N-E Law & Order Situation Bad, Says Gupta

The law and order situation in the north-eastern states is very bad, according to Union home minister Indrajit Gupta.

He, however, told a meeting of United Front MPs here that his government would not adopt a repressive policy towards the region. He said opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party were like to demand fire-fighting measures like army operations etc, but such measures could not be a solution.

The message we want to send to the area is that the Indian state is not a repressive one. We want to initiate efforts to ensure that the frustrated, unemployed youth there do not get attracted to the secessionist ideas of insurgent groups, Gupta said. He felt the problems were complex, and solutions could not be brought about in a short span. He said the government had made a beginning with the announcements made during the recent visit of Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to the region.

Guptas remarks indicate that the government would not take recourse easily to measures like imposition of Presidents rule in north-eastern states like Tripura which have recently seen a conflagration between the tribals and non-tribals. Politically too, such an eventuality is remote given the fact that the Left parties are in power in Tripura. The Tripura unit of the Congress has already demanded the imposition of central rule in the state.

Currently, three of the seven north-eastern states are ruled by constituents of the United Front: the Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, the Arunachal Congress in Arunachal Pradesh and the Left Front in Tripura.

This is the first time that non-Congress parties in the region have been so deeply involved in the government at the Centre.

Gupta said the governments effort is also to ensure a truly federal polity.

He recalled that for the first time, a meeting of the Inter-State Council had been convened by this government even though a provision for the body existed in the Constitution for years.