Riverine connectivity, the key to develop North East: Gautam Mukhopadhaya

October 23: The need of the hour is to revive the Brahmaputra, Barak and other rivers for navigation through Bangladesh. These were the words uttered by Gautam Mukhopadhaya, former Ambassador of India to Myanmar, Afghanistan and Syria. Mr. Mukhopadhaya was delivering a lecture on the topic “North East, Act East: An Alternative Approach,” held at New Delhi on Monday. The said lecture was organized by Axom : New Horizons, a group of successful professionals from Assam living in Delhi led by former Advocate General of Assam, Krishna Sarma. The lecture session was chaired by Subimal Bhattacharjee Director JOOKTO and former country head of General Dynamics.

In his welcome address, Mr. Subimal Bhattacharjee highlighted the departure of the mindset of the present political dispensation to a more vibrant and action oriented programme. The renaming of ‘Look East Policy’ of 1992 to ‘Act East Policy’ in 2014 by the Narendra Modi government was emphasized by him to put forth his argument. This he said has enabled capacity building to realise the potential of the north east region (NER) in realising business and cultural connection with ASEAN countries. He mentioned that Barak Valley in Assam could become the centre point for trade and commerce under the Act East policy.

Former Ambassador, Gautam Mukhopadhaya, the speaker of the occasion made a case for people and environment centric development looking at the North East within a wider South and South East Asian economic region based on Agriculture and Allied sector with emphasis on food processing, building on local traditions and culture, sense of community and community based social structures, aesthetics,and local architectural styles and materials like bamboo (vernacular architecture) and which have minimum environmental impact. He spoke of the historic disruptions that cut off trade and connectivity of the NER namely the partition, 1962 Indo-China War, Gen. Ne Win’s military coup in Myanmar, and the 1965 War with Pakistan and said that the NER is not taking advantage of the Act East Policy, the ASEAN Common Market and other bilateral arrangements.

He identified opportunities in education particularly English learning, Health and ICT, tourism, agriculture and allied sectors and their processing, light and cottage industries, connectivity, and cooperation on human interventions having an impact on the environment and climate change including smart livable cities and ‘rural futures’. He also spoke of sustainable models of development based on agri-processing. He also spoke for reviving the Brahmaputra, Barak and other rivers for navigation through Bangladesh. He argued for much more local initiative and participation in addressing problems of the NE.

The lecture of Gautam Mukhopadhaya was followed by an open discussion wherein former DONER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar aired his views. Mr Aiyar said that good relations with Bangladesh, developing infrastructure and connectivity in Bangladesh (like the Chittagong port) to connect the NE to the mainland India and later developing western Myanmar was the key. He also emphasised on building an overland gas pipeline to bring gas from Tripura to Haldia. Further, Mr Aiyar said that it was important to restore the North East Council to meet the stated the objectives of the legislation that created it – that is to be the foremost policy making body for the NE states. Sanjoy Hazarika, a renowned expert on North East also took part in the demiberations and stated that implementation road map was the need of the hour and riverine solutions have to be considered to build connectivity.