Where’s the Advantage?

It surprises me as I see the Assam Government talk of 'Advantage Assam'. It organized a huge carnival of sorts called 'Gobal Investors Summit' where the likes of business giants such as Mukesh Ambani, donning an Asomiya gamosa, participated as if they would throw all their money for the sake of an empowered Assam — where there would be no unemployment, no crime, no illegal immigration from Bangladesh, no daylight robbery and dacoity, no such and such stuff. The carnival in question was such that it sent out a clear message to the intertiol community of businessmen that everything was smooth with Assam and they should rather invest their money and time here if they were to prosper!

Good news then. But the question that strikes me, as also others who are a little bit sensible and serious, is whether Assam has the resources of the kind that can sustain the big ambitions of the likes of Ambani.

I am not against the arrival of stars like Ambani on the horizon of the Assam sky, hit as always by issues of myriad kinds, notably militancy. Well, security forces tell us that militancy is on the wane and they are trying everything out to contain the mece of violence. But what about militancy of a different kind, such as the one witnessed by the people of Golaghat as they remain confronted with the terror perpetrated by NSCN-IM?

But that is fine perhaps. After all, NSCN-IM in on a framework agreement mode with the

Government of India. This government — our own elected government — has secretly inked an agreement with the ga outfit so that peace could return to that State. But again the question is: What kind of peace? Whose peace? The youth of galand want employment, for which there must be the right education in place, which is not there.

I believe education holds the key. Greater is the quality of education you impart, greater are the gains at large. Northeast as a whole needs education of the right kind. It is lack of proper education that has suppressed all growth in the entire Northeast.

Therefore, if investors really have solid time for Assam and the rest of the Northeast, they should invest in the education sector.

Bhaskar Kalita

Bhangagarh, Guwahati.

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