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Journalism of Courage
Last week,a delegation from Arunachal Pradesh,consisting of two MLAs and an MP,met Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to press their case for the development of the border state. This might seem an odd thing to have to do. Why would people not be on board with the development of a border state that needs substantial investment? Why would it be of such import that the external affairs minister should be involved? The answers should worry us. For one,the problem is that the environment ministry has been careless and unwise in its approach to the various relatively small projects that have been planned for Arunachal in an attempt to increase the regions prosperity and integration into the rest of the economy. And also because this doesnt just impact a few projects,however important; its a question of Indias political will when it comes to ensuring its border infrastructure is even broadly comparable to the Herculean efforts that China is making across the McMahon line.
Hopefully,some of this featured at Tuesdays meeting between the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh,Dorjee Khandu,and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. As reported in this newspaper,Ramesh had earlier written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reporting that all the projects in Arunachal need to be reviewed,and calling for a moratorium on any further clearances for hydel projects in Arunachal Pradesh since these are bound to be the subject of agitation in Assam. This followed a public consultation that he had held in Guwahati in September. As has been stated in these columns,calling for a reversal of a policy direction that was entered into with care,and for the best strategic and human reasons,was perhaps hasty and ill-considered. Khandu told Ramesh that concerns in Assam on the downstream impact were exaggerated,and he came out of the meeting saying some misunderstandings have been cleared up. Hopefully they have.
