Day: July 26, 2014

By Pradip Phanjoubam

It is with sadness we note the banning of the Imphal Free Press by a group of Meitei Pangal organisations on the issue of reporting the fact of the publication of a sensational news in a newly launched New Delhi based magazine on how the Al Qaida was allegedly finding Manipur a fertile recruiting ground. It is sad not because of the readers the IFP would lose. Such bans have happened to this newspaper on so many occasions before, including a prolonged one by the All Naga Students Association, ANSAM, on a similar matter, virtually decimating IFP circulations in many hill districts. Whenever we felt we have wrongfully hurt the interests of people, we have never hesitated to repent and apologise, but when IFP was being targeted for no legitimate reason, or else for matters of principles it holds dear, we have stood our ground no matter what the material costs we have had to bear. So it will be in this case too.

Those who have read the IFP news on the alleged Al Qaida connections in Manipur will know it was a reportage of a sensitive article published elsewhere, and not IFP’s own reportage of the news event. The IFP report explicitly makes this clear, and the report includes interviews by our reporter of a local police spokesman who denied knowledge of such connections, as well a local leader of the Lilong area where allegedly the Al Qaida has reached out to, and they too denied the veracity of the news item in the New Delhi magazine.

Both these bits of important information were included deliberately in the IFP report to give a picture of the original report’s standing from the local perspective. The IFP report hence could not have been more balanced and fair. It was just a matter of informing and alerting our readers, in particular the Pangals amongst them, that such a report has appeared in a magazine in New Delhi. The response from the Pangal organisations therefore is surprising and disappointing for it virtually is a case of spiting the messenger not the composer of the message. Much as we empathise with the Pangal community for what seems to be a disproportionate or even false charge, we fail to understand their outrage against the IFP. We were not the ones making the charge. We were only alerting the public that such a charge has been made, for the charge, false or otherwise, indeed is serious.

In our opinion, the legitimate question should have been how this charge at all came about, and from where? The report quotes Indian intelligence sources and since it emanates from New Delhi, the obvious deduction would be that it came from the Intelligence Bureau, IB. The author of the article, it may be recalled, had also two years ago created quite a sensation in the Northeast when a story appeared under his by-line on how the Government of India was preparing a Christmas gift for the NSCN(IM) in the shape of a “Supra National” non-territorial settlement of the Naga issue. This report, it may also be recalled, was straight out of a classified file of the Government of India. Quite obviously, the journalist has contacts deep inside the IB.

The question then is, how did the IB come up with such a report which the local police have no information of? Does this again point to the fact that Central organs of internal security located in the State, the SIB in particular, do not trust or take help from local police and intelligence counterparts? Surely the intelligence available with intelligence gathering wings of the Central government in the State cannot be as deep as those of local police intelligence networks. Or is it again a case of the Central bodies not trusting the loyalties of the “natives”? This trust deficit between Central and local security establishments, especially in counterinsurgency information sharing has time and again been the cause of so many innocent deaths – the school going boy Sanamacha of Angtha village who disappeared untraced after being picked up by the Army, to name just one prominent case.

The trouble (it is difficult not to hazard a guess), is not so much about the conviction in the veracity of their own allegations with which these Central intelligence offices pursue these cases. These Central government officers who head these offices come on short deputations to the State and during their tenure here, are under pressure to produce something worthwhile to secure their career advancements, hence very often suffer from the tendency to make mountains out of molehills. This had become more than evident, and in such a tragic way, in the run up to the 1962 war with China. For evidence, look for it in the Lt. Gen. Henderson Brooke-Brig. Prem Bhagat report on the 1962 debacle.

This report and its contents, although still not officially made public even after the new BJP led government took over charge in New Delhi quite contrary to the party’s election promises, is now more or less known to all interested in it, thanks to Neville Maxwell (author of “India’s China War”) to whom somebody, seemingly from the Indian Army’s top ranks who were disgruntled with the political leadership of the time, leaked the voluminous report. Maxwell has recently uploaded a major part of the document on his personal website for all interested to download and read. Even before this, those who have read “India’s China War” will know the book is a virtual paraphrase of the Henderson Brooke report embellished with the author’s own understanding of Indian politics as a New Delhi correspondent of the Times, London, during the 1950s. Despite his quite apparent pro-China tilt, the book is brilliantly conceived and argued, and it is said the then American Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, appreciated the book so much that he had President Richard Nixon to read it as well.

There were many other reasons for the thaw in America’s till then cold diplomatic relations with Communist China, including China’s own break from its alliance with the USSR, but it is often said, with good reasons too, that Maxwell’s book has been an important catalyst. It is not a coincidence that not long after Maxwell’s book (published by an Indian publisher incidentally), hit the stands in 1970, that Nixon made his historic 1972 visit to Peking (Beijing) marking the beginning of a new world order and the opening up of the Chinese economy to the world.

The book’s importance was again underscored when Singapore’s iconic India friendly premier, Lee Kwan Yew visited China and Chinese premier Hua Guo Feng presented him with a copy of the book. Lee, refused to accept the book and in another show of his characteristic dispassionate, non-partisan statesmanship, is said to have told Feng in no uncertain terms, thank you Sir, but this book represents China’s point of view of the 1962 war, and India has its own interpretation of the causes of the war too.

Among others, the Henderson Brooke report highlights the blunders of the IB under its then chief, B.N. Mullick. The organisation and its authoritarian leader were shown as overly depending for most part on hearsay and conjectures to write their reports, costing India dear in the end, not the least in terms of lives of many valiant soldiers. This unfortunate legacy, determined by the urgency and insecurity to do something for self career promotion while in a forward post, the most popular strategy of which has always been to imagine and flag the shadowy presence of hostile foreign hands, hopefully has been buried and left far behind.

The Manipur police while under the former DGP, M.K. Das had clarified these information of Al Qaida connections had little or no basis, and now since it has come up on the public forum yet again, this time in a New Delhi based magazine, the State police must again do the needful, and come up with its own assessment of the situation.

Just for a little more perspective on Neville Maxwell’s political inclinations which a critic of his writings have described as “too enthusiastic to agree with China and too enthusiastic to disagree with India”, he is the journalist who predicted the end of India’s “farcical” Parliamentary democracy with the 1956 Parliamentary elections. His prediction, we know, has proven more a wishful thinking.
Privilege Question

Before concluding, let me move to another unrelated issue. This is necessitated by the urgency of the matter pertaining to the Manipur Legislative Assembly moving a privilege motion against a well known human rights worker and a cable TV channel for what the legislators feel is a breach of privilege, not so much of the august Assembly, one feels, but their own as they imagine it. The first important question is, what should constitute the privilege certain institution in the Indian democracy, such as the Legislature and Judiciary, are deemed to enjoy? The answer to this question obviously would be a matter of technical legal interpretation. Dangerously though, the final say in coming up with this definition is given to the institutions under public scrutiny themselves.

The second important question is more fundamental, and indeed has been asked on several occasions at the State as well as at the National levels. Should these institutions continue to enjoy these privileges?

These questions have acquired a sense of urgency in the wake of repeated proven cases of corruption by those who are deemed to be constitutionally privileged. This being the case, to say criticisms, or corruption allegations, against judges, ministers and MLAs, constitute breach of privilege would actually amount to giving impunity to corruption by these individuals. It is indeed everybody’s knowledge men in these powerful institutions have time and again proven to be extremely corrupt and incompetent. Indeed again, to say ministers in Manipur today have reduced themselves to contract brokers would be an understatement.

Even the driving motive behind the current dissident movement in the Ibobi government, with the dissidents clamouring for a mid-term reshuffle of ministry can precisely be seen as a contract brokerage dispute and not one of conflicting visions of governance model. The only thing condemnable in the cable TV interview is the use of un-parliamentary, crassly abusive language in reference to the elected legislators. This was totally unwarranted and would have been considered a breach of decorum anywhere by anybody, fit for use only by the many internet urchins who crowd the legally uncharted territories of social media sites these days.

We for one feel the privilege enjoyed by some institutions as a constitutional norm should either be abolished altogether or else re-written. If they must remain, these motions must also be open to legal challenges in acknowledgment of the spirit of the warning that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. While the powers vested in these institutions should not be diminished, there must be mechanisms for checks and balances. Judges and legislators are certainly no saints, and are definitely far from being above reproach. Especially in a small place like Manipur where everybody knows practically every other person’s background and records, to claim otherwise would be at best laughable. The members of these so called privileged institutions therefore must be left open to democratic criticisms and probes for misgivings as any other individual citizen. There is therefore something very jarring in the privilege motion against a human rights worker for his public show of dislike of the State’s current crop of legislators for what he sees as their incompetence and corruption.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/07/of-bans-and-privilege-motions-against-the-state-media/

By Chitra Ahanthem

It is commonly believed that in terms of our food habits, Manipuris have their stomachs filled only after rice makes its way into it. In fact, the joke on this rice fetish is often on the lines of how we eat our fill of roti/chappati/puri/paratha but keep crying aloud that our tummies are empty till the time we take in rice. There is another food associated social behavior that I have come to observe about us: that most of us do not eat outside. When we do eat out of the house, it is only for ‘ooshops’ (derived from utsav which means festival in Hindi/Sanskrit?) wherein we eat rice again! This lack of a social culture of eating outside has contributed to the lack of eating outlets where one can sample the various range of Manipuri cuisine, though of course there are ‘rice hotels’ (yet again) dotting market areas and bus stands which are targeted at the lower social and economic rung. For an earlier generation of people, the only items that could be eaten outside were snack items. Over time came the roti/chappati/puri/paratha gravy train followed by Indian Chinese of course. ‘Indian Chinese’ here because the type of chow mein, manchurian and schezwan food that is on array in this country and Manipur is miles away from authentic Chinese food starting from the type of noodles used, to the garnishing. Authentic Chinese food comes without spices with the base food being bland but coming with a tray full of assorted garnishing ingredients that can be added as per one’s palate unlike those in India that comes soaked in oil and dressed to the brim with masala!

I was tickled greatly when I read about the concept of fusion food where food styles in terms of taste, cooking etc of different cuisines merge into one. They have made it out to be such a novel concept while the truth is that people have been assimilating different cooking styles as per their encounters with people of different cultures. Just look at Meitei cuisine, which was all about boiling, steaming and roasting and using crushed or pounded aromatic herbs for garnishing but after an exposure to Bengal brought in the idea of using oil for frying and use of spices to give us our current food style which is a mix of both. This marriage in food is true everywhere. Another fancy term I read up on was this whole theme of pop out or rather was it pop up food. I found that it was the concept of inviting people or joining a group of people who come with expertise in cooking food where each person cooks something and everyone pays to eat. But isn’t that what we have been doing in our impromptu ‘chaak chaanaba’ where people meet up, fork out money and everyone joins in making the food?

Coming back to the matter of places to eat out, Imphal at least has seen a spurt of restaurants and eating out joints with cafes becoming a favored destination for foodies. But step in to these places and the majority of people who drop in are the younger generation. Save for a few elites who eat out off and on, the majority of older people prefer to eat home food for the simple reason that they believe that it is not practical to pay for food that one can make at home. Compare this attitude to other towns and cities where eating out is a social activity and where there are avenues for choosing what kind of food to eat as per one’s budget. This nonchalance towards eating out here could be the baggage of being a part of the joint family system where family members ate together at home or perhaps it may be due to the difference in the pace of life or the shift in the role of women in the house as meal providers elsewhere. This last bit about women’s role in the kitchen as eternal meal providers here, can interestingly be broken only when people at large begin to accept the practice of eating out: good for the economy, a very good way of providing employment/entrepreneurship and good for women who can hang up their cooking responsibilities from time to time!

End-point:

One main grouse though of people who visit Manipur, is that they do not get to sample Manipuri food in restaurants here. A few adventurous ones and those with a good digestive wall are able to swallow the food at eateries around the Polo ground area and they do appreciate the food spread there but many balk at the lack of a ‘nice place to eat’. The ones who are unable to sample Manipuri food complain that they do not fancy the ‘Chinese’ or ‘Indian’ fare they get in the hotels they stay, for that is served everywhere. Perhaps the vanguards of Manipuri culture and identity should take into consideration that food is an integral aspect of culture and then cook up a storm on the streets of Imphal and other parts of the state. That would be something, but ‘cooking up a storm’ has no relation whatsoever with the current street aggression. Let me hasten to say that cooking up a storm here means, making the food scene in the state more interesting!

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/07/the-rice-eaters-search-for-a-place-to-eat/

By M.C. Linthoingambee

Going by the constant readiness for a flare up between nations, it is scary to think of a large scale war in today’s time. This, even after we are yet to come to terms with the scale of loss, pain and trauma in the two earlier world wars. Currently, constant airstrike and a plane crash that has been attributed to missile firing in a conflict zone has led to loss of lives, human rights violations, child massacre and the leading increase of traumatized people. People live in constant fear hoping that they might have one more day to add to their existence. Has the Right to Life already flown out of the window? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights for example has played a major role in guaranteeing a number of rights to people including Life. Who would have thought that living might give more scars than we can imagine? If we look at the bigger picture, the earth has no boundaries but it is the people who has developed those ideals in the first place. We are all constantly against the idea of war in the hope of achieving freedom and better lives. But what’s happening currently in Gaza has led to the loss of lives of many women, men and children with other human rights violations increasing in sight even confirmed by UN officials.

Taking away of a human life is a condemned cause by many but it still goes unnoticed in so many occasions. International Human Rights Law has termed the life of an individual as more sacrosanct rather than exercising arbitrary powers of taking over a personal space. The use of death penalty could be said to be one of the examples of depriving an individual’s right to life although law does not merely prohibit the cause as a punishment for crimes but does encourage its abolition and limit its use. Although one might object and say serving the capital punishment might justify for rapist or people who are responsible for war crimes. Killing is permitted at times of war save for the murder of civilians and prisoners of war. Human rights law thus tries to respond to the myriad of ethical dilemmas raised by the right to life by establishing a range of prohibitions and exhortations.

What’s really at stake here is the fact that every human being has the right to life which must be protected by law. International law does not outlaw all kinds of warfare and violence. The right to life in such situations is not absolute. International humanitarian law seeks to impose restrictions on the way violence can be used at times of conflict. Living is not merely an act of living for the sake of breathing but rather a general availability of food, clothing and shelter. What happens in times of war does not define the above but a constant opposite of reckless idiocracy of one person or power trying to prove their ranks by using the means of war. Can’t we stand to adjunct the halt of war and the use of war-fare? The recent fall out of Malaysian Aircraft MH17 that had resulted in a loss that is immeasurable could prove to be one of those effects of the volatile want of power. Nearly 1 child dies every hour in Gaza and it is an increasing rampage as if we were in the killing spree of mosquitoes. If human lives have come down to the significance of being merely mosquitoes, then are we really being humane. Certain categories of persons, civilians or combatants, who have laid down their arms or are injured, are considered protected. The right to life of these categories is upheld and can be violated for example, by indiscriminate shelling or deliberate execution or denial of access to water, food or medicine.

Why should we even better of something happening miles away? We could put up a series of questions to that effect but at the end of the day, we all belong to the same world. When it comes to surviving war, there are no ranks and even the social elites become equal to the commoners; soldiers become sons or brothers or a father to civilians. This is not the kind of world we want to leave for our children one day. Someday we will all be parents – a mother, a father and if we are unsure of today how are we expected to bring our children in a world filled with absence of humanity. There are more people in the world who are ready to help, more who wishes to stop war, and more who wishes to bring smiles, more who work to benefit the underprivileged. The untold gesture of being real in a lost paradise is not what we were raised to believe in for it not today, when do we start being real to ourselves?

Yesterday, there were less representation of rights and we still had wars, today we have more representation of rights but we are still having wars. And several years down the line, one country’s war may become another country’s war and it may expand like the big bang that has once been believed to have happened. It took a little girl to bring courage into picture like the existing diaries of Anne Frank who lives on till today. Maybe history repeats itself but are we really willing to do it at the cause of more young lives?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/07/fall-out/