New Northeast

Shekhar Gupta8217;s insightful piece on the Northeast 8216;Northeast is India8217; is welcome for many reasons.

8226; Shekhar Gupta8217;s insightful piece on the Northeast 8216;Northeast is India8217; is welcome for many reasons. There aren8217;t many articles in the media enlightening people on what ails the region and what could be its bright future.

The benign neglect is a carryover from the Raj. The fear then was that the people of the plains would overwhelm the tribals. Verrier Elwin 8212; the defrocked Anglican priest and Oxonian, who had the intellectual pedigree of anthropologists like J.H. Hutton, of the pre-1947 era 8212; put that fear at the base of the Centre8217;s policy for the region. There was also the fear of secession.

The Northeast is an area of lost opportunities. The fear of conversion by missionaries meant closing the doors on the foremost agent of change and empowerment of the people. Like the Meiji restoration of 1869 in Japan, the government of New Delhi and the governments of Seven Sisters, by forced marches, have to make up for the lost years and move the juggernaut of modernisation in the region. Globalisation is already flattening the world, so some loss to the traditional cultural base has to be accepted.

8212; John Alexander

Nagpur

8226; This refers to Shekhar Gupta8217;s 8216;Northeast is India8217;. Thanks a lot for enlightening the readers on yet unknown historical facts about Arunachal Pradesh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s visit to the state assumes significance, as it was not just a routine one but a visit with a 8216;purpose8217;. The prime minister has taken a step in the right direction, in an effort to rejoin this tribal region with the mainstream based on its overall development on the lines suggested by him by turning the clock back on the erstwhile 8216;Elwin-Nehru8217; paradigm.

However, the government shouldn8217;t bother about China8217;s 8216;questioning8217; of his latest visit to this so far neglected state, for obvious reasons. The entire Northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, is India; and no one should be allowed to interfere in our internal affairs.

8212; S.K. Gupta

Delhi

Debating riots

8226; The observations Pratap Bhanu Mehta has made in his article 8216;His freedoms and ours8217; are incontestable: Maharashtra politicians 8220;have been tepid8221;; and 8220;no one at the national level is credible8221; and we 8220;allow the fringe8221; and the two-bit-leader to occupy the centrestage and run riot.

Our national wounds, such as the one we are debating, are self-inflicted. Had the police in Maharashtra been allowed the freedom to act in the face of a threat to law and order, so many non-Marathis would have been spared physical hurt and humiliation. This is the price people pay for the actions and inactions of the pigmy politicians now ruling Maharashtra, who seem to demand that their political calculus be respected. The man who must have had the last laugh is none other than Raj Thackeray.

8212; Prasad Malladi

Nidadavole AP

Belgian laurel

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8226; Your editorial 8216;Beware of Belgium8217; is illuminating. I wonder why Sonia Gandhi8217;s acceptance of Belgium8217;s second highest civilian honour 8216;Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold8217; during her 2006 visit is being used to cast doubts on her loyalty to India.

The Belgian honour had only lauded Gandhi for her 8220;constructive nationalism8221; and her efforts to foster a multicultural, tolerant society in India. We should not forget that India-born American and Canadian citizens can become members of the legislature and ministers in those countries.

8212; Dalip Singh Ghuman

Chandigarh