North-East is becoming a beacon of peace. Insurgency incidents have dropped by 73% between 2014 and 2024 and security personnel casualties have declined by 60%. The Modi government signed over 12 peace accords. Assam’s voter turnout rose to 81.6% in 2024.For Prime Minister Narendra Modi India’s unity amidst diversity is not just a slogan but an article of faith.
The abolition of article 370 conferring special status on Jammu and Kashmir was one such move which has paid rich dividends. It has paved the way for the region’s integration with the rest of India in true sense of the term after several decades of Kashmir’s formal merger with the Indian union. Militants and other divisive elements, who for long have conspired to excise Kashmir from India by raising the slogan of “azadi”, have been dealt a death blow.
Modi has now turned his attention to the North-East where, too, separatist elements have been quite active for past sometime. Thanks to his efforts Assam, which is perhaps the biggest state in the region, now has a BJP government which makes it easy for the government at the Centre to implement its nationalist agenda. The Prime Minister’s recent tour of the region, covering Assam, Manipur and Mizoram assumes significance in this context.
This was his second visit to Mizoram after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014 and he took the opportunity to launch projects worth ₹9,000 crore and also flagged off the maiden Rajdhani Express between Aizawl and Delhi. “For a long time, some political parties in our country practiced vote-bank politics. Their focus was always on places that had more votes and seats. The entire Northeast, including states like Mizoram, suffered greatly because of this attitude,” said Modi addressing the local people.
“But our approach is very different — those who were earlier neglected are at the forefront now. Those who were once marginalised are now in the mainstream. For the past 11 years, we have been working for the development of the Northeast, and the region is becoming the growth engine of India,” he said, adding that Mizoram plays a major role in the Centre’s ‘Act East’ policy.
The Prime Minister, who also visited Assam and Manipur paying rich tributes to legendary singer Bhupen Hazarika, emphasized the fact that Northeast was fast becoming a major hub for entrepreneurship, with 4,500 start-ups and 25 incubators operating in the region.
“I urge investors to tap the region’s potential at the ‘Rising North East’ summit… Under the ‘local for vocal’ initiative, efforts are on to boost the marketing of Mizoram’s bamboo, organic ginger, turmeric and banana,” he said.
The underlying message was that his government cared for the North-East and people of the area should not be swayed by the divisive slogans of self-centred separatist elements. Insurgency and ethnic tensions had fostered a sense of alienation and hindered the region’s growth. For example: Mizo National Front insurgency was mishandled with the 1966 Aizawl bombing alienating locals completely.
In Assam, the poorly implemented Assam Accord fuelled insurgencies like ULFA with over 17,000 incidents reported between 1990 and 2014. In 2014, the region accounted for only 4% of India’s 91,287 km National Highway network despite covering 8% of the country’s area. Rail connectivity was less than 2% of India’s railway network. Only 30% of eligible North-East habitations were connected by all-weather roads in 2014 and aviation infrastructure was limited to just four airports. The North-East’s contribution to the GDP contribution was just 2.3%.
But today, the North-East is becoming a beacon of peace. Insurgency incidents have dropped by 73% between 2014 and 2024 and security personnel casualties have declined by 60%. The Modi government signed over 12 peace accords, including the Bodo (2020), Bru-Reang (2020), Karbi Anglong (2021), Tripura Motha (2024) and ULFA (2023) agreements. Assam’s voter turnout rose to 81.6% in 2024. The North-East’s GDP contribution has increased significantly. In Mizoram, where 87% of the population is Christian and 93-94% is tribal, the Modi government has debunked the myth of the BJP being anti-minority. The Prime Minister is, thus, ensuring that the north-east not only remains an inalienable part of India with development taking place at a fast clip but it also votes for his party which has been primarily responsible for this turnaround.
