Punishment Transfers: Northeast & Ladakh Are Not Dumping Grounds Of ‘Mainland’
The authorities have finally dealt with the IAS couple who faced backlash for vacating a stadium so that they could walk their dog. Sanjeev Khirwar and his wife Rinku Dhugga were rightfully slammed by media and social media users for their ‘babugiri’. Now, one of them has been transferred to Ladakh and the other has been transferred to Arunachal Pradesh. Not suspended, not dismissed for behaving like a couple of medieval era Nawab and Begum, but transferred to a ‘remote location’ where there will be no scrutiny by the national media. If they keep continuing their shenanigans, only the local media and local people will protest and it can be conveniently ignored by the so called mainland.
It is not the first time that the so called ‘mainland’ has treated the Northeast and other ‘backward’ places as the dumping ground of tainted officers or even judges. People who are accused of misusing their position or harassing common people in the ‘mainland’ are often transferred to these territories. This strengthens our believe that despite all the narratives of ‘Ashta Lakshmi’, Act East etc. the Northeastern region remains a ‘remote’ land inhabited by second class citizens in the minds of the policy makers in Delhi.
Successive governments in New Delhi have taken up various initiatives for Northeast India. But no scheme can succeed or prove to be meaningful as long as the Northeastern region ( and other regions like Ladkah) are continued to be treated as dumping grounds or for worst services and garbage officers. From pathetic quality of railway bogeys to garbage officers like Khirwar and Dhugga have been dumped in these regions for too long. This happens because the Northeast and certain other parts of the country , even after 70 years of independence are still not considered ‘mainland’. Those who have little knowledge of history will know that this colonial approach towards the Northeast was the central reason behind insurgency and separatism in this reason. Though insurgency has waned in recent times, we keep hearing voices expressing fear that if there is no fear of insurgents the mainlanders will treat this region far worse than they do now. This thinking cannot be killed by force but by building trust. Trust has to be based on equality and not on a ‘coloniser-colonised’ a ‘mainland Indians- second class Indians’ relationship.
When you treat the natural resources of a region as national property but the people as aliens, or refuse to treat their problems as national problems, you create a divide. This divide cannot be filled by catchy slogans. Even mega projects in terms of infrastructure development are going to be perceived as tools of exploitation if a sense of trust and equality is not created among the masses.
