Worth the euphoria?

The Home Minister sounded optimistic about North-East as he made public the yearly overview of the region.
P Chidambaram said that the region has witnessed dramatic changes in situation in the North-East and major decline in violence has given rise to the hopes of a settlement.
It remains to be seen whether the minister was being too optimistic when he said that he hoped for agreements being reached with many of the groups and bringing them into the mainstream of politics and society.
However the situation has improved a lot as compared to other times. Though people are still victim of violence, but as opposed to other years, the situation has definitely improved.
Most insurgent groups are in talks with the government or are poised to commence talks.
According to the report, no civilian was killed in Nagaland and Mizoram, no security personnel was killed in Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
In total twenty security personnel, 94 civilians and 247 militants lost their lives during the year.
The number is still huge and does not call for any euphoric reaction.
One of the world’s most militarized zones, the North east has been battleground for far too long. The Indian Army has been accused of undermining basic human rights of the people in the region in their efforts to crush various underground movements who have been fighting for a homeland.
Such actions need to be stopped in the region. Indian Army which has lost the faith and trust of the people need to do a lot of good work. Curtailing basic human rights and imposing draconian laws in the region for years together would further escalate the problem.