In new and old states, where will the poor live?

In the fresh crisis that is engulfing Assam and other parts of
North-east and Eastern India following the Telengana announcement,
much angry rhetoric is being spewed.  There is also a lot of defensive
posturing by groups opposed to the creation of new states, whether in
Assam, West Bengal or elsewhere.  The Karbi Anglong outburst caught
everyone in the State by surprise, leading to tragic deaths and
violence.  There are bandhs, counter-bandhs and threats of strikes
that will be unending.  To many of us, it appears that we are either
caught in a time warp or that we are heading back in time when these
very issues, of demands for statehood or great space, captured both
political and media headlines, disrupted life and impacted the fabric
of society.
I am not going to talk about the rightness or otherwise of the demands
being made, for example, to carve up the existing state of Assam into
several portions.  These are not new demands and they have always been
simmering below the surface; all they require is a handy excuse to
explode onto the public arena.  The Centre’s announcement of a
Telengana state did that as is the general knowledge across the
country that elections to the Lok Sabha are not far away – they could
be held as early as November or so or as scheduled in May 2014.
The Centre has failed the people of this region and other parts of the
country where demands for separate states have been made: it should
have held a series of dialogues with them, taking their issues into
consideration, and trying to go the extra mile.  Would it have hurt if
the Telengana business had been put off by another six months while
trying to accommodate similar issues in other states? This failure is
costing both the Centre and the States dear, as it will the Congress
Party.
But, in relation to Assam, there is one point which requires to be
stressed:  one does not know of any other case but that of Assam where
a group demanding the virtual vivisection of the state continues in
government and enjoys the privileges of office while supporting
agitation in favour of division! The Chief Minister himself has not
commented on this contradiction – but isn’t it obvious that there is
such a major contradiction: that you continue in government despite
doing everything or at least saying everything, including a little
demonstration by two MPs outside the Lok Sabha in Delhi, that
undercuts the very basis of a coalition government. That foundation is
the quality of working in consonance with the other party or parties,
of consensual politics and policies.  If those politicians wanting a
separate state can convince their colleagues in the Congress Party
that this is a good idea for the State and the country, then of course
they should continue in the government.
Otherwise, they lose the moral authority (most Indians would question
the value of such a thing anyway) to hold positions in the Council of
Ministers while undercutting the foundation of that very government of
which they are part. Which part of this is difficult to comprehend?
I.e. either you are with the government or you are against it.  So the
honorable thing to do would be to leave.  But that’s not something
which those wanting a division appear to be prepared to do or those
wanting a change in the Congress Party leadership.
There are a whole range of questions which arise with demands for new
states: the most often asked are about their economic viability,
whether they can sustain themselves and not depend on Central doles,
of the justification for the huge outflow of Central funds that will
go into building both the physical and ‘soft’ infrastructure required
to establish these states: new capitals, new appointments, new
judiciary, bureaucracies and police to name a few. Those are separate
issues to those this column proposes to discuss.
For a moment, let us turn from the political to another basic, fairly
mundane issue.  There is a basic point here in terms of agitations,
whether for new states or old issues. And this is an issue which is
rarely discussed in public meetings, television forums, the media as
well as discussion groups involving intellectuals, scholars and
others. What is the impact of agitations on poverty and the poor,
especially continuing poverty?  Does it lead to better livelihoods and
incomes, does it improve nutrition and mortality levels, does it fill
peoples’ stomachs with food or not? One could even argue that
agitations do generate work and incomes for a few; but the prices of
essential commodities escalate sharply during such times, encouraged
by a profiteering band of black marketers and hoarders.
A few statistics about the condition of the lives of ordinary people
in Assam should give us grounds for reflection, if not anger and
frustration: the number of poor or those who figure under the ‘poverty
and hunger indicators’, issued by the UNDP, based on Indian Government
statistics, is nearly 38 percent of the population compared to India’s
rate of 30 percent. The prevalence of underweight children under five
years of age is 36.4 percent of the population of children of that age
group; the all-India level is 42.5%. So that is better than the all
India average but it should not be a source of comfort.  Ours is a
small state, barely 2.6 percent of the total population of this
mammoth, crowded nation.  If in a small state, made smaller by
separations which led to smaller states being carved out of it — with
the creation of Nagaland in 1963 and Meghalaya in 1970 – our HDI rank
is 16 out of 23 (2007-08 figures) and our Gender Empowerment Measure
(GEM), which assesses the access of women to basic rights and
services, is 28 out of 35.
A basic fact linking incomes to agitations or rather the lack of
incomes to periods of protests is that ordinary people can’t work
during such times; a daily labourer without work means no money at the
end of the day and where would he/she buy from if the shops are
closed.  How long can a family – even if one took the highly
controversial and disputed Tendulkar method of calculating the poverty
line – buy food stocks in advance to sustain it through long days of
closure and lack of work?  What are the psychological effects of these
prolonged agitations on those who bear the brunt of it – the poor and
the vulnerable?  How can they get their sick to hospitals if transport
doesn’t move, how do they sell their labour or their produce if
businesses are shut and markets are closed?  What does a 1,000-hour
bandh (translated into days, it’s about 42 days) mean for a small
family on the edge of poverty and those below that level?  How do
they, simply put, survive?
I am sure that those who call bandhs think of this. It must be a major
concern for them for their families, friends and others known to them
may be affected by this very dynamic.  The political issue is a
separate one: I am not pronouncing here on the correctness or
otherwise of the new calls over old demands.  What I am concerned
about is the ensuring and anchoring of the essential human rights of
the poor and the ordinary, the vulnerable and the weak, in whose name
– the name of the janata – all agitations and confrontations develop.
How can these be assured, by those calling for the battles and by
those in power?
Clearly, those demanding their rights through protests are convinced
of their cause. So are those opposed to them.  Indeed, peaceful
demonstrations are an inspired democratic right. But what about those
don’t figure in the story, who are caught in between, the ‘silent’
ones? Spare a thought for them and consider how their condition can be
improved. For they will continue to inhabit both the old states and
the new, the smaller states and the large, and it is their lives which
need to be uplifted.
We cannot forget that large parts of the North-east, despite all the
tom-tomming of growth and achievements by its different states, are at
the economic and social levels of LDCs (Least Developed Countries)
like Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.  There is a long way to go. That is
why the constant of political dialogue must replace confrontation and
conflict.

 

By Sanjoy Hazarika /  By the Brahmaputra