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NSCN-IM s general secretary, Thuingaleng Muivah, have invested
in stocks of multinational companies. The secret report, obtained
by this correspondent, claims that Muivah bought 12,450 shares
worth $1,25,000 (equivalent to Rs 70 lakhs) listed to an Irish multi-
national company, well known for the production of consumer
goods. Interestingly, Muviah s name figures in the list of the
256 Troubled Periphery
company s board of directors. Dhaka-based Paresh Baruah is the
head of a company called Karimuddin Export Pvt Ltd, which has
325 employees. In Bangkok, Muivah s nephew Paul and his Thai
wife, Walaila K. Luengdong, own a toy manufacturing company.
The Manipur UNLF chief, R.K. Meghen, also has huge investments
in blue chip companies in Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Indian intelligence is said to have unearthed this  corporate face
of rebel operations when it tried to track down Isaac Swu in Ireland.
Isaac is said to have fl own from Amsterdam to Dublin to attend a
board meeting of the Irish multinational. Muivah at that time was
in a Bangkok jail, and hence he is believed to have sent Swu as his
nominee to the board meeting. The report says that the NSCN-IM
prepared a  balance sheet showing an expenditure of Rs 20 crore,
but it is actually worth $50 million as its chief has invested in real
estate, shares, hotels and proprietorship of several companies. The
NSCN-IM is said to make over Rs 150 crore per annum through
extortion and other means, while the main source of money is from
taxation of truck drivers: each truck passing through Kohima has to
pay Rs 500 as protection money to the NSCN-IM. Extortion money
from Assam is being pumped into export and other trading busi-
nesses via Dhaka, where Baruah has several permanent safe houses.
The ULFA is said to have even invested in Bangladesh s Transcom
company that publishes the top English and Bengali dailies of Dhaka,
Daily Star and Prothom Alo.12
Recently, there was a spate of reports in the Indian media about
Paresh Barua trying to relocate a lot of his assets to South Africa
and Portugal. Barua does not deny handling  a lot of money but
his personal lifestyle is surely not corporate. Muivah and Issac also
lead austere lifestyles. Much of the funds raised are spent on routine
expenses such as cadre salaries, arms purchases and operational ex-
penses, but huge funds are also invested in companies and stocks so
that the rebel groups do not have to worry about funds in future to
keep the organization going. On the other hand, some rebel leaders,
like the NLFT top brass, lead a profligate life, replete with wine and
women. Leaders of the NLFT and the ATTF have set up transport
companies in Bangladesh and run regular luxury bus services in
Chittagong and the hill tracts. Many rebel leaders, according to the
Home Ministry report, have huge investments in shipping companies
in Bangladesh. The companies make profi ts and ship weapons for
The Crisis of Development 257
the rebels. The deposits at one account in a foreign bank travel from
account to account through teller arrangements and other modern
e-commerce devices. Once money reaches a foreign account through
the hawala channels, it is transferred to several accounts through
e-commerce channels.13
Herein lies the misfortune of the North East. Corrupt politicians
siphon funds and buy property elsewhere in India and abroad to
conceal their ill-gotten wealth; even rebel leaders invest elsewhere
in the world. If the region s corrupt political leaders, bureaucrats
and rebel leaders invested their money in profit-making ventures
in the North East, they would have done some service to the region,
whose sentiments they exploit for achieving political objectives and
personal opulence. It is time for the leaders of the region to realize
that their states will no longer receive the kind of federal largesse they
have been used to, not least because they have failed to utilize the
entire quantum of federal development funds that have come their
way. Since it is now mandatory for all union ministries to set aside
10 per cent of their budget for the North Eastern states, the region
has benefited from a higher fund flow in recent years. Due to poor
infrastructure, lack of innovative schemes and inefficient governance,
the state governments could not utilize all the funds they received.
Not so long ago, Indian rural development minister M. Venkaiah
Naidu disclosed that the North Eastern states failed to utilize
Rs 324 crore out of the Rs 976 crore provided to them in the 2000 01
fiscal year. This was partly due to the lack of viable development
schemes but mainly because the states could not meet their share of
the contribution. The states have to provide 25 per cent for centrally
funded projects while Delhi meets the remaining 75 per cent of the
expenditure. Mr Naidu said that Assam alone lost Rs 600 crore of
central funds for rural development between 1996 and 2000 because
it failed to provide its share of contributions.14 The North Eastern
states are now demanding that they be asked to provide only 10 per
cent matching contribution.
In India s emerging free-market economy, however, such preferen-
tial treatment may not continue for long. Loss-making ventures and
unproductive workforce are both on their way out. No state will
be able to afford them because the federal government will not be
in a position to fund them. It is time to tighten belts and work out
projects that will make profits and employ efficient people. Across
258 Troubled Periphery
the borders lie opportunities that the North Eastern states must learn
to exploit. Business opportunities in Bangladesh or Burma must be
grabbed by the North Eastern states without waste of time. Economic
linkages with distant Delhi, based on one-way dependence, will
not help anymore. Business linkages, based on mutual profit, with
neighbouring countries will benefit the states of northeast India. The
mindset in the region Delhi will fund us because it has an interest
to keep us in the Union will have to change.
NOTES
1. Northeast Vision 2020 document, finalized by the DONER and the Northeast
Council at its Agartala meeting on 12 13 May 2008.
2. B.G. Verghese, 1996.
3. Atul Sharma, 2002.
4. Jayant Madhab Goswami, 2002.
5. Report of the COFR appointed by the Assam Government, 2001. The state gov-
ernment is yet to act on the recommendations.
6. Goswami, op.cit.
7. Shukla Commission Report (Transforming the North East), 1997.
8. COFR report.
9. Subir Bhaumik s report titled  India Blacklists 800 NGOs published in BBC
Online, 18 June 2003.
10. Ajai Sahni, 2001.
11. Directorate of Military Intelligence s special note on  Financial Status of Insurgent
Groups in Northeast India , June 2002.
12. Sunita Paul, 2008.
13. Ministry of Home Affairs, special report on  Investments in Foreign Countries by
Militant leaders from Northeast India , April 2001. Some details of the ULFA s
investments in Bangladesh are also available in the Home Ministry document
 Bleeding Assam . Sources in the ministry say these details were secured from
Bangladesh intelligence, who obtained details about the ULFA s investments
from arrested General Secretary Anup Chetia.
14. Venkaiah Naidu, in an interview to NDTV, 3 August 2008.
9 The Road Ahead
hat explains the crisis in India s North East? Why and how
Whas India s nation-building project gone wrong in the far fron-
tier region? Sixty years into its post-colonial journey, India needs
to figure out why the North East has remained a troubled periphery [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]