Jugular Vein & the Northeast.
The Government should have switched into immediate action after terror operatives from Bangladesh were found to be involved in the Murshidabad Violence and destruction of National Properties.
Very soon, two loud calls came from the West and the East, both were repetition of of the demand of Jinnah in 1946 .
Some of Our mainstream media went on to the extent of mooting the idea that ' Lahore is the Jugular Vein of Pakistan '. No one either in the Ministries of External Affairs or I &B found it necessary to correct the facts.
India adopted a very bad practice that people should not be made aware of adverse movements and campaigns against India. Information and news were what New Delhi and state capitals send across. There was no reverse flow of information. Most news on clashes and conflicts, communal revolts instigated by the adversaries were suppressed or were made insignificant.
National integration is not talking sweet about the Political Government of New Delhi and appeasement of minorities. A reluctant Government for decades kept on meddling with the conflicts in the Northeast, waiting for it to die off a natural death.
Nehru knew it well that Jinnah had claimed all of Assam, including the Hill Areas. Bengali Dominance of Tripura was taken up as a ground for the Kingdom of Tripura to follow the suit of Hyderabad and Junagadh. Between 1920 and 1940 the migration from East Bengal crossed all limits and the intensity became so high to outnumber the Hindu population. Jinnah demanded that the tribes of Assam have no Religion. Together, with the Muslim population, the Hindus fall in minority. Jinnah had included in his Green Map the entire Northeast comprising of Manipur, Naga Hills, Mikir Hills, North Cachar, Khasi- Garo and Jaiantia Hills, Abor- Miri- Mishmi-Dibang valley, Lushai Hills and other areas of Balipara and Sibsagar Frontier tract areas, Gopinath Bordoloi cried before Gandhiji. It is said that his tears fell on Gandhiji’s feet that awakened his conscience, to take up the matters with Viceroy and to retain Assam and hill areas including Manipur Kingdom with India. However, the referendum on Sylhet is the most tragic development in the Eastern corridor. Except a total tally of votes no records were available in the Archives of Assam State or New Delhi. Chicken neck of Silguri is often draws national attention, however, the chicken neck of Karimganj the only strip connecting Tripura with Assam and the mainland is never discussed. Along with Sylhet, the Karimganj also was mapped out with East Pakistan. Again Bordoloi intervened and Nehru understood the situation. Yet, confusion prevailed in Karimganj on the 14th of August 1947, unfurling the Pakistan Flag. A clarification came from Delhi after three days and on 17th August Pakistan flag was brought down and the National flag of India was unfurled.
Transfer of Dehargram Angarpota enclaves and Berubari Union No.12 did not get much national attention. How far a national consensus could agree to abide by the 1958 Nehru-Noon Agreement following the 1971 Surrender treaty is not clear. Did Assam and West Bengal Assembles take up the matter in the aftermath of Surrender to India, in the wake of issues relating to large scale migration remaining unsettled? The Boundary Agreement between Mujib Ur Rahman and Indira Gandhi on 16th May 1974 should have been cancelled after the Military Coup on 15 August 1975, that too, on the Independence Day of India was not read as a straight message of Pro Pakistani Military vestiges in Bangladesh. Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhary was not an insignificant personality for Indira Gandhi to ignore. What he said exactly happened. Indira acted too fast. She was in a hurry, the cost of which India will have to pay in the near future.
Though Bangladesh has been liberated, West Pakistan continued to undermine India in the eastern theatre. Indira Gandhi had bartered Kashmir and Sikh Religious centres in Pakistan for the release of Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman. Military coup against the founding father of Bangladesh and his killing was a failure of the Neighborhood Intelligence Network and the hold over the affairs of the political Environment of the Indian Subcontinent
It is time for India to clear from the mess created by the ego of Nehru in the Northeast and Kashmir which was further infuriated by successive governments. Intelligence machinery works on a philosophy inculcated by mainstream India. Advice of Gen. Thimmayya who was then a Brigadier in the Eastern Command was not heard. The Region needs a strong political resolve and determination to come out of the conventional notions and standards set by the narratives of the illiterate, on the ground realities. More divisions and factions are created and the dangerous miscalculation that is likely to happen would become dear and costly for the country. Enough mistakes have been done. North Block has to differentiate between the phraseology of “Insurgency” that entered the British records following the East India Company operations after the Kuki Tribes captured the Chittagong port in 1777. With that of Political Unrest . Nearly 13000 square Km of Chittagong Hill Tracts belongs to the Kuki Chin Mizo Group that remained independent till the annexation by the British in 1860 and were granted special status in 1903. Kukis were brought to Cachar and were given arms and ammunition as barriers between Nagas and British Subjects. The same policy was adopted in Manipur as well. Exclusion of Kabaw Valley and CHT Areas Kuki-Zo groups and of Khyoungtha and the Toungtha Tribal areas in 1947 and 1974 were the political mistakes of India.
Kukis became organized as a political and armed force by 1980 with the formation of Kuki National Front and later Kuki National Army. It is not a secret that the Government of Manipur had funded them. If at all available now, the Receipts of the payment of Rs. One lac by Chief Minister of Manipur, Raj Kumar Dorendra Singh himself must be in the records along with another receipt for Two Lacs dated 02 August 1992. There were reports on a demand for Rs. 7 Cr. by the KNO for their self defence purposes. Today, it would be most unfortunate for the Government of India to treat Kukis or any armed group as terrorists in the Region.
The Tribes that enjoyed protection and security cannot be let to enter into Triangular Conflict with other tribes, Bangladesh forces and with the Indian Army.
The political solution is at the fingertips. It takes only two weeks of serious negotiations to resolve the issues of the Region and to achieve socio-political stability.
The compromises and settlements were made later between ZA Bhutto and Indira Gandhi for the release and to give a political leader for the newly formed Bangladesh. It was with this resolve and to strengthen the hands of Mujib ur Rahman that the 1974 border agreement was signed.
When Bangladesh falls under a civil unrest and eliminates everything that reminds of the founder of the Country Mujib ur Rahman, India has every right to rescind from all agreements and treaties and awards of Partition.
It all depends on the line that will be adopted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah , Rajnath Singh andDr. S Jaisankar . A new turn of events in the Politics of Northeast will be a a determining factor in the political stability of the Indian Subcontinent and the South east Asia. It will silence the mouth of Pro Pakistan - Pro CCP proactive elements in the region to draw a new Political contours.
The mistake of creating an arms race with another splinter country of India would be too costly.
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