Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary became an IPS officer of the 1967 batch and was allotted the Kerala cadre. He worked on important assignments in Kerala and early on in his career in 1981-82 was Commissioner of Police of the city of Cochin. Later he held the offices of Inspector General of Police and Chief of Crime Branch CID and lastly Director General of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Apart from Kerala, Mr Mooshahary has occupied several distinguished posts. He was in the Cabinet Secretariat and had served in the state of Assam, including at a later point in his career in this province’s police force. He served in the federal Central Reserve Police Force as Deputy Inspector General and Inspector General during the late eighties and early nineties during which period he served in the states of Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. He was appointed as Director General of the elite National Security Guards (NSG) in February 2002.

He headed the NSG for nearly three years before being shifted as Director General of the BSF, one of the largest standing paramilitary border guarding forces in the world in 2005. He was the first IPS officer from North East India to be appointed as the Director General of the BSF, a position he held till his retirement from active service in February 2006. Mooshahary was awarded with the Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service. He has also served in the CRPF, besides the state police force of Assam and has done a commendable job in combating terrorism, and contributing to the security of the Republic of India.

In March 2006, Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary was appointed by the Governor of Assam as the first Chief Information Commissioner of the state under the Right to Information Act enacted by the Parliament of India, a legislation aimed at bringing transparency in Government. He was instrumental in operationalising the legislation and setting in motion the legal processes of redressal mandated therein and held this position up to his elevation to Governorship of Meghalaya State by the President of India on the 1st of July, 2008 – a position he holds till date.

Eastern Panorama’s Dr. KK Jhunjhunwala met with the Governor of Meghalaya to get his views of the Look East Policy. The following are exerpts of this interview:

What is your opinion about the Look East Policy of the Government of India?

“It has been proved that countries having trade relations tend to maintain good political relations. In this regard, it has been said, ‘When you trade goods, you don’t trade blows.” RS Mooshahary Governor of Meghalaya

Everyone is talking about this Look East Policy now and we are also receiving delegations from our neighbouring countries. Just the other day, a delegation from Thailand has come here led by the Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of Thailand. We expect the Look East Policy to pick up in the coming years. This is for the benefit of the north – eastern region because we must be able to trade with our closest neighbours – Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam – the South Asian countries. Of course the Look East Policy also consists of the BIMSTEC countries which includes Bhutan and Nepal. Strictly speaking they do not fall under the category of ‘Look East’ but since they are members of BIMSTEC, they also have a role to play in this.

So far, we have been looking towards the West but since 1992 we have decided to instead look towards the East and this is very important for the North East region because many of the things that we import from mainland India such as pulses, rice and forest products can be obtained more easily from these neighbours of ours which will thereby reduce the cost of transportation. For example, if we get our pulses from Myanmar, we can do so at a much lower cost than what we are presently paying.

It is often said that New Delhi is much farther from the North East than most of the countries you have named just now. Because of the partition of the country, our traditional links with these countries have been affected. Can you comment on this?

Yes, with the partition of the country, not only New Delhi, Kolkata for that matter is much farther from the North East region. Prior to the partition of the country, people needed to travel a distance of just about 400 kms to get to Kolkata from Agartala through Dhaka. After the partition of the country, this distance that needs to be covered is about 1600 to 1700 kms and to cover this distance travelling by road takes about three days. These are the distances that have been brought about to the North East region through the partition. Therefore it is very important for us to have this Look East Policy. Unfortunately, right now it is not at a stage where people have really started getting benefits. In a small manner, yes we have the goods coming in from Thailand which has shown a lot of interest in having a collaboration in various sectors such as the food processing, education and cultural exchange sectors. This policy is still in the initial stage of exploration and I cannot say that we have really derived much benefit from it even as some benefits are materializing now in a small manner but in due course of time, we expect great benefits to come about from this policy.

In other words, can it be said that the respective Governments of the north – eastern states are not yet fully geared up to take full advantage of this Look East Policy?

Not really. This is just one of the factors while the other thing is that we have to create more people to people contact. Our communication, particularly surface communication has to improve. Now we have practically no communication with Myanmar which is the closest of our neighbours. We share 1600 kms of the international border with Myanmar. Four of our north – eastern states are bordering Myanmar and this being the case, naturally we should be having some road connectivity with this neighbour. Now when it comes to the one road connectivity that we have with Myanmar via Moreh, I am told that the road on the Indian side of the border is really bad while the one on the Myanmar side is really good. We also have the Stillwell road from Arunachal to Myanmar which is of now not operational. We are trying to repair this on the Indian side but the decision to reopen this road is yet to be taken. So, without road connectivity, these benefits I was talking about earlier will not flow and when it comes to Thailand, we cannot approach this country directly except via Myanmar. The same applies to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We need road connectivity and if this Look East Policy does not have this facility and they start importing things by the sea route, the north – eastern region of India will be bypassed. If they do it through the eastern part of India such as Odisha or Andhra Pradesh with their sea port facilities, the North East region will be bypassed. In my opinion, road connectivity holds the key to the Look East Policy. Also, to augment the tourist traffic, we need to have air connectivity for instance from Guwahati – Shillong to Dhaka on to Yangon and Thailand. As of now, there is only one air service from Bhutan which connects Guwahati to the South Asian countries and we have not been able to make full use of this so far. We had tried for a service from Guwahati to Thailand but this did not materialize. This is possibly because we did not try this out in earnest. The key to this is linking up. Let us suppose that you start a service from Guwahati to Dhaka and then on to Bangkok, this could be more viable as opposed to a direct flight from Guwahati to Bangkok. I feel that we need to think along these lines.

There is always a concern when one talks about Mayanmar which shares such an extensive border with the north – eastern states that Myanmar is one country in which training is carried out by the insurgent groups of the north – eastern region. What have you got to say about this?

We cannot say that anymore. This could have possibly happened at some point of time but right now there is a political change in Myanmar which is trying to introduce a democratic process. There have been a number of exchange of visits at the highest level between Myanmar and India and the insurgents who were taking shelter in those areas are doing so in territories which fall under the ‘no man’s land category’. Credit must be given to Myanmar for taking a lot of action to eject the people living in these areas. It is no longer easy for our insurgent groups to get shelter either in Myanmar or Bangladesh. When it comes to Bangladesh, we have improved tremendously in the last four years and this is why groups such as ULFA and NDFB have all come back to India. This is all because of the initiatives of the Bangladesh Government. Our next door neighbour Bangladesh is a huge country with a population of 16 crores. This is a huge market for us in every respect because we can export anything to that country as it is a consumer country. This needs to be explored and when it comes to tourism, I strongly believe that a lot of people from Bangladesh will come to India. However, we have to ensure that whoever comes here from Bangladesh goes back. We must encourage tourists from Bangladesh to come to India while at the same time ensuring that they return to their own country after their visits.

In your personal opinion, will good relations with our neighbours help in improving the security scenario of the entire region?

Definitely as this will integrate the north – eastern region economically and emotionally with mainland India because when there is prosperity in the region, naturally, some of the discontent will disappear. Therefore, we need prosperity in the north – eastern region and this prosperity can come through this Look East Policy. Also, when it comes to neighbourly relations, it has been proved that countries having trade relations tend to maintain good political relations. In this regard, it has been said, ‘When you trade goods, you don’t trade blows’. So this augurs well for both economic and political reasons. This is why trade and commerce are very important.

On the sidelines of this interview, the Thailand Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s office, Dr. Nalinee Taveesin had visited Shillong to attend the Summit on Integrating Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce. The main purpose of her visit was to strengthened trade relationship between the north - eastern region of India with Thailand, as the North East is seen as an attractive market for trade relations to be built upon. She stressed on a trilateral project as India will soon be linked to many other Asian countries which would eventually lead to a better trade relationship between the countries. She mentioned that the opening up of this trilateral project would be beneficial to both the countries (Thailand and India) stating that it would be a ‘win-win’ situation for both the sides.

On addressing the Summit on Integrating Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce at Pinewood Hotel on the 16th of March, she reiterated the need to improve connectivity in all areas, to ensure a healthy trading relation between nations. She mentioned that the North East is rich and blessed with various resources which provide ample opportunities for both the countries to tap into these resources. The subject of ethnicity was also brought up by Dr. Taveesin who said, “This is a common thing that can take us forward with a sense of belonging besides proximity with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh is also another opportunity for the investors.”

Dr. Taveesin however, stated at the end that despite there being a plethora of resources or an abundance of investor who are ready and keen on doing business nothing can be achieved or realized if there is no support by the respective governments. Hence, the key for success with regard to this project would be cooperation and mutual understanding between governments and of course as mentioned earlier better means of connectivity in all spheres.

Before moving on to Assam and then to Manipur, Dr. Taveesin ended her Shillong sojourn by visiting His Excellency the Governor of Meghalaya Shri RS Mooshahary and the Chief Minister of the state Dr. Mukul Sangma.