What ails the north east?

Reproducing my part of a conversation with S and S. We were talking about why things are generally pessimistic about the north eastern states, and why no one seems to care. The recent blockade of the entire state of Manipur for months together, while the rest of the country was engrossed in the antics in bollywood and IPL was a case in point. I don't understand why there is little or no coverage about life in these states in our so-called 'national' media, apart from military casualties. While I want to know about soldiers serving there, I also want to know more about life in those parts. However, all is not lost. The Hindu seems to be reporting regularly from Manipur, and that's a start.

My two cents on what can be done to improve the state of affairs:

Give more control to the states over the money. For example, the north east got some 10k crore grant recently (can't recall the exact instance, but Manmohan announced it a while back). This is in addition to the what the planning commission gives, and would be interesting to know what happens to this money. My guess is, a good chunk of it is returned unspent. (Like you said,) Some number crunching would help here.

So while funds aren't the issue, spending it properly is. Another thing Delhi can do here is to loosen the apron strings a bit. I am not sure how much grassroots governance exists here. Experience from Kerala/TN shows that grassroots control spreads development better than a top down approach. But the issue here is that Delhi feels uncomfortable giving up some control to these far flung states, hence the lack of real progress. Give some more control to the states to build their own roads and infrastructure as they see fit, I am sure some progress will be made. Agencies like BRO can build maintain genuinely difficult, sensitive and high altitude stretches, and no more.

Elaborating on this point, there is one more thing that makes no sense: everything about the north east is viewed through the national security prism. As though these states would want to team up with Myanmar or China! No one wants that, I (read that) the terrible memories of '62 are still around. We need to feel more self confident in dealing with our far flung areas and trust them to run their own affairs to an extent, at least to what exists in the south and the west (am not talking about another article 370). Trust me, once the spectre of Delhi being the colonial master intent upon using the natural resources fades, things *will* drastically improve.

All is not lost, though. The north eastern states have decent social development indices. This link shows some decent statistics, and some effort is being put into starting up IITs and NITs here.

This is the problematic area: Look at the road lengths in the bottom of the column.

I think the following would help:

* Fixing lines of communication, and exploiting the educational levels to bring more jobs here will do the trick. The insurgencies we hear about periodically will die out by themselves, the armed forces can be re-deployed for genuine national security duties. I am sure they don't like counter insurgency duties against the people either.

* Let the states build their own hydel power projects, the centre should just fund them with one time grants (like the one mentioned above), instead of actually building them using central PSUs. Then the states can use this the way they want: my guess is, they will sell the inevitable surplus power on the national market, and the monies will go into the states directly. There is bound to be some trickle down effect and long term gains.

* Open up these areas further to tourists. People like us still need passes to go to some states, like Arunachal! Can you believe that? I am sure the states are definitely interested in promoting tourism - it is as beautiful as Kashmir, if not more so.

* My pet project, that will need time to take effect: introduce more learning material about these states in the national curriculum. Too many of us dismiss the people east of Assam as chinese, etc. We don't really know much about the culture, history etc. This ignorance translates into indifference on part of our babus in Delhi. This is not some wishful 'all Indians are my brothers' theory - this is a definite issue and will translate into gains in the long run. It will also increase our self confidence when dealing with China, which, alas, we don't have much of now.

Foreign aid and Realpolitik

Okay, so the Pakistan govt is not above playing politics on accepting aid from arch-enemy India. Looks like they have accepted it after some hemming and hawing. However, my question was this: Are we above playing politics here?

Consider this: why did the PM offer only $5m? It works out to around Rs. 22 crore. What would one do with that? I think the number is too small to look meaningful. We might as well not offer any aid, or just offer supplies without mentioning any monetary value. If we offer aid, it should be a serious offer, not something we hope they won't take. I think our govt. felt that offering a bigger amount would be politically inconvenient, especially since parliament is in session and the govt. is looking to pass the nuke liability bill. Also, talks with Pakistan aren't going well, and Kashmir isn't exactly happy right now. They don't want any issues from the opposition. So they make an offer that won't make waves domestically (after, who cares about just $5 million?), and one that mostly won't be accepted readily by Pakistan. Most of this calculation worked, and Pakistan did not accept it initially (after all, they have their own politics to attend to), the US and others waded in, asking them to accept it, etc. Finally, with a show of reluctance, they did accept it. Okay, so no harm done.

But, consider this: we regard ourselves as an emerging power with global ambitions. That means we must have influence around the world, and be able to project soft power backed by hard power anywhere anytime. We should play this properly if we want to be taken seriously. We did do a good job after the tsunami: the Indian Navy was hard at work when the US Navy arrived to provide relief in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. This was in spite of being hit by the tsunami ourselves. Sure, Indonesia and Sri Lanka aren't viewed like Pakistan is, but, still, it was an important humanitarian gesture that we could deliver on. If we can go to Indonesia immediately after the tsunami, what prevents us from packing a train with rice (FCI godowns are rotting with surplus food) and sending it across Wagah? Why did we wait until mid-Aug to even offer this aid? We could have just send some supplies of blankets and tents, etc. I am sure it will go a long way towards how we are perceived on the ground in Pakistan. Also, if we want to be a real global power, we have to settle our issues with our neighbours at some point, only then can we look outside of the sub-continent. These gestures will help someone on the ground, and hopefully remember us for that, and in the long run, help our perception there.

Realpolitik apart, let's go back to the offer itself: $5 million. It may not sound like peanuts to some, so consider the following:
What India has offered as aid:

1. Katrina: $5 million + supplies
India offered to contribute $5 million to the United States Red Cross for relief and rehabilitation of the victims. They also offered to donate medicines and large water purification systems for use in households and small communities in the stricken areas, where potable water was a key concern.[24] India sent tarps, blankets and hygiene kits. An Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft delivered 25 tonnes of relief supplies for the Hurricane Katrina victims at the Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas on September 13, 2005. Source

2. Haiti: $5 million + re-building

3. Sri Lanka, post war: $100 + $382 million(!) Source

4. Sri Lanka, post tsunami: (Immediate) Relief in kind Source

5. Afghanistan reconstruction: $1.2 Billion (!)
"...New Delhi has pledged $1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan, making India the fifth largest donor nation to the country after..." Source

6. Pakistan flooding: $5 million, no mention of supplies, etc., offer came 2 weeks after flooding started (?) Source

Okay that's we have to offered. Now, what about others?

* EU: $179.4m
* US: $156.8m
* UK: $100m
* Saudi Arabia: $65.3m plus $40m uncommitted pledges
* Australia: $31.6m plus $225,000 uncommitted pledges
* UN Central Emergency Response Fund: $26.6m
* Germany: $12.4m plus $20.3m uncommitted pledges
Source

Cash strapped UK is offering 100 mil? Surely, we can do better than that? We are the next door neighbours and can do more if we want to. Remember, we quickly sent relief materials after the Kashmir earthquake, and relations weren't exactly rosy back then.

I am no fan of Pakistan's antics towards us, but I think we should have responded with more alacrity and credibility. For a country sitting on $280 billion in foreign reserves, we can offer a wee little more, I am sure the displaced people will not grudge us for that. Finally, if we want to be taken seriously as a global player, we should punch at our weight, and not at this 'small' level.