[Reader-list] Invitation to a Roundtable on 'Looking East through the Northeast: People's Perspective' - 21 March, 2 pm, India Habitat Centre (NFI Conf Rm)

[Rakhi Sehgal]

 *ROUNDTABLE ON*

*Looking East through the Northeast: People's Perspective*


 *21 March 2014, Friday*

*2pm - 6 pm*


 *Venue*

*New Delhi*


 *Organized by*

*People's SAARC-India*


 Although the *Look East Policy* emerged as one of the prominent foreign
policy initiatives India launched in the aftermath of the Cold War in
1991-92, after nearly a quarter century of the policy initiative it has not
yielded any gains for the people of the Northeast.


 Some analysts have pointed out that in the second phase of the LEP, since
2003, India has sought to engage with ASEAN through LEP and inclusion in
regional forums such as the ASEAN, APEC and the BIMSTEC as a way to escape
the SAARC which came to be held hostage to its volatile relations with
Pakistan.


 The *Look East Policy* was meant to be a major shift in India's policy
priorities intended to create an economic hub in the Northeast region by
boosting trade, security and cultural ties with its ASEAN neighbours and
helping the region overcome the handicap of its landlocked and peripheral
condition by opening up access to global markets. The Northeast was meant
to be 'reinvented' through the efforts of the Ministry of Development of
the North Eastern Region (DONEAR).


 Some analysts (Samir Kumar Das) highlight the gaze that India's LEP casts
on the Northeast and 'how it constitutes and imagines into existence a
space that extends beyond the region'. Others point out the persisting
notion of a frontier inherited from the British colonial legacy that
continues to dominate the construction of the perception towards the region
by the ruling classes of post-colonial Indian State. The issue of
historical and cultural 'otherness' and alienation from the rest of India
has captured attention in recent days due to the continuing discrimination
and attacks on people from the Northeast.


 Security fears have also shaped the developmental strategies (or lack of
them) in the region. One that also posed a significant challenge in
realizing the vision of the LEP was the lack of physical infrastructure and
connectivity between India's Northeast and Southeast Asia. Thus India
initiated a number of infrastructure projects - both bilateral and
multilateral - such as the Moreh-Tamu--Kalewa Road, India-Myanmar-Thailand
Trilateral Highway, Trans Asian Highway, India-Myanmar rail linkages,
Kaladan Multimodal project, the Stilwell road, Myanmar-India-Bangladesh gas
and/or oil pipeline, Tamanthi Hydroelectricity project and optical fiber
network between Northeast India and Southeast Asia to name some.


 However, the Northeast region has been caught in a discourse that either
looks at it in terms of a gateway to boost economic development for India
(not the Northeast) or as a site of insurgency, counter insurgency and
widespread unrest, including ethnic conflicts.


 Lost in these complex constructions around economic (trade, commerce) and
security concerns of the post-colonial Indian State is the neglect of the
concerns of the people of the Northeast, the impact of these development
and infrastructure projects on the livelihoods and environment of the
region for example. There are fears that the opening up of the economy of
the Northeast will reduce it further to a market for the developing
economies of Southeast Asia just as it has been a market for mainland India
and in the process destroy the fragile household industries of the region.


 Speakers include B.G. Verghese, Ashim Roy, Binalakshmi Nepram, Bimol
Akoijam, Mrinal Gohain, Ningreichon, Ram Wangkheirakpam, Ravindranath, and
Tilput Nongbri among others.





-- 
People's SAARC (PSAARC) India Secretariat
O-63, Second Floor, Lajpat Nagar II
New Delhi 110024
Ph: 41328040
Email: psaarc.india at gmail.com
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