GUWAHATI: A day after the women’s quota bill was defeated in Parliament, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) on Saturday said any national discussion on delimitation and women’s representation must fully take into account the Northeast’s unique historical, political, demographic, cultural and strategic realities.
After a media briefing in Delhi, UPPL MPs Pramod Boro, Rwngwra Narzary (both Rajya Sabha) and Joyanta Basumatary (Lok Sabha) in a joint statement said the Northeast, despite its extraordinary diversity and vast international frontier, had borne a disproportionate burden of conflict, neglect, fragility and political marginalisation.
“The Northeast should not be a peripheral appendage to be discussed only in the language of last-mile development or the last-man’s progress. It is a foundational civilisational and strategic frontier of India, and it deserves constitutional imagination equal to its importance,” the trio insisted.
They said many of the region’s nearly 200 communities never received adequate or proportionate democratic visibility in the national political system. In several cases, they said, inadequate constitutional and legislative space contributed to alienation and instability.
“If India is serious about durable peace and national integration, then constitutional reform must create room for meaningful political participation by all sections of the region,” the MPs said.
They argued that population should not be the only deciding criterion in delimitation for the Northeast, maintaining that the region’s geographical vulnerability, ethnic diversity, strategic border context, historical conflicts, and constitutional protections require a more sensitive and context-aware framework.
According to them, Bodoland deserves serious national attention, highlighting that with a population of around 40 lakh and home to 26 communities, it requires a more robust and realistic representation structure.
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