Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 2
Against the backdrop of the series of public hearings on the Vision 2020 document slated to held across the Northeast region, ‘opinions’ are being raised that the document in question has being written and directed not by the people themselves but people from outside, “those powerful forces that have been haunting us all these while”. It was also being felt that the document is clear on what it intends to do ‘i.e. to push it down through our throat in the names of so called consultations and drown our region under development defined in their terms.’
“A vision of our ancestors, that has brought us this far. The people vision together, with changing times the vision adapts, resist, modify, but it remains with the people. It leads them to future but is never devoid of the past but progresses from them. They are sacred and life in itself, and sustains through the forces that impinges on to them. It is collective and the people moves with it”, stated a press note issued by Aram Pamei Co-Chair – Citizens’ Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD).
The statement titled ‘End the Vision’ raised the question as to whether ‘all of us should leave our future to be envisioned to a few authors who are not even known to us.’ “Has the life force that dwelt within us disappeared beyond recall?” it questioned.
It pointed out that the first thing that will strike any reader of this Vision 2020 document is the list of ‘authorial figures looming (and rather lurking) large all over.’ “These are 6 authors with an additional 6 research associates. Out of 6 authors only one seems to be from Assam, while the rest from outside the region. All the 6 research associates are too from outside the region. This is an insult, and is clearly reflected in the introduction where they mentioned that the region (and hence its people) are backward and hence cannot think or vision for themselves. This is an insult to our ancestors, our traditional institutions, our revolutionaries, our academics and the people as a whole”, the CCDD communiqué stated.
Mentioning that the Northeast Council (NEC) and Ministry of DONER needs to explain to the people of NE why our Vision has been handed to a few people from outside the region, the CCDD pointed out that a Vision - if at all, needs to be laid down in writing - has to be written and agreed by all communities inhabiting the region. “Few consultants or authors have no right whatsoever to write a Vision for the peoples of North East”, it strongly opined.
Pointing out that since the British and then with India, the peoples of NE have suffered, the CCDD maintained that “our ‘borders’ were nationalized, our decades of relation with our own people now across the border are de-linked, the cultural and economic ties were cut off. Our political institutions were not even respected.”
“What kind of vision are we now supposed to adopt? The Vision document never ever mentions what has been destroyed and the process of its destruction? Never ever makes an effort to truly talk about the aspirations, the struggles, sacrifices and the visions that accompany them”, it stated.
.jpg)
