India's Northeast is pitching for a piece of the"Incredible India" tourism campaign, but the region is stillsimmering with dozens of separatist insurgencies, with the nations on itsborders often throwing gas on the fire, according to a renowned Asia hand.
“The northeast was not able to jump on the bandwagon of thecampaign known as Incredible India,” said U.K. Sangma, a senior official at theNorth Eastern Council while speaking to an international news journal.
But that's about to change. According to the journal, wonksunveiled a 10-year marketing plan for the Northeast, under which the region isto get its own tagline: “Paradise Unexplored.”
The journal lays out the region's attractions, as well aschallenges like the lack of roads and hotels. But nobody spells out thedownside better than Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist known among theprofession for his amazing work inside Myanmar when it was virtuallyimpenetrable to foreigners.
Writing for an Indian magazine, Lintner notes thatBangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and China have all stirred up trouble in India'sNortheast by providing arms and safe haven to rebel groups. And he sees signalsthat the trouble isn't over, following this summer's violent conflict in Assambetween Bodo tribals and Bengali-speaking Muslims (accused of being illegalimmigrants).
As he puts it: “The Kashmir conflict in India’s northwestmay attract more attention from the outside world, but the conflict in thenortheast is no less vicious, possibly claiming more lives and causing moremayhem. Assam’s commercial center, Guwahati, earned dubious distinction as oneof the most bombed cities in the country. Bloody clashes between guerillas andthe Indian army were part of everyday life in tribal hills.”
