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North East : India’s Look East policy |
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Pranab on public diplomacy track in Shillong
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on June 16 set in motion a public diplomacy exercise, the first of its kind in a series, with an aim to exploit “geographical contexts” to enable significant development of India’s troubled North-east under India’s Look East Policy.
Addressing a meeting on “Geography as Opportunity” in Shillong, Mukherjee said public diplomacy would “create a greater sense of awareness and participation,” and help link “all regions of India,” particularly the North-east, to open up to South and Southeast Asian countries
The meeting, organised by the External Affairs Ministry, will hold another conference soon to discuss the challenges posed by regional and sub-regional cooperation and ways to tackle them.
Additional Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, (Public Diplomacy Division) Arif S. Khan and Joint Secretary Amit Dasgupta attended the meeting.
Meghalaya Governor B.L. Joshi and Chief Minister D.D. Lapang were also present.
KSU threatens to intensify protest
The militant Khasi Students Union (KSU) on June 15 threatened to intensify its agitation if the Meghalaya government does not release its activists who were arrested in Shillong t earlier this month.
Five KSU activists, including its organising secretary Daniel Khyriem, were booked under the Meghalaya Preventive Deten¬tion Act (MPDA) for disrupting public peace during the recent KSU agitation over the uranium mining issue.
The outfit had called a 36-hour bandh from June 11 in protest against the public hearing on uranium mining in the state. The public hearing was organised by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board at Nongbah Jynrin Mawthbah in West Khasi Hills district.
In a statement, KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said the booking of the student activists under MPDA was indicative of the state Government’s intention to weaken the movement that has been launched by the union against uranium mining in Meghalaya as well as to expose the D.D. Lapang government’s “misdeeds”.
Apart from the KSU, organisations that are opposing the proposed uranium mining project tooth and nail include the Lan¬grin Youth Welfare Association, a few women’s organisations and the Nobosopoh Langrin Awakening Youth Federation.
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