. It is here that a major effort is required so that the north eastern states can feel a sense of ownership of the LEAP and of being major stakeholders in this policy,” Kumar said.
Kumar said the north eastern states’ current lack of involvement is recognized by everybody. “And perhaps, it would continue until the major infrastructure projects in the region, including in the north eastern part of India itself, become fully operational; the inter connectivity within the region is also extremely critical for equal benefit to all the state,” he said.
Prof. AK Mishra of NU Kohima Campus Meriema gave the introductory remark while Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Lanunungsang delivered the welcome address and Dr. Lemtila Alinger tendered the vote of thanks.
