Day: January 13, 2013

The post HCBA team in Delhi appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

IMPHAL, Jan 13: A team of the High Court Bar Association, Manipur led by its president N Kumarjit has left Imphal for the national capital to hold talks with the Union Law Minister today. The Association had earlier announced the suspension of its prolonged cease work strike yesterday following an appeal from the Chief Minister. The association had also said that Chief Minister had called upon the association to come to the national capital where he is at present stationed at; for a joint meeting with the Union Law Minster on January 14. According to a reliable source, the team that left Imphal consisted of Sr Advocate RK Nokulsana and Advocate General Th Ibohal Singh other than the association president.

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IMPHAL, Jan 13: According to a press release, the Youth Development Association organized a one day mass awareness campaign on the India-EU Free Trade Agreement at the Waiton community hall today.

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The post KSO condoles appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

IMPHAL, Jan 13: “The Kuki Students’ Organisation, General Headquarters deeply condoles the untimely demise of Mr Thangminlal Mate of Urangpat Village, Senapati District a student leader of KSO Delhi who embarked on a winger van to Churachandpur for KSO’s emergency meeting. He met a road mishap along Imphal Tiddim road on January 11 and subsequently succumbed to his injuries”, said a press release of the student body.

It said his demise is considerable loss to the society and the void he created is tremendous. “We share our grievances to the grief stricken family members on this unfortunate moment”, it said.

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The post Irong ire appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

IMPHAL, January 13: Md Alim, Secretary of the Social Working Committee, Irong has alleged that the family of Md Amar (22) son of Md Tomba  Shikhong Leikai, Yairipok has reneged on an agreement over the later`s elopement with a minor girl. Saying that the boy`s family had signed a bond paper in the presence of Md Abdul, local Pradhan of Salam Irong Chesaba Gram Panchayat under which Md Amar`s family had agreed to give compensation to the girl`s family in the form of a sum of 1.50 lakhs or 5 mohor of gold on 10 January before 2 pm . Md Alim claimed that on the day the of agreement, the boy`s family handed 15 thousand in cash and left behind one TATA magic (Aris) without registration number as surety. The vehicle was kept in the premises of the local Pradhan`s house, he said.

Saying that the remaining agreed amount of money has still not been given by the boy`s family despite the agreed upon time frame expiring,  Md Alim further claimed that a team of Thoubal commandos led by an ASI came to the house of their local Pradhan and tried to take away the vehicle which had been left at the Pradhan`s house as surety over the agreement. However, locals of the area prevented the police team from taking away the vehicle.

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The post Political Arms Race: Manipur`s contemporary scenario appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

By Amar Yumnam
If someone asks me about the contemporary social picture of Manipur, I would definitely respond that it is now characterised by a situation of “political arms race” among the heterogeneous groups inhabiting the land. This arms race is now occupying the heart and mind, individual and collective, of the people of Manipur today. As I have said in a recent input in this column: “This is the consequence of the absence of a shared trajectory of development for all and lack of development as such. In the wake of the various dialogues currently under way to address the issues of the prevailing state and those opposing it so far, many group and ethnic based articulations are already making rounds. But in none of these, there is any reflection on the possibilities for evolving a development trajectory shared and which can be shared by all. The models being put forward from all sides are all founded on exclusivity and parting of ways. Here we are forgetting certain critical problems. First, we have to enquire if is there any instance in the development history of the world where heterogeneity of ethnicity, geography and development levels have been addressed carefully and successfully by any of the models being proposed. Even supposing that there is no historical experience anywhere in the world more or less similar to the situation in our region, we have to be doubly careful for we would be creating history. When we create history, it should be of a sustainable model of development and not one of failures. Secondly, there is a federal structure politically in this country. This necessarily entails the application of mind jointly and individually by both federal and provincial authorities to share and evolve policies for development and models for shared one at that. While the federal authority may be best competent to evolve and establish policies for the larger frame, the provincial authorities are definitely more equipped to apply mind for addressing the effects on and the interests of the contextual realities. But in the unfolding scenario, there is no instance of the various parties, groups, authorities and ethnicities involved being aware of these core issues. This however is something we cannot and need not bear for long unless we are looking forward to collapses all round.”

This political arms race reminds me of one instance of “positional arms race” wherein sportspersons resort to steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. What is more important for us is how this issue is being taken cared of at regional, national and international levels around the world. We may recall how Jon McEnroe used to claim that he had more talent in his little finger than the entire body of his archrival Ivan Lendl. But the discipline of training enabled Lendl to displace McEnroe from the top of tennis rankings. This example of the success of Lendl is significant as compared to the usefulness of steroids. First, steroids are expensive. Second it does not yield any lasting value. There are negative side effects of hair loss, skin disorders, rising aggressiveness, and even psychotic. Further, there is no enhancement of the value for viewers by the use of drugs. In fact, any discovery of drug use pulls the psychological value of viewer satisfaction absolutely down. We may compare this case with another case of investment for enhancing performance. The singers spend fortunes on coaches for voice training and related learning. These lead to an outcome leading to the long term enhancement of value to the singers as well as listeners as contrasted to the investment on steroids. Now the question which arises in the context of Manipur is how the heterogeneous groups are spending their resources. Are they investing on steroids or on voice coaches? Let us remember how our own Mary Kom has prepared herself to attain her position today.

While attempting my own response to this question, I would like to situate myself in the emerging politico-economic scenario of Manipur. With the rising of deeper and wider economic relationships with South East and East Asia, Manipur is sooner than later moving towards a direction of boundaryless world of employment opportunities. All our political, social and economic interventions should now be directed towards preparing the people for this fast unfolding world. Here I would like to refer to the findings emerging from research in Experimental Economics. It is emerging that there is no instance of the groups outperforming the individuals in strategic response to situations of risk and uncertainty. When it comes to performance, the groups have failed to outperform individuals in a world of uncertainty. The groups of course outperform individuals in a world under risks. Another study of individual culture orientations covering 29 countries (this study would soon be coming out in print) also provides significant supplementary finding inter alia wherein the significance of self-enhancement for career success has been detected. This is exactly where we should draw the implications for Manipur. In Manipur, we always say with pride, there are no beggars. I would immediately explain this as a case where the risk is attended to by social norms. But the world unfolding before us would be a world of rising uncertainties and definitely not a world of rising risks. The suggestions, behaviour and articulations all tend to lead to a world of deepening and widening unpreparedness to face uncertainties. This however would not take Manipur and any group within towards a better world. Further, in the emerging world of the unfolding competitions, I have always emphasised in the context of Manipur, the battle is to be fought at the individual levels and not at the level of groups. The competitions we are going to face increasingly is in the context of individual efficiency and competence and not in a world of primitive accumulation.

All these mean that the articulations, engagements and efforts we are busy today with would only lead to stunting the preparedness of the people to face the larger uncertainties emerging in a context of boundaryless economic opportunities. The time dominated by group security ensuring individual safety from risks of life is long gone for good. Now is the time to concentrate on individual performance and efficiency. But the business, engagements and mobilisations happening today in Manipur are far removed from this imperative.

I only hope that the results emerging from the application of game theory to Economics emerge true in the case of Manipur. It is found that inefficient conflicting group behaviour can result in cooperative behaviour at individual levels. Destructive group behaviour has a self-destructive cycle to result to this outcome invariably.         

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The post Customs, norms and ethics appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

In the face of cries and claims of social crimes against women and instances of exploitation of women and children in the state, it is rather disquieting to note the rising trend of incidents where guardians of girls, including minors resort to ‘social compensation’ (ijat daabi) as a way of settling disputes without any regard for legal procedures. To begin with, the practice of eloping before marriage as an accepted practice by the society gives a wide awning for young women to be sexually exploited under the cover of this tradition. There have been innumerable cases where women have been duped into sexual relations with the promise of marriage, which follows in most incidences. While legally such actions can be challenged and action taken against the errant men involved by filing legal cases citing reasons for cheating and false promises, it is the social practice of ‘compensation’ and other social practices that complicates matters especially when minors are involved.

There may be arguments that legal actions when it does happen also result in financial compensation, which in a sense is also what also takes place in the practice of social compensation. But one glaring difference is that legal punishment also involves sentencing and legal censure, which is not considered in social resolution. In a sense, the social resolution route in such cases can also be seen as an out of court settlement without time and effort being spent on legal procedures but can unfortunately lead to the men being involved in the further exploiting of other women. Once money enters the picture and the man involved gets to know that it speaks volumes, it can only contribute to taking women and society for granted. Legal sentences and directives are more public and hence lead to a more careful and cautious approach, if only to save face. In certain cases, parents and guardians hush up elopements involving minors by resorting to ‘ijat daabi’ being involved rather than file criminal charges.

There is another practice called Keina Katpa, which literally means offering the girl. Co-incidentally, the practice of eloping was earlier not socially sanctioned and those who did elope were married off with great haste without much fuss and this was called Keina Katpa. In the present times, eloping before marriage has become a norm while Keina Katpa is enforced by women vigilant groups on couples who they claim have been found in ‘compromising situations’ and are carried out without any regard for individual choices or the couple in question being ready for marriage. There is no legal sanction in these types of practices and in fact, stringent legal action can be taken up against the said women groups for forcing marriage without consent. The irony of women groups revealing identities of young girls and women so caught in their vigilant drives is another sad face of the gender justice perspective in Manipur today.

In present times again, the spectacle of Joint Action Committees in the state over any issue has also touched upon the gender sensitive or gender blind debate. The incident of the rape of a young married woman in Thoubal as we have seen, stands out because the woman in question was kept in judicial custody before wheels fell into place. But the travesty and farce of calls for justice, falls through when one hears of the JAC being named after the woman in question. The identity of a woman who has been a victim of sexual violence cannot be revealed either by the media or any agencies without a written consent from the women in question. This is done mainly to shield the woman from further social stigma and is critical in a small place like Manipur where there is a tight knit community. Leave alone names, media reports cannot even hint at the identity of the woman or give away any leads that can aid in establishing her identity. But a cursory scan of the newspapers in Manipur will reveal just how much rights awareness is known and being put into practice when it comes to gender related rights.

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The post Remember Vivekananda, Stay Cool appeared first on  KanglaOnline.com.

By B.G.Verghese
If there is something India needs to remember at this time, it is the 150th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, that great soul who tried to reinterpret India to itself and rid it of caste and other social blemishes. That is the Idea of India we must never forget but, rather, build on.

One is powerfully reminded of this when one sees sundry current “godmen” and other religious frauds backed by gullible and even fanatic followers spouting nonsense and dividing the country. India is a deeply religious and spiritual society. But some of this religiosity is rooted in medieval-rootedness that is not merely irrelevant but antithetical to our times. AsaramBapu is one such cult figure who cannot be left to defy the law and the constitution and be allowed to get away with hate speech. These men often get away with such conduct because politicians and other powerful or wealthy persons have been allowed to set deviant standards with immunity and impunity. The rot begins with political parties whose politics is for person and pelf above all else and whose members’ electoral criminality is now well established.  

AkbaruddinOwaisi was initially arrested and placed in judicial custody in Hyderabad for his utterly outrageous communal and anti-India rant after days of evasive action and pleading life-threatening illness. Such lies, when exposed, as in this case through independent medical examination, should fetch condign punishment in itself for the person concerned and his family and political protectors.

People in high places also defy the law and norms of conduct by pulling rank. Witness the utterly disgraceful conduct of V.K. Singh, former Army chief, last week when a uniformed Signal’s Major sent to the General’s residence to remove the telephone exchange allowed him as a courtesy for six months- not the telephone connection itself –found himself virtually taken prisoner for eight hours. Both the front door of the residence and the compound gate were locked to prevent his “escape”.  The General’s personal securitystaffand family said they had received no prior intimation of such a visit owing to what an Army spokesperson later described as a mis-communication for which an apology was issued. A simple telephone call to the right quarters by Singh’s family could have resolved the issue one way or the other.

Instead, the media was alerted, admitted into the compound and allowed to chase and harass the Major who was charged by the General’s lawyer with snooping around and seeking to plant a bug in the house as a plot for “something big”. It is not known whether the General was at home or not but there was no word from him then or since. Singh’s rogue conduct both in uniform and out of it falls far short of the norms expected of “an officer and a gentleman”. How can a former Army Chief, who earlier shamefully sued his own government for self-falsification of his age, now formally charge the Army with “snooping” on him and be allowed to get away with it? As before, the Defence Minister has dealt with the matterwith supreme incompetence and thereby undermined military discipline and morale.

No nexus is implied, but it is at this juncture that Pakistan for some strange reason has decided to up the ante alongside the LOC and J&K while swearing commitment to the peace process with India for its own salvation. Rather than target India as its permanent enemy, the Pakistan Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, has called on the country toredefine its military doctrine in order comprehensively “to tackle terrorism”. He told the National Defence Institute in Islamabad on January 5 that danger to Pakistan’s national security “stems mainly from “non-state actors who are targeting the State’s symbols and institutions in a bid to impose their agenda”. Political will and people’s support were critical for the success of military action.  

Despite reiteration of this new dogma at various levels, General Kayani being first of the mark last April,both political will and public support remain fragmented. The LOC violations in the Uri-Mendhar sectors last week, howsoever triggered – and each side accuses the other for initiating unprovoked action – two matters stand out as undisputed. The first is that the bodies of two Indian soldiers were found mutilated, with the head decapitated in one case. This is barbaric. The second is that Pakistan has prolonged and escalated the crisis by unilaterally stopping cross-border truck movements in the Poonch sector, while previously missing yet another, December-enddeadline for granting India long-overdue MFN status on specious grounds.

India’s restraint and offer to hold Brigadier-level flag meetings to sort out matters has been scorned. Instead, Islamabad has suggested investigation of these cross-border incidents by the UN Military Observer Group (UNMOG. This sounds very fair except for fact that the proposal mischievously attempts to revive a dead horse. UNMOG was rendered comatose in 1972 when both sides agreed atSimla to bury the UN Resolutions and settle the Kashmir Question bilaterally.  Islamabad is now cleverly trying to resile from the governing Simla agreement and internationalise the matter. As importantly, Pakistan is in flagrant and repeated violation of the UN rulings and resolutions on J&K. Such devious cunning will not work. Kashmir cannot once again become an international football with allies and Islamists playing their own games for their own ends.

It would seem that political will and public support in Pakistan for peace with India is divided. A radicalised section of the Army, the Islamists and jihadis continue to favour a hard line as the recent escalation of cross-border infiltration indicates. Non-state actors are still able to blackmail the state. Even the Army finds it useful to engage with these nefarious elements, some of whom have been raised, trained and funded by it and offer it plausible deniability. HafeezSaeeds and Salahuddins are still at large and continue to spew venom and hate against India while others talk peace. The 26/11 trial drags on. The separatist Hurriyat is still a prime interlocutor in Pakistan while recently-elected panchayat leaders in J&K keep being targeted by those who fear self-determination.

Yet, the peace process with Pakistan must not be broken. The truly democratic, secular, peace-minded sections of Pakistan, though still small and fearful, must be supported. They exist. The familiar chorus of “denials” from Pakistan must be rigorously exposed so that falsehood does not masquerade as truth. But for this India needs a communications policy. Where is that?

www.bgverghese.com

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