A talk on "the security scenario of NE" was delivered by Mr. B. K. B. Rao, a former secretary, security of India at Choksi Hall, I. I. Sc. This talk was arranged by the I. I. Sc.'s Prashthutha Forum ([email protected]). Mr. Joykumar, a research  fellow with IISc, attended the talk and has prepared this report for the global Manipuri community.

The turn out of the students and the faculty members for this talk was impressive. Some media persons and human right activists were also present. The acute knowledge about this particular region of India from the majority of the audience was clearly reflected apart from few Bengalies. In this talk the speaker briefly discussed the root causes of all these problems and their ramification in the context of maintaining India's union. He said that the root causes of these problems are due to the loosing of the aspirations of the local people towards India, lack of infrastructure developments, frustration from the educated as well as the misguided youths and the alienation from the mainstream. Briefly he put forward the background and the operating zones/regions of the various insurgent groups in NE. He also pointed out the menacing situation of the rampant corruption prevailing in this region and the nexus between the various groups and the politicians. The continuing collection of the money from the Govt. employees and the businessmen and its channelisation by the insurgents were also fully focussed. He also hinted about the difficulties in tackling the insurgency problems particularly in this region due to the porosity and proximity of these states with the neighboring countries. The involvement of the external hands like ISI with the sole aim of destabilizing India was also put forward. The most worrying thing that he mentioned was the ugly face of narco-arm-terrorism.

He conveyed that the problems in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram are not of much of concern at the moment. But the problems particularly in Nagaland and Manipur are of extremely disturbing and have the implication of wider aspect with the involvement of foreign hands in the name of religion and so on. He also said that Manipur problem has the potential of becoming the most dangerous one as the things are going out of control and also due to the implication from the recent proposition and opposition for the bifurcation of this state on the community lines. He too shortly mentioned about the ongoing peace talk between Central Govt. and NSCN(I-M). He expressed the imminent doubt and possibility of solving the Naga problem by endorsing their demand of forming a greater Nagaland by integrating all the Naga inhabited areas in NE. Sadly he pointed out that people of this region became much stressed and are under the fear from both the security forces as well as the insurgents. He painted some of the negative images of some of the leaders of various organizations leading a lavish and luxurious lifestyle in some of the costly cities like Bangkok, Dhaka and Thimphu with cocktails, cables and cell phones etc. leaving alone the lower cadres who are not trained properly to the field as the scapegoats as just to demonstrate to the public as well as to the security personals that they are still active and kicking. He also pointed out some of the mistakes made by the insurgent group like ULFA mentioning those infamous incidences like that of the kidnapping and the subsequent killing of one of the famous and young social activist Sanjay Ghosh and the extending of support to Pakistan during the recent Kargil war which all led to the loosing of the support for their cause from the local people of Assam. Unfortunately he missed to point out the socio-geopolitical background and the status of NE states before joining the Indian Union. And also the imposition of the Arms Special Power Acts 1958 and National Security Acts(1964?) and the outcomes of these acts like the suppression of people and the human right violations were kept in the dark.

About the ways and means of solving of these cancerous problems, he himself was not very confident about and instead he invited the suggestions from the audience. One fellow from the audience suggested about the crushing of all these movements by sending forces. But the speaker had the fear of flashing of the subjection and the human right violations etc. to the international media by some of the NGOs that are really doing great job for the people of these states. One intelligent guy suggested about the solving of these problems by creating jobs and bringing the developments through enthusing and thrusting the IT opportunities to the people of this region. Finally the speaker and the audience came to the conclusion that there are no easy solutions for this worsening and dangerous problems. But at last he could suggest an important suggestion that these problems can only be solved by the local people having strong will power with the strong economic support from the Center.