Day: June 14, 2014

By Pradip Phanjoubam

Last week has been one of those in which editorial writers, or leader writers as they are called by the Americans, were overtaken and overwhelmed by a deluge of news breaking events of extreme import, which not only called for their attention but demanded editorial commentaries. Because journalists are presumed to be in the ringside seats of developing news events, they are expected by the readers to provide informed perspectives on these events, as is loudly evident in the popularity of chat programmes with them discussing the morning’s headlines on the All India Radio and various TV and cable channels every morning, not just in Manipur, but everywhere.

Many of which these news events may have appeared innocuous at the surface, nonetheless they carried deep and sinister implications deeper down. The busting of an edible oil adulteration racket in Imphal and the unfolding controversy over a Tweeter remark by the newly sworn in DoNER minister, Gen (retd), V.K. Singh, former Chief of Army Staff, are just two of these.

The foremost of the two is that of the DoNER minister’s unreservedly disparaging remarks about the new Chief of Army Staff designate, Lt.Gen. Dalbir Suhag. I have put this development on the top not because the unseemly controversy is unfolding in the New Delhi corridors of power, but because of its relevance to the Northeast, and in the current situation, Manipur in particular. Let me explain.

The DoNER minister, it now appears, while he was still the Chief of Army Staff, had tried to block the promotion of his junior, Lt. Gen. Dalbir Suhag, on the charge that the latter allowed the killing of innocents as well as dacoity by units under his command. What seems to have missed the notice of many is that the Army formation Lt. Gen. Suhag commanded when this objection was raised by Gen. Singh, is the 3 Corps.

The following are the exact words he tweeted when a Supreme Court ruling overturned his ban on promotion of Lt. Gen. Suhag very recently: “If unit kills innocents, does dacoity and then head of organization tries to protect them, should he not be blamed? Criminals should go free!!”

Journalists of the region who have been in the field for long, would all be cognisant of the fact that 3 Corps is headquartered in Rangapahar near Dimapur, and its area of command is Nagaland, Manipur, North Cachar Hills in Assam and parts of Tripura. We know Nagaland has been a ceasefire zone and therefore relatively spared of the brutal bush wars of insurgency and counter insurgency operations for the past decade and a half. Assam and Tripura are low-key insurgency areas currently. This leaves only Manipur as the hot conflict zone.

The debate in Delhi over the DoNER minister’s remarks centres around the understanding of public etiquette and propriety of a minister and former Army chief making a damaging remark about another General who would soon be leading one of the most powerful armies in the world. The opposition Congress has charged that the Supreme Court overruling the ban on Lt. Gen. Suhag by the DoNER minister amounts to a vote of confidence on the minister and that he should be made to resign.

My own feeling is, a ruling by a court of law is a matter of delivering procedural justice, which indeed was what was delivered in this case too. What the court of law is not mandated to read or factor into its judgments is the intangible moral contents of any story. Justice in this sense is defined by the principles of rule of law, and not by the quality of conscience of alleged crime perpetrators. The sublime beauty as well as the frustrating shortfalls of this attitude to adjudication could not have been better portrayed than in the 1954 play about Sir Thomas More by Robert Bolt, “A Man For All Seasons”, which was adapted for a successful 1966 film by the same name.

So while the DoNER minister’s accusations have only evoked debates that revolved around break of protocol, driven and moderated solely by familiar norms of the game of one-upmanship amongst rival political parties, what has missed public scrutiny is indeed the moral content of the entire affair. Understandably, the decibels are already dropping in the Delhi debate, for the issue is now cooled and therefore ceasing to be a handle in this game.

In the Northeast at least, and in particular Manipur, where there have been raging controversies over custodial killings, the nature of this debate ought to have been very different. Unfortunately, not many seem to have taken note of the gravity of the issue raised by the DoNER minister just as yet. Seemingly most missed noticing these underlying connections.

Let me therefore draw attention to the allegations again. Gen. Singh’s allegations against Lt. Gen Suhag, when read in the context of the sketch I have just done should translate as a clear vindication of the public allegations all the while that custodial killings have become a norm of the security forces operating in the region under the AFSPA. Should not the allegations amount to saying Gen. Suhag during his tenure as commander of the 3 Corps gave a free hand to custodial killings in Manipur and elsewhere? If this interpretation is agreed upon, what can be more sensational and earth shaking than this startling alert by a very unlikely whistle blower?

It is a wonder that those seeking justice in this murky murderous matter have not pounced into ring. I know for certain there are activists who have taken the government to court on this matter, and who have compiled long lists of unfortunate souls, mostly young men in their early 20s, who have either disappeared untraced after being picked up by the security forces, or else were found killed under mysterious circumstance in subsequent days. Their silence therefore is, to use a familiar cliché, deafening.

On Gen. Singh’s other damning remark that Gen. Suhag also permitted dacoity by units under his command, my guess is as good as anybody’s.

One thing is certain. Although many in the northeast have raised eyebrows at the appointment of a former Army Chief as the minister in charge of the Northeast by the newly installed BJP government at the centre, enthusiastically re-conjuring up the colonial image of the Northeast where Generals are appointed as Governors, this surprising controversy over a Tweeter remark does indicate this former Army General turned minister is a man with a conscience.

Food adulteration

In direct contrast, the other news is of greasy, loathsome corruption of a businessman. Lest anybody is inclined to take the matter lightly, let me first remind the readers that food adulteration under a new Indian law which came into effect in 2011, is a crime punishable with life imprisonment together with fine up to Rs. 10 lakhs. The crime of food adulteration can also constitute even selling unhygienic and unwholesome foodstuff. In many countries, this crime can attract even the death penalty.

With this preface, let us take a look again at the food adulteration racket busted at a godown of a certain Ajay Traders at Khabam Lamkhai on June 9, the news of which made the headlines in the June 10 editions of all local morning dailies. From the newspaper accounts of the event, there can be no doubt whatsoever the crime was premeditated and therefore deliberate in the most selfish and sinister way.

The businessman in question, one Mulchand from Thangal Bazar, had been clandestinely carrying on with his despicable business, systematically contaminating mustard oil, by far the most popular cooking oil in the state, for illegal and criminal monetary gains. According to officials, his business operations also included, among others, mixing spoilt betel nuts with unspoiled ones and selling them to unsuspecting customers. The reports also indicated the business is worth crores of rupees, for even the goods seized on the day of the raid were estimated at Rs. 30 lakhs.

Our concern however is not the size of his business. He certainly is unscrupulous and insatiably greedy for unwarranted profit. But this he can account for to the income tax department and other revenue intelligence departments of the government. What we are however outraged by is that in the pursuit of his greed, he was for a long time also putting the health of numerous innocent consumers, men, women and children, at risk wilfully.

This atrocious practice, it is also clear from the accounts of the authorities to the media, had been going on unchecked for at least eight months. This being the case, and knowing the past ways of our law enforcement agencies, it is only reasonable that there were suspicions the man was buying his way past the notice of the authorities all the while, and that it was a glitch in the deal-making with his protectors which led to the raid. This being the suspicion, it should be in the interest of the authorities to start erasing this unsavoury reputation they have earned so far by dealing with this case firmly and transparently.

We also expect, and plead, the government not to sweep the matter under the carpet, or let anybody complicit in the crime off the hook without invoking appropriate law to award exemplary penalty to them, proportionate to the crime they have committed against the law and the people.

The government should immediately institute a high level inquiry into the matter to establish the nature as well the extent of the crime. It must come clear whether this food adulteration racket was a unique phenomenon at the behest of an incorrigibly corrupt man, or else just the tip of the iceberg as many have said is the possibility. It should also make the progress report of such an inquiry public. The manner in which it brings this case to a logical conclusion will be important not just towards the cause of justice and retribution, but also to remove another unfair and sweeping stereotypes that it is in the nature of the business community as a whole to be unscrupulous in their profiteering games.

I wonder if, just as the All Manipur Working Journalists Union, AMWJU, and other associations and unions of professional groups are morally bound either to denounce or defend colleagues in their professions in such situations, guided by their own enlightened judgments and intimate understandings of these situations, as well as personal knowledge of the backgrounds of the persons under scrutiny, the Manipur Chamber of Commerce and other relevant bodies of the business community should also not issue statements of condemnation or solidarity with people from their vocation found on the wrong side of the law. This would go a long way in winning the confidence of the people by and large towards their vocational community.

We have many civil society organisations working in the area of government transparency using the RTI, so it is not unreasonable to expect they would ensure the government takes this case to its logical conclusion and the public informed of it.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/a-general-with-a-conscience-and-a-businessman-without-one/

By Tinky Ningombam

Shortage of amenities is not a new phenomenon in a poor state like Manipur. However the self-induced shortage of food and amenities (e.g. Imported food items Fish or Salt which are not locally produced) that we have seen in the recent past is also concerning. When a society becomes increasingly dependent on outside economies to sustain their daily life, problems like these, will not be singular cases.

Globalization has brought in its pluses but it has also made many a local economy crumble. What we need to find is a balance. In that perspective, what we need to ask is how we are looking at localization the economy. Because as we open up our doors to multi-national corporations, we need to understand how sustainable our local economies are still going to be. How do we promote our local cultures, sustain our food chains and sustain environmentally friendly businesses? And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Locally accountable businesses in energy, food or manufacturing sectors is something that we are still lacking behind. For example, there will be soon a time when a basic produce such as local fish has to be bred in a far-off land and sourced for consumption, spending more money in transport and retail when it can be much cheaper locally produced.

Development is a two edged sword. And we know that for ages, the human race has been concerned with development. Development or progress has meant different things for different economies however one thing seemed to have been synonymous and that is GDP growth. Wikipedia’s definition: “Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year, or over a given period of time. GDP per capita is often used as an indicator of a country’s material standard of living.”

To have a good standard of living, we need to have a sustainable economy that is not entirely dependent on global conglomerates.

In the same light, we should look at Bhutan, a considerably poor nation that focuses on strategic trade relations. The current focus on this small haven, led by India’s first prime ministerial visit. Bhutan follows an interesting philosophy for development. It emphasises in trying to keep a balance of their material and immaterial aspects of life. Their nation’s well-being is not measured by GDP growth but with the growth of GNH – Gross National Happiness.

GNH was propounded by His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan in the early 1970s. Because he believed that the measurement of development with GDP does not focus on the one thing that brings up the standard of living- Happiness. As the GNH website quotes “The concept of Gross National Happiness consists of four pillars: Fair socio-economic development (better education and health), conservation and promotion of a vibrant culture, environmental protection and good governance.”

With this outlook, their political and traded policies have to consider whether they will hog for profit at the expense of for instance, their cultural integrity or their environmental considerations. Hence Bhutan’s choice to  remain carbon neutral or its rejection of McDonald’s for public health concerns or for enforcing 80% forest cover in the land are steps to achieve a higher GNH. I am sure there can be loopholes in something so grandiose. However, this is an innovative step. One that is novel yet ambitious step to sustain an economy with foresight and vision.

One thing that our State needs to learn from. Because unlike our grim past, where we have relied on short-sighted reliefs, we need to focus on a sustainable and happy future. The idea then is not just to build developed cities where people can migrate for better lives but ethically “develop” the entire land so that there is no need for people to move to attain a higher standard of living. Hence, strong local economies might just be the answer for some of our long-standing problems.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/localizing-economies/

By Chitra Ahanthem

If we were to draw up a list of things that we in Manipur can well do without, it would be filled up with an interesting mix of power cuts (though thanks to the hoopla over the World Cup in far away Brazil, we are getting some respite during match fixtures at night), poor road connectivity, garbage ridden roads and river banks, corrupt officials taking money for doing their jobs etc. The list would be never ending, for Manipur has no dearth of issues that jar for the common man. Having said that, the above mentioned points are all indicators of bad governance and to do away with these ills would require political will and a sense of wanting to make a difference. Which is why, we will talk of things that we the common people can do away with, if only we would begin to see that there is better sense in bidding good-bye to useless social practices that we have begun to accept as a way of things.

First thing first on my personal list is to make an earnest appeal to the well learned in our society to please keep it simple, short and sweet when they speak on public platforms or at least to keep the duration of their pitch as per the need of the hour and the interest level of those who are to listen in. This appeal has been long called for because every function, every occasion when speakers take to the micro-phone, there are instances when those who are to listen actually groan out aloud and try to work out escape plans. The journalist fraternity have long been the victims of never ending speeches but the truth is that more often than not, the experts and the resource persons, the chief guests and the guests of honors and special invitees and presidents of functions all go into epic speeches at the drop of a hat. Last week, I had to stop myself from walking up on stage to pull off the speakers who were going into half an hour sagas of what is theatre, how is it faring in Europe, what is theatre for children etc. My patience wore thin because the occasion was the culmination of a 20 day long summer camp with the atttendees (all young children) set to perform and the speeches were in the way of their performance. The children had gone for their rehearsals starting at 10 am and the program was at 3 pm. Given a 15 minute delay on account of Meitei Pung and the experts going into ‘I am a better expert than the next/earlier speaker’ mode, by the time the children took to the stage, it was 5.30 pm. Those sitting in the audience were only the parents of the children who were all fidgeting as their children were running about waiting to perform. But those on the stage went about their business of sprouting their wisdom giving little attention to the fact that no one was in the right frame of mind to even care what they were saying. This is a common enough scenario in Manipur where everyone is totally sold on the idea of hogging the microphone for dear life. If only these learned souls would only realize how much of ill will is directed against them when they go into verbal diarrhea mode!

The advent of June brings to mind something we can do without most happily: the microphones blaring around at odd hours, which are set off from Lai Haroupham sites. Even as expert committees and various pressure groups are being formed to look at preserving ‘the real essence of old traditions and practices’ with regard to how Lai Harouba is being observed, why has no one looked into the fact that using microphones (and mostly turned up to the loudest decibel levels) is a ‘modern’ addition and has no connection to indigenous rites and rituals? More than this, the onslaught of mikes blaring with the din of drum beats and hymns even as the mercury levels are wrecking havoc means sleepless nights and unhappy countenances. Surely, Lai Harouba means propitiating the array of Gods, which can be done without infringing on the right of lesser mortals to some well- deserved rest and sleep time?

End-point:
Reading that bit of news about a government official getting a grenade delivered through the local grease payment system of bringing/giving along a big size fish made one think on various levels. One aspect of it is course that the 4 kg sareng must have surely gone to waste. The other is that the family and others with high ranking officials who earlier took in fish when people brought it along as grease money should surely think twice and thrice and many more times before thinking only of what dish awaits them at the family meal. It is not sure if the incident is going to create a fish dive in the market with sales going down but on a serious note, says a lot of how folks can and do come up with ways and means to beat ‘high security measures’ that are in place. Government officials may well invest in metal detectors to scan fishes and their ilk.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/what-we-can-do-without/

By M.C. Linthoingambee

Sports is something that has been existing and binding us as social beings since time immemorial. There have been nothing but celebrations concerning sports which has the power to bind people together and stand as one. The time is now for numerous people (in millions) around the world to glue themselves to their TV sets as the FIFA World Cup 2014 finally kicks off at Brazil. Sports knows no bounds of valuation with even Nelson Mandela claiming that, “Sports has the power to unite the people’. Brazil is where individuals, teams, countries and the whole world are coming together to welcome the true meaning of “We are One” which inspires with the lyrics of this years FIFA World Cup Song with top names like Jennifer Lopez, Pittbull, Claudia making appearances on the world stage. With a little uncomfortable thrust that has embarked on the region with the viability of protests condemning the harm to the Brazilian economy, the host nation did prove their stand by winning the first qualifying match. The mention of the names are enough to spark shivers: Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo C, etc and this is just not the end of the name game with more to expect and more to come in the future. But where does that leave us? Leaving aside all this, does India ever have a chance of competing at these tournaments? Maybe, someday this question will be best answered if we ever do qualify for the final shows.

Although things may look a little dim for the Indian Football team to ever have a chance to go for big leagues given their current standing and management. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) affiliated to FIFA governs over the India National Football Team since 1948. During the peak of its success during the 1950s, India qualified to go for the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil but failed to comply due to the nature of the cost concerned with all necessary expenses. How long are we willing to lose in opportunities with the unfortunate events of granting enough sanctions for Indian Sports? We are a poor country with more beggars still looming for a day’s meal on the streets but we are slowly developing to gain the status of a developed nation. It is taking time since it’s not in a day to change the domestic value of a country over mid-night. With its FIFA ranking cornered at 154 today and its statistics records showing its highest scores at 94 in February 1996 and its lowest hour at September-November 2012 with the 169 rank,it is perhaps natural to give up the idea of India ever making to the World Cup. Rather than approaching the Hall of Fame we have reached a certain downfall in the past with the recent ban of the Indian Olympic Association by the International Olympic Association during the 2012 London Olympics and the corruption and embezzlement activities done during the 2010 Commonwealth Games hosted by India that has bought out a lot of illegal truths to the media. We are still overlooking that the fact that sports does not need a world of confrontation but a thrust of hardwork and modesty.

In a more realistic march we have come to the conclusion of ignoring the bye- laws of FIFA itself in the past leaving a memory of a shattered dream.  Former Premier League footballer Michael Chopra found himself in this situation when he looked into playing international football.   His father was born in India and he applied to the AIFF to play for the national team given he had a valid PIO card, however, the AIFF were told in no uncertain terms by the Indian Government that he was not to represent the national team.  This ended Chopra’s dream of playing international football and also meant that the national team were missing out on the services of a player who had considerably greater experience (and skill) than the majority of the squad with which they had to exercise the probability of playing at the real game or simply picking the right players. These denials are a downright disappointment that tears apart the team spirit of real sports. Where does this leave players in the position of Chopra who wish to play for India (or other countries which do not have a dual nationality regime)?  The stance of the Indian Government unfortunately places the AIFF in direct contravention of the FIFA Statues, this being stated under Article 13, Section 1A of the General Provisions (Members’ obligations), “Members have the following obligations…to comply fully with the Statues, regulations, directives and decisions of FIFA bodies at any time.” What could FIFA do to change the situation? FIFA has not been afraid in recent times to issue sanctions against its member associations for what it terms “government interference”.  Most recently, the Cameroon Football Federation has been suspended by FIFA following the fallout from the elections for its President.

This is not the story of Gulliiver’s Travel but the reality of falling out on huge potentials. With a little over than a total of one billion population and being called the second most populous country in the world, can’t we make this work? Developing a game and certainly one of the highly attention seeking play of all time is enough to put us on the map. We can be those little people who are weak when left alone but when united even Gulliver does not stand a chance.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/true-vintage/