Development & Political Decentralisation
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 12 2015 -
The need for political decentralisation to empower people living on the edge has been stressed and reemphasized over and again since the dawn of emancipatory politics.
Over the past half a century, States around the world have also acknowledged that inclusionary political process ensures popular participation at the grassroots level.
This process in many senses empowers the people.
However, the State’s increasing focus on infusing capital in all post globalisation projects have not been able to trigger true development from the perspective of participatory politics.
This phenomenon has been amply exhibited by the conflicts one gets to see between the subalterns and the States’ overarching dominance.
Various grassroots mass movements in the post globalisation period have not only questioned the post-colonial and post-globalisation development strategies but also the existence of linear development paradigm.
This has further complicated the process.
It has been reported that even in India, there are many resistance movements against the State’s attempt to forcibly infuse development mantras without consulting the people who are supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries.
The agenda of the State vastly differentiates itself from that of the people’s as they have been made to be silent “receivers”.
This phenomenon has had its impact even on those beyond the control of the State for they have been repeatedly made to believe that there is just one linear idea of capital propelled development.
It is against this backdrop, one has to wait and watch how Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a high-level Summit on Sustainable Development hosted by the United Nations (UN) on September 25.
The UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held from September 25 to 27.
This Summit is slated to be one of the largest ever gatherings at the UN. Over 150 world leaders are expected to attend the Sustainable Development Summit to formally adopt the outcome document of the new agenda.
The 70th session of the General Assembly will open on September 15.
During the Summit, it is not known if Modi will actually touch upon the mismatch between the idea of development pushed forth by his Government and the actual need for Political Decentralisation of India’s peripheries in the Northeast.
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