Editor,
Assam's border disputes with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland remain a quiet national failure. These are not international frontiers. They are lines between Indian states, governed by the same Constitution and often by the same political party. Yet they have dragged on for decades, periodically turning violent and leaving thousands of hectares (over 82,700) by Assam's own count in disputed limbo.
Progress exists. Assam and Meghalaya resolved six of twelve sectors in 2022. Assam and Arunachal settled 123 villages in 2023. Dialogue continues. Still, clashes over farmland, surveys and timber recur. Nagaland's dispute stays tangled in an old Supreme Court case and deeper historical claims. Farmers cannot plant with certainty; development stalls; communities live in permanent provisionality.
The complexity of colonial maps, ethnic claims and poor records is real. But when chief ministers share the same ruling party and the Centre is ready to mediate, prolonged delay becomes harder to defend. Political fear of 'losing' territory repeatedly outweighs the duty to deliver clarity to ordinary citizens.
India rightly treats its China border with seriousness. That same seriousness is needed at home. Unresolved internal boundaries weaken the map of the union itself. Temporary truces help, but they are not solutions. Time-bound surveys, honest consultation, and the political will to finish what has already begun can close these chapters. Before consolidating frontiers abroad, India must first finish the job within.
Anil Thapa, Shillong