It was the war with China in 1962 that made India wake up and take notice of the significance of its Northeast as a critical frontier in its national security calculations. Chinese troops had advanced down to the Brahmaputra Valley and India was clearly on the back foot where critical infrastructure for faster troop deployment was concerned.
After the war was over, India pushed towards building an artery of roads and military bases along the critical areas where it felt vulnerable vis-a-vis China. The roads built at that time and in subsequent years were targeted only cosmetically towards development but were actually geared to facilitate India's troop deployment needs.
They were never going to be enough for the genuine development of the economy of the Northeast, nor were they meant for purposes of cross-border trade. Even for the purpose of targeted troop deployment, India clearly lagged behind China as the latter made rapid strides in building a comprehensive access infrastructure all along the border areas.
In recent times, China has been able to build critical infrastructure and has improved its ability to amass troops along the border at short notice. India has recently awakened to the need to accelerate its border roads projects in order to meet the growing Chinese challenge.
Under the Special Accelerated Road Development Program for the Northeast, at least eight strategic roads have been cleared for construction, the critical fronts being Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The states of Northeast India have not seen much development over the years and as a consequence, have been crippled by insurgencies and unending cycles of violence.
India has been concerned about the growing threat to internal security owing to these insurgent movements. The people of Northeast India have been demanding greater connectivity with China and countries of Southeast Asia which they see as a way of greater development of their region.
The Indian Government has not been serious about such demands, nor has it shown any urgency about taking steps towards integrating the Northeastern states with the rest of the country. Further, India has in the 1990s structured its Look East Policy through Kolkata and not through the Northeast.
There have been some gestures towards opening up the borders for greater connectivity with Southeast Asia such as the ASEAN car rally from Guwahati in 2004, but these have not been followed up with purpose.
It becomes important in this context to examine three critical border roads that could be the harbinger of development of the Northeastern states in the years to come. They are the Stilwell road or the Ledo road which connects Ledo in Assam to Kunming in Yunnan, China; the Numaligarh-Moreh road which connects the states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur with Myanmar through the border point at Moreh; and the Aizawl- Champhai- Zowkathar road which connects Mizoram with Myanmar.
Of these three roads, two are operational where border trade is concerned, with the Stilwell Road being the only one remaining closed. The Assam Government has listed one of its achievements in the past year as being the opening up of the Stilwell Road on its side of the border.
The infrastructure and development on the other side of the border, however, is phenomenal compared to just a few hundred kilometers on the Indian side. This is one trade corridor which holds enormous potential for completely transforming the regional developmental dynamics of Northeast India.
Built during the Second World War, the Stilwell Road has been closed since India's independence. After the reopening of the Nathu La corridor, the next step should be the reopening of the Stilwell Road and the Indian government should take up necessary steps in this direction.
Almost four decades ago, Thuingaleng Muivah had led his men to Yunnan in order to get assistance from China for insurgent activities against India. The joint anti-terrorism exercises between India and China at Kunming in December 2007 is therefore, a big shift in China's attitude towards Northeast India.
This bonhomie should be cultivated and should lead towards better connectivity in terms of cross-border trade, and at the same time enable India to address its internal security concerns and threat assessments vis-a-vis China.
The writer is Research Assistant, IPCS
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