Development & Restrictions
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 04 2015 -

The recent call of the Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju for repealing regulations of the 1950s and 60s can be read as one of the necessary intentions of the Government of India for pushing forth its development paradigm in the Northeast region of India.

What the minister said implies that security regulations and restrictions in the region have outlived their purpose and the same should be done away with.

Rijiju had to link security regulations with infrastructure and development in the Northeast areas and how there has been certain negative perception of development in the region impacting on policy decision which has not given a “free hand” for progress.

If one could read between the lines, what the Union Minister of State for Home stated also means that in the age of globalisation and information technology, the people’s ability to understand and comprehend key concepts that set development and strategic activities in motion, particularly in the Northeast region could not be kept beyond the reach of the people.

However, the minister also vouched for necessary security requirements of the country with regard to certain needs to “classify whatever is essential”.

The way Rijiju had referred to his earlier statements which had created controversies also indicates the fact a clear and straight thinking on any subject can be taken out of context by those who swear by the book without understanding the core of the issue on one’s hand.

The fear of not making their positions clear on issues like this in the past by leaders from the region have been more or less constrained by their own ambiguous understanding of the needs of the Northeast.

How one takes the minister’s view on issues confronting the Northeast largely depends on the agenda of the ruling dispensation.

What one has to realize is the fact that when a region is propelled by the dynamics of pure economic prosperity based on the idea of ‘Laissez Faire’, the advantage reaped from the situation will always be netted by those who possess national and international capital backed by certain politics likely to bring in more miseries to the local populace rather than ameliorating existent needs.

This is why all development mantras need not be always tied to a linear explanation of the past.