Proposed in the 1990s when Manmohan Singh was finance minister, the 'Look East' policy fizzled out as Jyoti Basu-led Bengal failed to embrace the idea and engage with the Centre to develop its infrastructure.
"We lacked vision and failed to grab the opportunity when it came. The Centre was willing to invest in development of roads, port, rail and other infrastructure but we did not respond because politically our relations were estranged. Kolkata could have become the gateway and developed into a leading city. Instead, we became a laggard. Putting politics before development was a bad idea but we have learnt no lesson," said Bengal Chamber president Kallol Datta.
Economist Dipankar Dasgupta believes Bengal would have benefited immensely with an improved road network and better port facility. "If India as a whole were to look east, then the window would have to be through Bengal. Of course, it has to include the other eastern states and the northeast. But Bengal failed to understand and grasp the situation," he said.
National Highway 34 connecting south and north Bengal that then links the rest of northeast and will in future connect to the proposed tri-lateral highway -- is in a pathetic state. It takes nearly 12 hours to do the 450 km stretch, a distance that should be covered in 5 hours.
The situation at Kolkata Port and Haldia dock complex is worse. Lack of proper dredging has reduced draft to alarming levels. The deep sea port proposed at Sagar is yet to take off.
The only bright spot is the airport. The city now has an international passenger terminal that is world class and a modern cargo complex. But with not much economic activity in the region, it gets barely 250 tonne of cargo a day against 700 tonne at Delhi, 750 tonne at Mumbai and 600 tonne at Bangalore airport.
"Infrastructure wise we have nothing. There are no roads, no ports. In China, even small towns have six lane highways. They are doing so for future. We do not have the vision to look beyond the present," said economist Abhirup Sarkar.
However, the state alone is not to blame; the Centre also failed to drive the 'Look East' agenda. India stayed away from groupings that evolved at the time and failed to enter free trade agreements with eastern neighbours.
"We should have taken note that Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia had shown great ability to progress along the path of economic development. The miraculous growth performance of the East became a talking point. But we continued to look westward, believing that if we imitated the West, we would make progress," he said.
Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry director general Rajiv Singh agreed. "India as a country was so much fascinated by west, giving too much importance to Pakistan, during 1990s and up to 2005, we either completely ignored or did not give due importance to the Look East policy," he said.
It is only in the past seven-eight years that India is taking some initiative to look eastward, funding the Sittwe port in Myanmar and committing to develop a section of the tri-lateral highway that runs through Myanmar. A bus service is proposed between Imphal and Mandalay. It has opened three 'haats' or barter markets with Bangladesh and two with Myanmar. Three more are in the offing.
"Bengal and the northeast have to be the centre of action in the Look East policy. And for it to be a reality, infrastructure needs a major overhaul. Once the Sittwe port is ready, it will connect with the Kaladan river that flows through Mizoram. But what happens after the goods are unloaded unless road connectivity improves? They should have been," Singh questioned. Of course, insurgency in the northeast was a problem that needs to be sorted out as well.
Confederation of Indian Industry director general Saugata Mukherjee said a dialogue was underway on how to open up trade and commerce routes. "We organized the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar car rally to push for the revival of the old southern silk route," he pointed out. While infrastructure is a necessity, Abhirup Sarkar says 'Look East' is a nice phrase but makes no sense unless we can improve our fundamentals. "We have been unable to compete in manufacturing sector because of our low level of technology, infrastructure problem, low productivity and lack of efficiency. China has not had to look at one direction but made the entire world its market by strengthening its fundamentals," he said.
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