Be that as it may, the November 17 issue of this avant-garde daily announces that the government of the day is all set now to inaugurate a "Look East" policy.We are informed that a two-day North-Eastern Council Meet has determined to plough the 'seven sisters' (ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura) for purposes of exploiting their potential for "export".
Be it noted that some six decades after India's independence from colonial rule, these states remain largely bereft of roads, electricity, educational institutions, hospitals, not to speak of industry or other sources of steady employment, regional variations notwithstanding. Now, however, "access corridors" from these regions to neighbouring countries are proposed to be opened, as well as "air connectivity" within the region. Such are the charms of "reform." If you have no bread, eat cake. The question as to what percentage of North-Easterners might be equipped to participate in the bounties of "access corridors" and "air connectivity" hardly needs to be asked. The observation seems warranted that while our post-Washington Consensus ruling elites remain mortally opposed to pampering the "creamy layer" among the downtrodden social groups of India, everywhere else it is the creamy layer for which now the Indian state opens its purse strings and, one might add, its system of justice.
Reading this "Look East" news report, it just struck me that after all we do see only what we wish to see. Looking East, not one worthy in that two-day conference seemed to see Irom Sharmila of Manipur who continues to be on her soul-wrenching satyagraha since October, 2000, refusing food and water, against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,1958.
Through this six-year long odyssey, unparalleled since the days of Gandhi—and, in some respects, more heroic than any of the many fasts he undertook—this "iron lady" has either been in one jail after another, or one hospital after another,where she continues to be force-fed through nasal drips. It is doubtful that the British colonialists would have waited through a six-year long saga of self-mortification to address a public issue. Indeed, even a Cindy Sheehan seems to have pulled greater punch with the American media and public than our own Irom Sharmila Chanu. Such is our self-absorption in project superpowerdom. Soon this hero of substance might actually die, and Manipur go up in flames. What will that matter? After all we do have the AFSPA in place, an Act that allows all manner of control.
Now this Act empowers not just any commissioned officer but any warrant or non-commissioned officer operating in a "disturbed area" to: