Saffron surge in the Northeast
On the other side, ever since it came to power in 2014, Modi’s government, unlike previous governments, has been giving special focus on the Northeast under its Act East Policy, that seeks to strengthen ties with southeast Asian nations. Connectivity infrastructure has been a key part of this
In fruition of its meticulous planning and tactical moves to stitch alliances with local parties, there was a near-total BJP domination in the seven north-eastern states in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party also, for the first time, swept the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh that borders China and whose sovereignty is disputed by Beijing - winning 41 of the state assembly’s 60 seats.
The Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a bloc comprising BJP-affiliated parties, won 18 of the region’s 24 seats while the Congress along with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) could manage only six.
In Assam, the BJP won nine of 14 seats, two more than in 2014, while the Congress maintained its 2014 tally of three and the AIUDF went down to one from three in 2014. The BJP ran a well-managed campaign in Assam with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah holding several campaign rallies. Whereas Congress president Rahul Gandhi did not visit the state even once and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made a solitary visit to Silchar in the Barak valley.
Many thought that the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) the Modi government is trying to enforce may just put the BJP on the back foot in Assam and the Northeast. Assam and the Northeast were on the boil since the Lok Sabha passed the Bill January 8 that proposes to give citizenship to people belonging to six minority communities - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians - from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, facing religious persecution. Muslim refugees are not covered by the Bill.
The Bill’s opponents are challenging it on the grounds that it violates the Assam Accord of 1985. The Assam Accord was signed on August 15, 1985, between the then government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Assam government and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) that spearheaded a six-year-long non-violent student-led protest movement against illegal migration of hundreds of thousands of people from across the border in Bangladesh.
According to the accord, only those who came to Assam till March 24, 1971, would be accepted as Indian citizens. It meant all illegal migrants irrespective of religion will be detected, deleted from voters list and expelled. However, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, brought in by the Modi government, sought to make an exception to this by bringing in religion to give refuge to illegal infiltrators. Though the Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha, sparking much anger among the indigenous people in the region, it couldn’t pass muster in the Rajya Sabha due to the BJP’s lack of numbers there. Observers say that the during this year’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, the opposition failed to rake up the CAB issue and lost ground.
On the other side, ever since it came to power in 2014, Modi’s government, unlike previous governments, has been giving special focus on the Northeast under its Act East Policy, that seeks to strengthen ties with southeast Asian nations. Connectivity infrastructure has been a key part of this and Modi, during his first tenure at the helm, inaugurated the 9.15-km Bhupendra Hazarika Setu, India’s longest bridge over a river, and the Bogibeel bridge, India’s longest rail-cum-road bridge, both in Assam.
Another major infrastructure project is the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway that will connect Moreh in Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand. Then there is the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project aimed at connecting Mizoram with Sittwe port in Myanmar.
New Delhi has been increasing it engagement with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc under the Act East Policy and through the Bimstec sub-regional platform. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) comprises seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The bloc brings together 1.6 billion people, or 22 per cent of the world’s population, and has a combined GDP of USD2.8 trillion. Its main objective is technical and economic cooperation among South Asian and Southeast Asian countries along the rim of the Bay of Bengal.
With Modi announcing that ‘National Ambitions, Regional Aspirations’ (Nara) will be the keystone of his new government, observers will be keenly watching to see how the Northeast fares under Modi 2.0.