Former Lok Sabha speaker and NCP leader P. A. Sangma has regretted the utter neglect of the North-East by the Congress, which he said, had 'denied' Cabinet status for leaders from the North-East for 25 years, until he broke the taboo by becoming Speaker in 1996.

Talking to students from the North-East at his residence, Mr. Sangma said the Congress, after 1975, had not found any leader fit enough to be a Cabinet minister excepting D. K. Baruah. "The speakership for me did not come at the behest of the Congress," he said, adding that it was the opposition parties which propped up his name.

The people of the North-East were not backward and knew about the rest of India. It was the mainlanders who had little knowledge about the North-East, he said. He recalled how five-term MPs were not aware that he belonged to Meghalaya. Only a united group of MPs from the North-East can act as an effective pressure group, Mr. Sangma said, adding that only development could bring back peace in the North-East.

The seven sisters share an international border of 4,500 km with Bangladesh, Myanmar and China and these seven states should think of having free trade among themselves, with the border countries and then with the South-East Asian countries, he opined.