An Interview With Manishankar Aiyar
An Interview With Manishankar Aiyar
“We look forward to an era of emotional integration of Northeast region with the rest of India.”
-Mani Shankar Aiyar
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Sports and Youth Affairs and the Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) calls himself an honorary member of northeast. For him the crux of development lies in the participatory form of government. Unlike the general populace, he is overwhelmed at the overall effort going on to develop the region – the Seven Sisters and the eighth brother Sikkim, the description of which is generally put forward by two words, ‘alienation’ and ‘neglect’. He was quite open and confident in sharing his views with Headlines India about the ongoing drives in the North East, which is aimed to bring the effect of the economic boom in the region at the earliest.
You visited Assam recently and spoke on the need that there has to be a ‘full northeast component’ in the Look East Policy. Can you illuminate on the issue and the development in that regard ?
Mani: I visited Assam in October (2007). Since then, lots of development have taken place on this issue. The general idea with respect to of ‘Look East Policy’ have received far more concrete content. On 31st October, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee convened a meeting of all the eight chief ministers of the region along with the principal union ministers concerned. The discussions held, for the first time gave real content on what needs to be done. Some of the decisions would take some time before getting executed, but atleast there has been identification by consensus on what steps is required to be taken and in which areas. Therefore, the process of implementing those can commence. Based on those discussions, we are now introducing a Vision 2020 document with an appropriate chapter on the Look East Policy.
Second major achievement in that regard is that ‘National Institute of Public Financing Policy’, who were asked to draft the a Vision 2020 document have competed their exercise. The steering committee met at the beginning of October, where the members expressed their views. The draft was taken to a twelve different public hearings in different parts of north-east. The observation in the public hearings were incorporated in the final version of the document. We have held an internal discussion in the North East Council (NEC) plenary, which took place on 17th and 18th December. There the state representatives suggested that the vision should include state component to ensure correspondence in vision of states and the nation for 2020.
On my personal behalf, I have asked that a group of well known personalities led by Sanjoy Hazarika should look at the document. Their participation is must not only in bringing up its standard to the desired, but also to give a sense of participation to northeast intellectuals. I have persuaded my colleagues in the NEC that we will have a special session in April (2008), where we will give final shape to the vision document so that we are able to perhaps present it to Parliament in the second half of the upcoming budget session.
Apart from the Look East Policy, what are the other developments going on in the region ?
Mani: Another major development in the region has come through the initiatives of NIRD’s (National Institute of Rural Development), north eastern branch (Guwahati). They have come out with a ‘paper’ on poverty eradication. It is also being discussed in the NEC plenary and we hope to incorporate that as a chapter in the vision 2020 document. We have reviewed all the eight sectoral summits at the NEC level and have decided that each state should submit ‘action taken report’. We have three more important summits scheduled in early part of 2008. In March, we are holding a meeting on agriculture where all the forward and backward linkages would be explored. The meet would also look up on horticulture, floriculture,forestry etc. Similarly the meet on industries and all related aspects is scheduled in May. We would also have a deep look on the question of flood control and irrigation at a meet in June. So agriculture, industries and flood control remains the three broad areas, which would be looked upon.
What is the proposed budgetary allocation during the Eleventh Five Year (2007-2012) plan for the north east region ?
Mani: I have not added up the number. At this stage what I can say is, that it would be much larger than ever before. Government of India has decide that 10 per cent of the gross budgetary support (GBS) of all, except the excluded ministries would be spent in the region.
During your visit (Assam) you also mentioned about the need of revamping both North East Council (NEC) and DONER, Can you elaborate on this ?