Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
Dear friends,
August 2012
July 2012 was not a good month for the state of Assam. Firstly there was a shameful incident in which a young girl was molested. The news created havoc and drew the attention of national and world media. Thus, the pride and prestige of the state was at stake. Thanks to the public awakening, the Government acted fast and almost all culprits are now behind bars. For a change, the reporter who was performing his duty was also put behind bars because it was deemed that he failed to report the incident to the police. An in-depth report of the event is being published in this issue.
The other sad event of the last month was the Kokrajhar incident in which more than 53 people died and almost 4 lakh people were displaced. It is unfortunate that the incident had taken a communal turn and spread to the four districts of Assam including Kokrajhar. Many small villages were not spared from the violence which engulfed the state. The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi have already visited the affected areas. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh rightly said that this is a blot on the nation. However, it is reassuring to see that as of now, normalcy is fast returning to the area.
We may bring to the notice of our readers that this is not for the first time that violence has erupted in the BTC region. Violence has taken place and peace was brought through normal procedure of relief, compensation and tightening of administrative processes. However, this fails to address the real issue behind such violence.
The absence of violence does not mean peace. The region has issues which need to be tackled as they are. The issue of infiltration of illegal migrants from Bangladesh is one such issue which needs to be taken into account before arriving at any master plan to sort out the strategies to bring permanent peace in the region. The issue of immigration can not be sorted out unless the Government of India, the state government and the Bangladesh Government join hands to tackle this problem. Bangladesh will only cooperate if it finds some economic benefit in coming to the line of the Government of India.
This is only possible when the economy of north east is also integrated with Bangladesh wherein we have a more or less balance of trade. The policy makers should not forget that Bangladesh is surrounded on three sides by India and its north eastern region and the border fencing with the kind of infrastructure available with our BSF jawans, is not of much use in curbing infiltration. It is a paradox of a great nation like ours, where if any one talks of illegal migrants they are termed as speaking in communal terms. Regardless of how we Indians get treated in other developed countries, the time has come for us to look beyond and stop compromising on issues of national interest; regardless of the cost. Is anyone listening?