Development Politics in NE
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 29 2015 -
As expected, the prime opposition party at the Centre, the Congress has become a bitter critic of the development initiatives supposedly taken by the Narendra Modi led Government for the Northeast region.
The party has recently slammed the Central government for trying to cripple development in Northeastern States.
Addressing the media at a press-meet in Shillong, Meghalaya, All India Congress Committee General Secretary in-charge of the Northeast region V Narayanasamy stated that while Meghalaya is far ahead of other states in the region as far as health and education sectors are concerned, the government at the Centre led by Narendra Modi is trying to cripple the State Government activities in Meghalaya especially and the Northeast in general.
The first thing he pointed out was the fact that the Centre had withdrawn the special category status accorded to States of the region and opined that this was the prime reason why there was a deepening crisis of underdevelopment in the Northeast.
However, the Congress man also had the audacity to point out a party like the BJP do not know “the psychology” of the Northeast region as if his party had all along understood what really ailed the politics of region or for that matters the general dent in the normal psychology of the people due to the prolonged militarization.
He also slammed the Central Government for not granting the permission to meet the Prime Ministers by Chief Ministers of the Northeast States for the last five months.
He said this reflected the kind of respect Modi showed for the Chief Ministers of Northeast States.
However, he also echoed similar views on how centrally sponsored schemes and special packages for the region and fund flowing from the North East Council had all been put in the back burner by the Modi-led Government.
The centrally sponsored schemes which was 90 per cent central grant from Government of India has come down to 50 per cent and special schemes have been scrapped, he said.
On the flip-side, it is worth assessing how the idea of sapping fund flow from the Centre can be translated into rhetorical political debates.
Now, it is obvious how politics of development unfolds in a region considered backward.
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