New region-specific alliance is a master-stroke
On the sidelines of the formation of the first elected Government of the BJP-led alliance in Assam on May 24, a significant political entity called the North East Democratic Alliance entered into the political spectrum of the country by the same evening. NEDA was formed at a high-level political meeting that took place between State leaders of the BJP, newly elected Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Himanta Biswa Sarma (chief strategist of the party in the Assam election) and the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim, along with BJP president Amit Shah and general secretary Ram Madhav. It was formed by the BJP with three regional parties of the North-East — the Sikkim Democratic Front, the Nagaland People's Front and the People's Party of Arunachal. It will be headed by its convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, a master political strategist who was the main architect of the BJP's historic victory in Assam. later, Sarma outlined that NEDA's aim was to improve coordination among the NDA partners in the north-eastern States and strengthening the base of all the constituent parties across the region. Besides, it will lay emphasis on good governance, speedy development in the States wherever NDA partners are in power. As Ram Madhav highlighted, NEDA would partner the ruling NDA at the Centre.
With NEDA, the BJP has demonstrated a political masterstroke as it reflects broadening its base from the political mainstream of New Delhi to the alienated North-East, a region neglected by successive Governments at the Centre for decades. Therefore, it will bring home the message that nationalist parties like the BJP could well work with regional parties having their own distinct ethnic, linguistic and cultural identities. If strengthened, NEDA could be poised to make a wider conglomeration of like-minded regional parties by including the Asom Gana Parishad, the Bodoland People's Front, the Mizo National Front, the Manipur People's Party and all other anti-Congress as well as anti-left leaning groups, so that the BJP's ‘Congress-mukt Bharat' mission sees the light of the day even in the North-East. What sprung from NEDA is that the BJP, with its development agenda at the core, will hit hard at the Congress bastions of power in the region and more particularly, bring the North-East people closer to Delhi by fighting erstwhile sentimental rhetoric like ‘India against itself', prevalent for long. But, regionalism being in the DNA of the North-East people, the BJP must tread carefully while dealing with issues related to migration, border and ethnicity. Beyond poll talk, the BJP should come up with a pragmatic solution to the vexed NSCN(IM) and Ulfa issues, which had been sidelined by previous Delhi dispensations for decades. Through NEDA, the BJP should send vibes to these States that they are not ‘far from Delhi' and that regions beyond India's ‘chicken neck' are truly an integral part of the mainland.