In last article, Kuldip Nayar told govt to focus on Northeast's development

Just hours before his death, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar had penned an article, in which he asked the Modi government to focus on development and good governance in the Northeast rather than imposing its "Hindutva philosophies".

The 95-year-old, who breathed his last around 12.30 am in a Delhi hospital, also wrote that illegal migration will remain a security challenge for India if no adequate measures are taken including checking and deporting illegal migrants.

His article titled 'Immigrants or vote banks?' was published in the Nagpur edition of Lokmat Times this morning, hours after his death.

Nayar wrote that the Central government should initiate steps to address the pending inter-state issues in the Northeast, especially the boundary dispute of Assam with Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Manipur also has a boundary problem with Mizoram and Nagaland, yet the region is united on many important issues like harassment of people from Northeast particularly the student community in some parts of the country, especially the national capital, the prolific journalist, columnist and author wrote.

He said the BJP is well entrenched in six of the seven states in the Northeast and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party know well that political loyalities in the region can change very fast.

Nayar said the central BJP government has introduced several measures for the development in the Northeast, trying to connect with the people of the region emotionally.

"The ruling BJP must remember that the Northeast is a plural society devoid of much communal violence unlike the Hindi heartland. It is paramount that the Centre should concentrate more on development and good governance rather than impose its Hindutva philosophies," the article read.

With the general elections due next year, the BJP cannot afford to ignore the problems Northeast is facing, he said.

Of the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the region, Assam has the highest 14 members and winning every seat will be important for Modi, Nayar wrote.

Dinkar Raikar, group editor of Lokmat newspaper, told PTI that the article will be published tomorrow in the Lokmat newspaper, the Marathi daily of the group.

Nayar, who had headed the Lokmat bureau in Delhi for some years, was a regular contributor to the group of newspapers, Raikar said.

"Some of his articles would be translated in Marathi as well," he added.

While recalling Nayar's close association with Lokmat, Raikar said he was the guest at the paper's launch in Aurangabad.