Day: August 20, 2011

By Amar Yumnam
Why is India so bad? Despite the recent growth spurt, why it now faces such a big political-economic challenge to moving further upward? Well, we need not mince words here. India is so bad because there is hardly anything which one cannot get done with money, irrespective of the nature of the work. This happens in all organisations relating to the offices of the state or offices of the people. There is now ample experience to imagine that it could be true even with quite a few of the “revolutionary” organisations.

But Why: At this point. We may justifiably ask as to why such a situation now characterises the country. The shortest answer to this would follow the Anna line. Money has now emerged as the most important weapon in this country because politics and corruption have become synonymous due to the repeated practices symbolising the merger of the two. Politics is the most important component in the conduct of human life within a structured society. This is because politics as practised by the politicians decide the character of the state. In fact, the state is to a large extent the aggregate of the functioning of the politicians in power in a democracy. To this extent politics is an inevitable part of democratic polity. Here lies the significance of politics.

The Divisions: Significant, powerful and impactful as it is, it is absolutely important that the practitioners of politics take utmost care such that the sanctity and sustenance of the state is not put at risk. In other words, they need to be very clear of the zone of operation of their politics and the limits to that. If they start assuming that there is no limit to their areas of operation and behave accordingly, chaos would sooner than later rule rather than order. This is exactly what is happening in India today.

Given this we may now borrow an analysis in Economics where the Entrepreneurs – the agents of growth in a society – are divided into productive, unproductive and destructive and evasive ones. The productive entrepreneur brings to operation a more efficient way of functioning which was otherwise lying un-adopted in the society. Further, he/she causes an innovation in the society and thereby taking the society to an altogether a new plane of well-being. Unproductive and destructive entrepreneurs, on the other hand, devote their ability to innovate in devising ways for committing higher crimes, rent-seeking and the destruction of existing resources of the society. They do innovate, but their activities do not contribute at all in taking the society to a higher level of well-being. Rather, their activities kill the spirit of competition in the society, which otherwise should serve as the basis for advancement. The best example in this genre is corruption.

The other group of entrepreneurs are what is called evasive. This group invests resources in avoiding the legal system or to escape from the ill-effects of other unproductive entrepreneurs. Tax evasion and gangs scheming to better other unfriendly gangs are all examples of this.

With this understanding of entrepreneur classes, we may now venture into classifying the political class in this country. Politics the politicians play can be productive, unproductive, destructive or plain evasive. Productive politics would be one which facilitates the existence, exchange and interactions of all individuals in the society in such a way that the scope for productive activities gets expanded. Unproductive and destructive politics would be one where the practitioners indulge in exploiting their hold on decision making in matters of the state and polity. Here the practitioners leave no holds barred in interfering in every sphere of state action and influencing the decision indirections that serve their vested interests. For them every decision is apolitical decision. The existence of this group ensures the emergence and presence of another group practicing evasive politics.

India’s Predicament:  The problem of India, history has proved repeatedly, is not with the entrepreneurial class as such. Right from the pre-Independence times till today, we have had many entrepreneurs of the productive kind. In fact, they are the ones who have made recent economic rise of India possible. Here too the role of circumstantially enforced behaviour of productive politics has served as the greatest facilitator for the manifestation of entrepreneurial talent of the country. But very unfortunately, sooner than later the unproductive and destructive politics has gained supremacy over the productive one. This recent disease seems to have taken very deep roots in a very short span of time so much so that the offices of state and the offices of people are themselves suspects now in the eyes of the people. This is a condition India, with all her heterogeneity in geography, people and issues, can ill-afford to have.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/politics-productive-unproductive-destructive-and-evasive/

By Bobo Khuraijam
Recently some old friends insisted us to take a ride to the eastern most frontier of the state. We demanded that we be left alone in our own languor.  They were adamant enough to displace us from our comfort coterie.  In no time we reach the most popular town. The place needs no introduction. A hotspot for shopping for things made in foreign at a reasonable price. A favorite site for venturing out with a seemingly ideal purpose – they called it study tour. You must have caught a glace of them on their return journey. Their vehicles would be overloaded with their study materials. From multi colored blankets to monochromatic hawai chappals, from glitzy electric appliances to squashy plastic toys, there are endless list to shop for. Located some three hours’ drive from the state capital, the small town is always teeming with life. With an altitude lower than the Imphal valley the place welcomes you with impartial heat. We did not try to find out who guards the street lamps. We find most of the lamps glowing with liveliness like the ones in the Kangla pat area, which are always under the watchful eyes of the security forces. The solar lamps take the bright responsibility whenever there is a power cut. A resident told us that there is regular power supply in the town. But nobody can forecast its arrival once it left for its mapam.

MEETING IN THE GATHERING: As we were told there was an important gathering in the town at the trade Centre. Friends from the other side of the border coming to take part were the main attraction. It was nearly eleven o clock; only four or five people were around the venue. Ten in the morning was the scheduled time written on the card. We heard that our friends had already come but they left as there was none to receive them. Meanwhile we refresh ourselves starring at the fake flowers decorating the wall of the hall. A guy with a room freshener sprays it with joy once in a while. The previous day’s general strike constrained the traders and officials from Imphal to arrive in advance. A point hard to be understood by the foreign dignitaries, but rain was the excuse given by official from our side of the border. The explanation was silly as it could be. It confused us wondering whether there was no rainfall at the other side of the border which is at a stone’s throw. We do not know what better explanation would the official give for the wrong spelling printed loud and clear on the backdrop. Can we suggest one? Say it: the printing machine was not oiled well, following the shortage after the economic blockade. The foreign dignitaries did turn up again. But much to their surprise they were not received well. Our side of the official was busy attending a phone call. He walked out of the room brushing aside the delegates as if they were his subordinate staffs. No one is to be blamed, except for the good network of the cellular phones, we thought. A man who seemed to be tipsy introduced himself as a relative of the minister of the department concern. What a way of loi thaaba at the border town. Halfway into the session we realize half of the people attending the session had come just like that. For the record, there were also traders who were serious to learn more about international trade. The intricacies of Trans border trade, the technicalities involved in financial transaction, the role of the banks, and the logistics of moving the consignments. There was in-debt discussion. In tandem with our tradition there were plenty of mathels for the lunch break. Fish of both atoiba and ataoba, chicken, eromba, vegetables, only a buffet of that kind would allow us of not even sparing the vegetarians’ table without any mercy. Without doubt, the main VIP from Imphal was the last man to arrive. His articulation and his sense of duty was a saving grace. The following day, as usual, the foreign friends arrived earlier than the rest of the crowd. Our wannabe international traders from Imphal have gone shopping at the other side of the international fence. The session did come to an end with the international friends sharing their optimism of a booming international trade at the border town. Should we also mention that our omnipresent social worker/ activist/ trader/, All-in-one, to be precise were also present in the gathering? With aplomb some of them jump into a photo session with the international friends. How thoughtful? The photos would be their priced credential to prove their involvement in the helms of affairs. We are convinced that their far sightedness would put them to the leadership of steering the nation to a place called nowhere. And for the time being, we hope, their leikai habbits would not dampened the spirit of international trade in the border town.

BEYOND THE BORDER: the Indo-Myanmar friendship road was sparkling not like any other road in the state. The road is perhaps much superior in quality than the one we find in the metropolis. We are not wise enough to throw light on India’s sudden sense of friendship with the neighboring country. But we can well sense the duplicity of the mandarins in Delhi. The country gives shelter to pro- democracy refugees. At another instance they would share grand lunch with the top military leadership. Not only that they would also sign MoU and agreements on trade. Come morning, there will be swarm of small traders riding on their Japanese made bikes crossing the international border. They are allowed to sell their product without any restrictions. A kind of infrastructural opium and false comfort of a friendship with designs is bestowed by the great Indian nation. The high growth rate (which has little to do state or the border town) inspires the big traders sitting in the mainland to expand their business beyond the border. And therefore the hype of flourishing border trade is played by the political honchos to please the multi-millionaire traders. At this backdrop, we do not know where the small time traders of both side of the border stand in the future. The small Chak hotels, the small vehicles that ferry people from the valley to the town, the small traders that share a symbiotic relation with small towns like Kakching, Pallel, and more precisely Imphal, would not become a history when the border trade is formalize, with the trans-Asian highway and mega traders passing across the state at the speed of light. When night falls, the vaisnavite ema endols practice Sankirtan for the upcoming Krishna Jarma unlike the localities in Imphal, late into the night they sang. Would the speeding vehicles and trains on the futuristic Highway subdue their devotional hymns in the future? Can we be still left alone in our own languor?

FOOTNOTE: to all those who do so many things while talking on the phone, like driving, crossing the road, and what not? Leipung Ningthou requests them to try another feature of “chaak chana chana khong haambasu yabara yengbiyu”.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/bothering-the-borderless/

By Yambem Laba
On 15 June 2011,  I accompanied a 30-member team of the Manipur Mountaineering and Trekking Association (MMTA) Dzuko Valley expedition to Dzuko Valley. We started from Mao on the Manipur-Nagaland border, 96 km from Imphal . Our  first destination was a water point some eight km away which was to serve as our base camp. We spent the first  night there. The next morning, we headed for Mt. Isso (2996 metres), Manipur’s highest  peak and climbed down to the Dzuko Valley (2500 metres).

The 6-km trek uphill to Mt. Isso in the monsoon is perhaps the toughest for any climber. This was my second visit in  25 years. Being the former president of the MMTA and a member of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, I was chosen the expedition leader almost by default. The climbing leader was Puyamcha Mohon,  one of India’s upcoming mountaineers with many a Himalayan peak to his credit.The rest of the members comprised scientists, foresters, college lecturers, students and small-time businessmen fired by the spirit of adventure and desire to see Dzuko Valley.

Unlike other popular trekking sites  elsewhere in the country there was no track at all. Even if there was one it was covered with thick foliage and plants. After about three hours’ climb, we faced the first formidable obstacle to our destination ~ a 100-feet-high rock face.  We had to use ropes. It took us about five hours to cross this hurdle and by that time the entire  topography of the area changed. There were no large trees nor springs but only dwarf bamboo around. We hung on to the bamboo clumps which were no higher than two feet as natural hand holds as we pulled ourselves up the steep face with incessant rain making the track muddier.

We had started at around 8 in the morning, crossed the rock face at 12:30 p.m. and finally made it to Mr. Isso at 4.00 pm. We later became a group of five ~ one  comprising myself, instructor Gynaeshwor, Joykumar, Inaocha and Edison. We first attempted to get into the valley westward but Gynaeshwor cautioned saying: “Sir, Dzuko should be approached from the  north.” We then doubled back to the peak and then forayed northwards and then soon darkness descended. At an age when my peers are busy cuddling their grandchildren in the comforts of their homes, there was me with four young men trying to make shelter for the night on the ridge of Mt. Isso. We made a makeshift camp for the night, using plastic sheets for our roof and the five of us huddled close to spend the night amidst the pouring rain and the howling wind  even as water trickled inside our sleeping bags. We had not had any food for the entire day.

The next morning, it stopped raining and around 9 a.m, we could see the sprawling valley below us in all its emerald finery. The word Dzuko is derived from the language of the Mao tribe who inhabit the Mao area of Manipur’s Senapati district. Dzu means water and Ko  frozen, to denote the frozen water of the valley during winter. One or two inches of ice cover  the streams of Dzuko during the winter and it snows in the top region. Dzuko covers an  area of approximately 3.1 sq-km. Three streams originating from the  south Isso range traverse through the valley and fall into the Barak in Assam.

The Dzuko could be described as the valley of flowers of the east as the  purple Dzuko Lily (Lilium chitraganda-Bikramjit) and other summer flowers bloom in full glory in thousands and on the fringes are numerous caves where one can take shelter for the night. While the Mao and Paomei tribes of Manipur settled in the adjoining areas of Dzuko, they hold the valley dear to their belief, customs and traditions and have claimed the entire area to be their own tribal land, the Angamis of Nagaland have challenged this and have staked their claim on it. At the  moment, the Dzuko river seems to serve as the line of  actual control between Manipur and Nagaland. While the latter appears to have taken a pro-active role in its claim to Dzuko Valley by constructing two roads from Zakhama and Viswema  ~ 7 and 13 km-long respectively ~ and a functional guest house and plans are afoot to construct a water supply scheme for Kohima, the Manipur government appears to have abandoned Dzuko Valley to its fate.This was evident from non-maintenance of the road leading to the base camp. It was  constructed when Mr M Thorii, local MLA, was a minister in the Manipur government. After he  ceased to be a minister, no one has bothered about maintenance. The Manipur government  talks of attracting tourists and pledges to protect the state’s territorial integrity but does not seem to have any knowledge about the needs of the region.

To start with, the road should be properly maintained. There has to be a rest house at the base camp. Also, a proper trekking route. While one can reach Dzuko via Nagaland in a day’s time, it takes two days of strenuous climbing and trekking from the Manipur side. While the dispute over the ownership of the valley may rage between the two governments of Manipur and Nagaland, it would do the states well to come together and pool their resources to petition the Unesco for declaring the valley a World Heritage Site ~ a tag enjoyed by Manas National Park that straddles Assam and Bhutan.
First published in The Statesman, Kolkata. The writer is a veteran Imphal-based journalist

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/valley-of-neglect/

By T. Vunglallian
Introduction
A 2003 Report on our National Highways reads:
‘Recently, the Manipur Road Infrastructure Development Technical Assistance Project was  launched as part of a major plan prepared by the Government of India in collaboration with the  World Bank, for upgrading the states’ roads, and their maintenance and rehabilitation.

The study, Infrastructure Development in Manipur unfortunately, gives undue weightage to  the congestion criterion, which immediately gives it an urban bias with a focus on heavily  populated elite areas having a high concentration of  vehicles. The bias is also reflected in  concentration of resources on the already  developed areas.’ (Bold, mine)

The Connections: Districts and Highways
Part-B of my long long essay on Manipur’s Roads – ready for e-mailing to TSE and IFP on 8th  August – deals specifically with the Imphal-Jiribam road, and had a 300-worded END NOTE on  Jiribam and its district issue. My un-planned delay in e-mailing has given me time for a re-look.

Now 300 words have grown to 4000 words! All because the timing, or co-incidence, reference ‘district demands’ made my thinking-out-of-the-box antenna pick up some disturbing static.

Hence, I bring forward the last part of my essay right up here, because it happened to be so topical, but more so because of TSE’s 13 August, 2011 report: ‘Jiri dist demand: CM opens dialogue door’.

Today’s literally burning issue makes me dwell on a thought that disturbs viz.: Was and is this clamouring, pushing and shoving for an improved NH-37 more of a ‘kill two birds with one stone’ tactic? Meaning, on the surface, is it shouting for a better highway, while the quieter deeper aim is for a Jiribam District?   Hence my Aside below:-
ASIDE:
The NH-37 connects Imphal to Jiribam where the River Barak – before entering Assam – has to be crossed at Jirighat. Peculiarly, through some very convoluted reasoning, Jiribam, has been a Sub-Division of Imphal East District, a good 220 km away and is, in reality, over-the-hills-and-far-away. Not only that, the said sub-division hops over the whole of Tamenglong, steps over Imphal West (West!) and jumps into Imphal East. And Jiribam is, like, extreme western Manipur!
Convoluted, certainly. Communal, well camouflaged!

If not the above, one cannot help wondering why on earth, right from the beginning, Jiribam wasn’t simply just a part of either of the surrounding contiguous districts of Tamenglong or Churachandpur, like the very small plains of Moreh. Had it been so then it would have been Tamenglong’s or Churachandpur’ 2nd town (that  would have had the potential of being bigger and more important than the District HQ, something like Kohima the capital and Dimapur the commercial centre! That is what it ought to have been).

Today, the demand has suddenly turned aggressive – like, if our demands are not met by 13th August, 2011, then a total blockade of NH-37 shall commence from 6 pm of 14 August! Next, of course, a tactful consideration of hardships faced due to the SHDDC blockade, and deferment of total blockade of NH-37 till August 29. In a way, it is much like copying the moves of the SHDDC, but for this deferment. However, there is a lurking suspicion that, regarding GOM’s future action, there shall be a gulf of difference between the dealings towards the SHDDC and JDDC. Only time will tell.

Manipur must now come to its sense, and do something definite, like, leave Jiribam as it is, a sub-divisional HQ of Imphal East. Or, merge it to either one of its natural ‘older, senior brothers’, Tamenglong or Churachandpur, that peer down from all sides into Jiribam’s small 284 sq. km and 50,000 population. Or, bifurcate it, with one part in Tamenglong and the other in Churachandpur, obviously using the highway as the boundary. That impersonal dividing road would have nothing communal in it. Whereas, declaring it a full-fledged district could be seen, among others, as communal. And certainly most unfair! Such an act would then, once again, deny the hills their demands that are more genuine than tiny Jiribam’s. (My hills’ demands shall be clearer a paragraph further down).

It is high time that GOM treads cautiously and wisely, for a Pandora’s box seems to be opening, especially with the ongoing demand for a Sadar Hills District and news of Tengnoupal too wanting to become a full-fledged district. Given the present imbroglio and the loud demands, i am driven to look closely at the larger picture and come up with ways to address the really genuine need for real development in the hills of Manipur. i have nothing to do with politics, vote banks and communal overtones … mine is purely ‘development’ with a capital D! i want to see all hill folks enjoy the good life with dignity, integrity and a large heart …

A Real Way Forward, Without Hurting Anyone
In search of ways forward – read that as for all-round development of the hills – i will go many steps further and demand that the hills of Manipur be made into 25 smaller and more manageable hill districts! Yes, twenty-five hill districts – 25HDs – to bring in a controlled rush of modern, sustainable and environment-friendly development!

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/driving-out-of-manipur-jiri-part-of-partb-and-thoughts-thereof/