‘Look East' Policy And Manipur

By Anand Oinam

There are many words and phrases in our midst still now which had descended from one lip to another lip for many generations. We cannot trace the authorities who first use the words as a prophecy for the future but it is a fact that there are words which prophesy the future events and happenings.

Fortune tellers or soothsayers in the days of our ancient forefathers had invented and invested words and phrases with a certain mystery. Speak in a cryptic enigmatic language; they were kept for us in the form of riddles to be unfolded and known to us only when the situation or happening equivalent to those as predicted in the riddles had happened before us.

Let me pick up some of the riddles put by our prophet forefathers, the meaning of which is unfolded to our age now. 'Cotton will sink, pebbles will float' (Lashing Luplani, Nung Taorani). The riddle is now decipher in our generation as we haven't seen any raw cotton plant growing in Manipur but we have stone, pebbles at our every step. 'Orphans will cry on tree tops' (Lamja Sharana Uton Watonda Kaplarany). Now we have mikes and loudspeakers. 'Rafts will float on dry lane' (Kangphalda Ungam Taorani), now we have four wheelers in every road. There are many more which are yet to be unfolded. It is amazing that our forefathers had the ability to look into the 'seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not'.

Another saying which is worth to be mentioned here is that 'there will be a clash of three groups' (Tengol Ahum) and one prince charming from the east riding on a white horse with a white flag will come and pacify the clash and the door of the East will be opened and that of the west will be shut. Many in our own age try to unfold the meaning of this saying with the ongoing liberation movement of the armed militants, the liberation struggle, the bloodshed and the intervention of the UN coming with a caravan of white wagons and white flags.

Let the riddles of our forefathers remain as riddles. But one thing is evident, the door of the East begins to open, India has modified her external policy especially in the policy of the East neighbor. India begins to focus her interest on the east politically and economically which will ultimately lead to the opening of the door to the east to the advantage of the North-Eastern States particularly Manipur.

Africa has been no longer a dark continent; the exploration of this continent has already been completed in the previous centuries. In the Middle East and Central Asia, there is still hegemony and influence of the US. So for a developing country like India, in order to expand her influence in the world, it is natural to look at the neighboring South-East Asian countries for its base. The Look East policy will serve India in two ways. First, India can extend her network of influence economically and at the same time able to counter the expansion of Chinese influence and market in the region.

For this, one of the ingredient parts in the Look East policy of India is to improve the bilateral relations with China, while remaining a competitor in the expansion of its economic interest in the rest of the South East Asian countries.

Prime Minister AB Vajpayee's presence in the ASEAN summit in October last can be viewed as a step towards this end. During this visit the agreement like Comprehensive Economic Co-operation leading to the creation of Free-Trade Area in 10 yrs have been signed. The PM's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in the summit is a major gain for India because after this meeting China recognized Sikkim as a part of India and renewed trade relationship between the two countries even through this State as transit point.

In the case of immediate neighbor Burma, the recent 4 days visit of the Vice-President of India made the ties of the two countries closer. Though ruled by the same colonial power during their pre-independence periods and though the religious and cultural practices are almost akin to each other, the relation between these two neighboring countries is bleak. They are neither allies nor enemies for a long time mainly because of the differences in the system of governance.

But inspite of the different forms of Government in these countries, the developments during the past 10 or more years show that the two are now in a closer tie. In February 2001, the then Union External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh had inaugurated the Tamu-Kalwa Highway, the 22 km road constructed with a 2.20 crore dollars assistance from India. This Highway is a part of the Trans Asian International Highway which will pass through Moreh in Manipur, India.

During the recent visit of the vice-president of India, an agreement to lay the railway line between Yangon and Mandalay with the assistance of 5.7 crore dollars from India had also been signed. Above this there is also a project of Trans Asian railway network connecting Calcutta and Hanoi which will likely run through Manipur.

Looking from all these angles, Manipur will be no longer a landlocked State in the 21st century. Our sons and grandsons will be easier to visit our long lost brothers and sisters in Myanmar in the coming decades. There will be a huge leap in the Indo-Myanmar trade and the whole valley of Manipur will be used as storehouse or transit go-downs for the goods to be transported from the mainland of India to the East Asian countries and vice versa and many Manipuris can become brothers in the transaction. Above this there is a huge demand of technical expertise and experts in many other fields in our neighbor of the East and our talented youngsters can be exported there and there will be no unemployment in the State then.

For this lots are to be done and to be prepared by the Union and State Governments. First to encourage better trade relations in the existing trade agreement, there must be smooth flow of transaction on the legalized items. The type of hiccup put by the detention of trucks carrying legitimate items in Bihar should not be there in the flow of trade in future. There must not be undue tax collections from all quarters in the high ways.

There must be peace and development at the most. There is a hearsay in Manipur that there has not been any progress, it finds insurgency and because of insurgency non-investments are coming leading to non-development. So it is like a vicious cycle, somewhere we should have to break it. With the opening of the gate of the East there may be another 'Gold rush' to Manipur from the foreign investor, who knows? It is time for us to prepare and to face the opportunity and the challenges to come. Let this writer not be taken as a man living in an 'Utopia of fools' by those who happen to read this piece after a hundred year or so.

Courtesy: The Sangai Express