Empty promises

With the elections nearing, the national leaders are making a beeline for the state to woo the voters. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday addressed a huge rally at IG Park in Itanagar to kick-start the campaign of party in the state. Mr Gandhi made several promises, including restoration of special category state status, scrapping of the citizenship amendment bill, etc. In the next few days, BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, are expected to arrive in the state to campaign for their party. During elections, these leaders come to Arunachal Pradesh and make big announcements.
However, most of their promises are never fulfilled. Once the election gets over, they will forget about the promises and move on. Arunachal sends only two members of parliament to the Lok Sabha, and therefore hardly gets any proper attention from the Centre. Unfortunately, the politicians of the state have also failed to bring to the attention of the central government the problems affecting the people of the state. Arunachal can perhaps learn from a small state like Goa in this regard. The state is geographically smaller than Arunachal and sends two MPs to the Lok Sabha. But it is much more developed and has a big say at the national level. Leaders like late Manohar Parrikar have given strong leadership to Goa and made a mark for the state.