Region and President Mukherjee

Oken Jeet Sandham *

President Of India Flags Off 1st North East India Mt. Everest Expedition 2013 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President of India, is one of the known political faces in this country. He is widely considered among the political circles as the "Trouble Shooter” of the Congress Party. Whenever there were any political crises or Government crises either within the Congress Party or the Congress-led UPA Governments, he was always the answer. There was hardly any who did not have confidence in him that he would not be able to solve any problem in the Party or in their Governments.

President Mukherjee did not have any grudge against any political leaders be it Congress leaders or any opposition leaders. Even opposition stalwart LK Advani lauded his political acumen of handling almost all the political and government crises that erupted in the Congress or the Congress-led UPA Governments from time to time.

Mukherjee was also seen having high ambition to occupy the seat of top executive post in the country. "7 RCR was never my destination” (Prime Minister's official residence is in 7 Race Course Road, RCR) was what he replied when he was asked of his mind towards occupying the seat of the Prime Minister.

He finally occupies the seat of President which, perhaps, he has not dreamed of. It is like "Man proposes; God disposes.” This destination is more and more honorable.

He was also concerned for the fast degeneration of moral standards in the country. He was saddened when the country woke up to the series of gory rape incidents that took place at the heart of the country at Delhi. He wanted to have a strong law to deal with these heinous crimes.

One of the remarkable things he has done as soon as he ascended to the seat of President was not to use the word "Excellency” before the name of President any more. The Presidential Secretariat has amended the deletion of the word 'his excellency' before the name of the President and deletion of word 'honorable' before his designation.

One time Indira Gandhi loyalist, Mukherjee was later sidelined by Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira. But he returned to the Congress fold after PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. He was instrumental in shaping and completing Rao Government in the 90s.

Mukherjee was also instrumental bringing Sonia Gandhi to the Congress and played largely for the Congress-led UPA's formation of Governments at the Center.

Although he was inspired by reformist leader of the Communist Party of China Deng Xiaoping, Mukherjee had a long dream of defeating Left Front Government in West Bengal. He found in firebrand Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress that the latter had the material to defeat the Left Front Government in West Bengal. He played his card and at last his dream was fulfilled before becoming the President of the country.

President Mukherjee's coming to Nagaland to grace the Convocation Ceremony of the Nagaland University, which is still struggling to become a well-equipped Central University in the State, is laudable. The University is lacking in infrastructures. There is one "Global Open University” in the State and its activities are hardly heard of. It is hoped that the ailing Nagaland University get proper treatments with the visit of the President.

The President is also very much aware of the Center-NSCN (IM) political negotiations that have been pretty long. The negotiations have entered into a very decisive phase. Any solution that has substance to produce another conflict is not a solution at all. The ongoing Center-NSCN (IM) negotiations appear needing guidance and well-thought out political wisdoms from various pundits to end the conflicts. Application of his wise judgment towards the process is paramount, because, ultimately, any decision taken on this will go to him for his assent.

And now you may say that we go by the book but I honestly believe that laws do not necessarily bring solution to such nature of issues but conscience sometimes. One can't imagine the level of thinking and mindsets of the northeast people to compare with that of progressive people living in other States of India.

Even in the State capital Kohima, we have few banks. The other high profile banks have come in only few years back after the arrival of the ATM facilities. ATM booths in Kohima town can be easily counted in 2 minutes. And most of the time, these ATM booths are dysfunctional.

We keep talking that the "Economic Development” is the answer to the region's insurgents. But in reality, it is the opposite, because the Center was alleged to have moved to abolish the one and only Ministry to oversee the overall developmental activities of the region, the Department of North East Region (DoNER). The Ministry of DoNER was created in September, 2001 by the then BJP-led NDA Government.

The ministry is mainly concerned with the creation of infrastructure for economic development of North-Eastern region. It also acts as a facilitator between the Central Ministries/ Departments and the State Governments of the North Eastern Region including Sikkim in the economic development including removal of infrastructural bottlenecks, provision of basic minimum services, creating an environment for private investment and to remove impediments to lasting peace and security in the North Eastern Region including, Sikkim. Now after the Center's alleged move to abolish this DoNER Ministry, there have been protests and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was reported to have assured not to abolish. In fact, other than this DoNER, there is hardly any policy worth mentioning for the socio-economic development of the region.

How can you expect the people of the northeast to grow when such attitudes are prevalent? Does anyone believe that region's people would not be allowed to enjoy existing facilities that the rest of the citizens of the country have. The fact is such developments still exist even after 66 years of India's Independence.

To add more embarrassing to the already charged dismal condition, the Home Ministry will issue threats from time to time to ban pre-paid mobile services in the region under the pretext of curbing militant activities in the region which is ridiculous. Actually, the people of the region, perhaps, have a peace of mind after the arrival of mobile services in their respective areas.

I wonder sometimes whether the mandarins at Delhi realize that the unprecedented low level of human living conditions that prevail in the region are the by-product of aforementioned acts. And these low level of human living conditions is responsible for the births of many unwanted organizations in the region.

President Mukherjee, no citizen can still have Credit Card facilities with any banks in the State. If you want to have a Credit Card facility from a bank, then you have to have with that bank a fixed deposit account. Supposing if you have Rs 1 lac fixed deposit with a bank, then they will allow you to have a Credit Card allowing you to use up to Rs 80,000/- and not even Rs 1 lac.

It is very unfortunate that the bank authorities are yet to trust the people of these gullible and innocent tribal people even after 66 years of India's Independence. The bank people only know how to convince the innocent and gullible tribal people to deposit their hard earned money in their respective banks more and more without giving any basic financial educations. Giving Credit Cards to someone is a matter of trust between the bankers and their customers but till today such things do not exist in Nagaland.

Another interesting story is various banks will put up massive online ads for providing loans under various schemes. But most of these schemes usually end from Guwahati. If one clicks to any of the websites of the banks, the so-called high profile banks, for applying loans for any enterprises, the answer is not beyond Guwahati.

Our President, who has vast knowledge after serving in various capacities as Union Minister, is hoped that he reduce the gap between the region and the rest of the country particularly the Center.