Dimapur, October 7 (MExN): Major groups of North East have decided to stay away from the meeting on India’s Look East Policy, scheduled to be held in Guwahati from October 7-9 having been opposed by some concerned citizens and organizations in the north east.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will on Sunday inaugurate a three-day conference on “India’s Look East Policy - Challenges for Sub-Regional Cooperation”, however, several groups from all of NE has decided to stay away from the meeting since the MEA has not been democratic as well as not completed the process from the last Look East Policy meeting held in Shillong earlier this month, said a representative from one of such group from the north east region.
On June 16, 2007, twenty concerned groups from the NE states, Pranab Mukherjee, demanded a White Paper on the Look East Policy. The group of twenty NGOs further notes that there is no clear policy statement or a White Paper on ILEP in particular that relates to NE. They contended that the India’s Look East Policy is not even a policy.
“We signatories of these Recommendations have objected to this new meeting in Guwahati as they have not yet fulfilled the first process.”
The Shillong and Guwahati meetings to discuss the Look East Policy fall under the category of futile consultations where there is a notional attempt to get some views and reactions on the ILEP; It is not about a genuinely democratic dialogue where the NE peoples can meaningfully participate, contribute and if required re-direct the course of the ILEP, the representative from the group added.
