Shantiniketan Declaration - 30th March 2010
Peace Through Tourism In Historically Changed Cross-border
- Part 2 -

R.K. Shivachandra *

The Declaration:

The Cross-Border description:

• Borders are human-made, both physical and in the minds.
• Capitals far away from the borders should understand and address the sentiments, livelihood and basic needs of the people living in the borders and constantly seek cooperation of neighboring countries.
• Tourism should be seen as meaningful tool to bring our borders and communities out of isolation and create better people to people participation along the borders.
• We must first confirm our inter-district and inter-state cooperation in regard to tourism and have common tourism circuits.
• Permits at gates or on the internet for the various districts or states (wherever may be necessary) within a country to confirm National citizenship.
• West Bengal & Orissa with eight Northeastern states of India should be brought under a single brand of Northeast for tourism purposes.
• Interstate transport Permit to be simplified for the implementation of integration as one region.
• We must reciprocate among the different neighboring countries each others respect in regard to entry permits, visas etc.
• Armed forces, customs and other Government personnel at borders must display good behavior as they are the face of the country.
• Online Visa and Visa on arrival at the borders is a priority for the countries of the Indian sub-continent joining south and southeast Asia to promote more land and water based travels.
• Medical Tourism potential for people across border should be brought under a more organized sector through a policy.
• Education Tourism should also be a priority to attract students and scholars from across the borders.

Direct Stakeholders

• The local people must be direct stakeholders of all cross-border initiatives.
• The local people should be empowered ownership on the local natural & cultural resources, which are to be protected.
• The local natural and cultural heritage should be part of the school curriculum at site.
• There should be cross-border relation development through tourism festivals and several tourism events.
• Establish 'Cross-Border Tourism Peace Parks' in Inter-District and Inter-State within a country and also across neighboring countries.
• Appreciate & support the local community initiatives in tourism and help to set up local bodies to advise the district officials on tourism matters.
• Local traditional beliefs, legends, rituals, myths etc to be a part of tourism.
• Low Cost & Simple local information brochures at every village with maps.
• Rural trails through river walks, boat rides.
• Also the same for the wetland conservation tourism initiatives.
• Ultapani, in Bodoland, Assam with Sarpang in Bhutan to access the other areas of Bhutan.
• Upper Assam & Eastern Arunachal Pradesh through Pangsau Pass on the Stilwell Road with Myanmar.
• West Bengal-Assam-Nagaland-Manipur through Tamo-Morreh Border with Myanmar, the existing arrangement to be made more active.
• Connect Paharpur World Heritage Site near Joypurhat in Bangladesh with Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in Darjeeling District India through the Hilly Border.
• West Bengal-Assam-Meghalaya to Bangladesh through Dawki and Dalu.
• Orissa and West Bengal-Nepal through Panitanki and Pashupati Fatak in Darjeeling District.
• West Bengal-Sikkim to Tibet through Nathula Pass.
• Open up the route from Agartala through Bangladesh to Kolkata for transit of tourist, saving both economic resources and carbon emission.
• South Tripura, Sabrrom-Agartala to Chattagong which existed should be re-established for Buddhist circuit with Pilak Heritage site as the main attraction.
• Re-establish the Bali/Java/Sumatra-Orissa sea relation initiated during 1992.
• Include similar old Buddhist ties of Orissa with Cambodia and Srilanka.
• Land-route Religious (Buddhist & Hindu) circuits through contiguous Northeastern states to Myanmar and on to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China.
• Connect the Common Heritage sites of the countries across borders.
• Following the historic trails of Lord Buddha, Guru Padsambhava and early travelers to India.
• Nepal-India-Bhutan Heli-Tourism on the Guru Padmasambhava trails to start discussions immediately.
• Connect West Bengal-Orissa through water route with India's Northeast, considering the Brahmaputra to Sea route.
• India-Bangladesh Sunderbans through water route.
• Andaman Islands with the Malayan Peninsula and Myanmar by water route.
• Consider immediate upgradation of Kolkata Airport for International Tourist in all respects including making it tourist friendly.
• Consider the same for Bagdogra and Guwahati.
• Improvement of the existing airports and air traffic for the Northeastern states with existing air terminals.
• Multiple Permits from a single window at the airports and railway stations like NJP, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur.
• The future is in Heli-Tourism and immediate introduction of Inter-state services among the tourism Northeastern states.
• Protected Area Permit system for Manipur is the major hurdle for any kind of tourism and is stopping the Cross-Border International tourism through Myanmar.
• For other India's Northeastern states ILP, RAP and PAP should be abolished or made easier through internet or permits at gate.
• Bhutan is already planned two domestic air terminals which will be a new opening for Northeast India.
• Silting of the rivers makes it impossible during low tide, same for Namkhana, Bhagwatpur etc in Sunderbans. IWAI to look into desilting.
• Too many restrictions on waterways route by security forces and Forest Department, the matter to be considered to make a policy.
• The common circuit for the legendary Barahmaputra-Ganga cruises connecting through Bangladesh can make the subcontinent the most popular River Cruise destination to be made possible.

ACTION

• Circulate the 'Shantiniketan Declaration' widely across countries and all International developmental organizations.
• Constant endeavor through a committed volunteer team to follow up after this workshop.
• The first action will be going into Myanmar through Manipur to be organised by Mr.R.K.Shivachandra with workshop at Imphal and Myanmar.
• The other action will be arriving Paharpur through Hilly with a workshop with Rajsahi University and Joypurhat Municipality by Mr.Apurba Sarkar.
• Dr.R.Panth offered the next International Festival of the said countries in cooperation at Nalanda Deemed University in November 2010 to make a basis for confidence building.
• The action with the title of 'Peace through Tourism' to be continued as a part of the 150 years of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore with the support of Visva-Bharati Study Circle was proposed by Mr.Sandip Basu Sarbhadhikary.
• The UN bodies including ADB working in the Indian subcontinent will be requested to nurture the agenda of 'Cross-Border Tourism for Peace'.
• Mr.Ajoy Roy suggested the Natural, Cultural and Economical status Audio Visual documentation of all the border areas.

My comment:

Manipur is a rich state in term of tourism indeed. There are beautiful mountains, challenging caves, the fresh water lake, the floating Keibul lamjao, the culture, the people, the border state and Gate to South East Asia and lots more. Rajen Bali an elderly figure in the Indian travel writing circle commented to me in the seminar " Manipur has many things to offer to the tourist.

Just witnessing the everyday rituals of Manipur like Marriage ceremony, Siradh ceremonies (funeral follow up rituals) are enough for a tourist and this alone will attract a lot of tourist". He went on to say had he ever been born in Manipur he would become by now a millionaire. I enthusiastically queried what is the secret mantra to become the millionaire so soon. A short six alphabet was the answer LOKTAK. But somebody also asked me whether they will be safe in Manipur if they ever dare to visit the land.

The Lonely Planet a renowned group in writing travel guide book recently published a guide book on North East of India, there I found a quarter of a page written on Manipur as a part of the big volume. Pages of the whole book were dedicated to other North Eastern States of India. There are obviously certain reasons behind .One reason could be that the author was denied a visa in Manipur.

Another reason being the writer himself might have felt unsafe to traverse around Manipur. If the author of the Planet is not safe in Manipur should we think the rest of the tourists are safe in Manipur? However it still remains a surprise or rather a shame on the part of Lonely Planet to have not been able to mustard the courage to cover Manipur despite all odds. Is not that LONENY PLANET always stand for? It is a direct insult to the iconic name "LONELY PLANET".

I am writing a letter to the group to explain reasons. If they think North East is complete without Manipur than let alone become a lonely planet writer. We will write ourselves what Manipur is all about.

Tourism is just for name shake in this border state. Every human related right are denied in this LONELY CORNER or heavily curtailed in the name of INSURGENCY. Let us not say that columns of forces that deployed in Manipur will stamp out insurgency. Insurgency will not go away simply by depriving the basic human right of the people in this corner.

There should be some other means to bring Peace in Manipur. Kuldip Nayar, renowned journalist, rightly commented "If a government wants to depend on "extra-judicial powers" to administer any part of the country even after 57 years of Independence; there is something basically wrong with the approach of that government. ." I hope Kuldip Nayar didn't say wrong.

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Ranganath Mishra admitted that AFSPA was "grossly misused". The present government cannot brush aside his criticism because he was brought to the Rajya Sabha on the Congress ticket." Shall we say Ranganath Mishra has been bribed to write against the Act.

Our lives have been threatened and no positive sign is seen even in the far horizon. If the infamous act like RAP and other ghostly exercise like AFSPA still continue to haunt around the jewel of India someday it may become the thorn of India too. The proverbial phrase "A stitch in time saves nine" is indeed a chapter which is to be read over and over again with special reference to Manipur by the so called law makers, manipulators, intellectuals and architect of good governance.

I trust some body hear this.

Concluded....

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* R.K. Shivachandra, social worker based in Imphal, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be reached at india_myanmar(at)yahoo(dot)com. This article was webcasted on May 05th, 2010.

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