The Editor,

PV.

Sir,

I am writing in response to the detailed and principled article entitled "A diabolical policy to liquidate just national struggles in North East India'' in the March 16-31, 2009 of PV. Indeed, any person who visits the region is immediately confronted with the ubiquitous presence of armed forces, arbitrary road blocks and checks.  Also of note are the general levels of poverty, despair and hopelessness among large sections of the population. The article captures in great detail and in sharp relief the manner in which the Indian state goes about the business of governing these regions, through the use of armed forces, intelligence operatives, getting retired generals and other men trained in security matters as the fountainhead of state apparatus. Highlighting the sad situation there, a subsequent issue of PV has carried an article on the killing of Dr. Kishan and two colleagues in Manipur.

The regions of the north-east part of India are a critical piece of the game plan of the Indian ruling circles that are now an aspiring imperial ruling class. The former President Mr. Kalam during his tenure spoke of the `look east' policy as a corner stone of India's imperial ambitions. This has been echoed in several speeches made by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, one of the `thinkers' of the ruling circles. The spring board of such a policy is indeed the present day north-east states. This is in addition to the fact that the north east regions themselves have enormous reserves of natural resources, oil, natural gas, timber, tea to name a few. Strategically, these regions are important for the bourgeoisie and its imperialist allies to block China and have been the seat of international intrigue ever since the time of independence. What is to be recognized is that the terms of `uti possidetis juris' by which all the territories of British India came into the Union of India can never resolve the problems of the nations constituting India.  Rather than to address genuine problems, the Indian state has used Machiavellian tactics to buy the allegiance of sections of the regional bourgeoisie and set up fundamentally unstable arrangements.  This is the basis of the crisis that grips the region from time to time.  Solutions will arise only when sovereign power passes into the hands of the working peoples. Let the work begin towards this end.

Sincerely,
S. Nair, Kochi