Look East Or The Great Game East?

Northeast India, a storehouse of natural resources but backward economically, needs to be built up and readied if it is going to be the gateway or ‘centre’ of trade between India and East Asia

- Kaustubh Deka

Memories lead to longing, longing to expectation. And when memory, longing and expectation come together in the form of a meta policy, you end up with something like the Act East Policy. A small example will suffice to set the context. There is this rather impressive sign board in a park called the ‘Stillwell Park’ in the sleepy town of Ledo in Upper Assam. The sign board is supposed to be a kind of benchmark, ‘to set the perspectives right’ as it details the road distance from that spot onwards to a host of major South Asian cities/trading points. And thus you have scores of people coming down on weekends, posing in front of that colourful signpost of a hoarding, taking group photos and selfies. Their faces glow in expectation, as they indulge in a new found connection to a world of possibilities. That sign board was erected in the year 1998 and it carried these lines: ‘To rejuvenate our lifeline. Revitalise our relationship. Reach out beyond the borders.’ Over the years, it has weathered the change of seasons and its colour has faded along with people’s enthusiasm for it. Now with the completion of the longest river bridge of the country in its vicinity, popular attention has almost completely shifted there. There too however is a story of crossing over. The bridge brings Arunachal closer, Arunachal brings Tibet/ China closer. We are always, looking/thinking East. The people and the State both. But perhaps with different agendas.