Human rights – Page 13

Afspa Should Not Be Removed While Cross-border Terror Continues

By Col (retd) Anil Bhat The transcript of a conversation between terrorists in the… more »

By Col (retd) Anil Bhat

The transcript of a conversation between terrorists in the Kashmir Valley intercepted by security forces on 20 October reads: “Bilal kal phone kar raha tha bande ko ki aap Sallahuddin point pe jao wahan se E-mail karo mujhe aur tagda banda wahi dekho jo Sallahuddin ne dekha tha waisa tagada banda dekho jo Srinagar mein Batmaloo ki side kisi bhi jagah kuch panga karega toh yeh log aaj kal kah rahe hai bayan de rahe hain ki militancy khatam ho gayee paar se dabaw aa gaya hai thoda bahut bhagdadh machao.” (Bilal phoned yesterday to take the man to Sallahuddin and email back to me….choose a man who is tough and smart like the one Sallahuddin chose, who can create some chaos to disprove what some people are saying about militancy being over… there is pressure from across to do some chaos…).

On the morning of 25 October 2011 two grenades explode at Srinagar’s crowded Lal Chowk and Batmaloo within a span of 15 minutes. While the Lal Chowk explosion caused injures to head constable Surinder Singh and constables Manoj Kumar and Manoranjan, the grenade hurled on a police picket in Batmaloo area barely one kilometre away exploded without causing any damage. Over the next 24 hours, the third incident was a hit-and-run attack in Anantnag injuring a police constable the fourth incident a grenade lobbed at a CRPF picket outside the State Bank of India branch in Shopian’s Zanipora area, which failed to explode.

While no terrorist outfit claimed responsibility for these obviously coordinated attacks and fortunately no one was killed National Conference (NC) leader Mustafa Kamal created a far greater explosion by mouthing a typically separatist-style statement that the Army /forces not in favour of removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the Valley were responsible. The Army swiftly responded by stating that whatever Mr Kamal said was not worthy enough of a response. Sections of media and observers labeled the statement as nothing short of preposterous. The senior leadership of NC tied itself up into knots in the process of damage control.

Transcripts of two more audio recordings of intercepted conversations shared with this writer by highly placed sources are worth mentioning. On 19 October 2011 the intercepted conversation is between Wasim, the only surviving senior Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist in the area around Kangan and his friend Altaf, who is blaming Pakistani agencies for instigating Wasim and some others already killed to join the militancy and advising him to surrender to security forces (SFs): “Tere demag mein Pakistan walon ne kaun sa keeda chhoda hua hai…… Tu samajhta kyon nahin tere ma-baap bhi tere liye pareshan hain….. yeh chor hein Pakistan wale… kitne ko marwa rahe hein …. koi Taliban wale mar rahen kuchh border par mar rahe hein…. Kashmir Hindustan ka hai Hindustan ke saath hi rahega ..Ham kaun sa kafir hain..ham tera bhala chahte hain…” (What have the Pakistanis planted in your head?…why don’t you understand?… Your parents are very worried…These Pakistanis are crooks…See how many of your group they have got killed…some have been killed by the Taliban, some have got killed on the border…Kashmir is India’s and will remain with India… we are not infidels to advise you so… we are your well-wishers…). The other is a transcript of a conversation on 20 October between two unidentified suspects: “Hum scheme karenge… Main raat ko hi isko utha lunga aur raat ko hi Kashmir me lejaenge aur iske upar FIR karenge… Bata denge inhone isko kahin mara hai… Ab dead body nahin de rahe hain… Phir yahan hartal laga denge… Mujhe aise marna hi hai, main apna ek bachha apne hath se maar dunga” (We will make a plan…. I will take him away at night to somewhere in Kashmir and then lodge an FIR that they abducted and killed him somewhere and are not handing over the body to me…then we will hold an agitation here…)

Whether it is political expediency or selective amnesia, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister’s widely reported statement of 22 October 2011 that the AFSPA and the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) will be lifted from parts of the state and that too within days, while certainly not surprising, is most certainly too great a risk on too sensitive a matter to be taken unilaterally.

If what Mr Abdullah has stated is not unilateral, meaning that it has the Centre’s nod, then even the contemplation of such a move, leave alone its swift implementation, that too without consulting the Army and at such a stage when Line of Control (L0C) and the hinterland have had a spate of encounters with hundreds of Pakistani terrorists in 42 camps are being trained and equipped and waiting/trying to cross over, is not only amazing but disturbing.

27 October 2011 marks 64 years of J&K being saved and wrested from over 10,000 Pakistan army instigated raiders. Thereafter, 24x7x365/366, Indian Army has been guarding the LoC and preventing any alteration of its alignment either way at the cost of thousands of its casualties seems to have been forgotten. Or is it being overlooked or disregarded? If Mr Abdullah thinks that there is such a level of improvement in the Valley’s security that AFSPA and DAA can be lifted from some parts, he must remember that that has been possible, including the best tourist season in 25 years and an incident-free annual Amarnath pilgrimage, mainly because of the Army being there effectively.

If the separatists’ oft-parroted demand of removing AFSPA and ‘demilitarizing’ J&K is ever implemented, there should be no doubt that Pak army/ ISI/jihadis will complete what was attempted in 1947.

Mr Abdullah must also know that the India-specific terror infrastructure maintained by Pakistan army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is very much there, very active and of late, even more innovative. He also must know that there are enough Pakistani terrorists present in J&K and many trying to enter it and that removing AFSPA and DAA even selectively from some parts will only help these terrorists to enter them. He must also remember all the incidents of Pakistani terrorists in recent months and that the National Intelligence Agency has traced the perpetrators Delhi High Court attacks to Kishtwar, where investigations are currently on. The latest reports are that Ghulam Sarwar, of Lashkar e Tayyaba active for years in Udhampur and Doda districts is also involved.

Mr Abdullah should also know that with all that has happened or ‘mis-happened’ in his government/ political party and governance of the state will not get wished away by drawing red herrings like demanding clemency for Afzal Guru or lifting the AFSPA and DAA.

An assessment of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India Department of Jammu & Kashmir Affairs on its website reads: “Level of Terrorist Violence and Security Situation in J&K – In 2008, the number of incidents is down by 35% and those of civilians killed by 42% and of security forces killed by 32% as compared to the previous year (2007)”. Further details are: “In 2009, the number of incidents is down by 30% and those of SFs killing by 15%. and civilians killing by 14% as compared to 2008; in 2010, (till July. 2010) the number of incidents increased by 11% and SFs killing by 40% but civilian killing come down by 54% in comparison with previous year; till 2008, 1428 grenade attacks have taken place whereas 1033 grenade attacks took place in 2007. In 2009 only 978 grenade attacks have been taken place; during the year 2010 (till July) 28 grenade attacks have been taken palace; the daily average of terrorist incidents is 1.93 during the year 2008 as against 3.00 for 2007. In 2009, the daily average of terrorist incidents is 1.36; in 2010 (till July.2010) the daily average of terrorist incident is 1.46”.

While MHA’s assessment till 2010 is quite obvious, the latest inputs covering 2011 so far are: there are 42 terrorist training camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), of which 34 are active and 8 are dormant; there are upto 2500 terrorists being trained in the latest commando technique and use of hi-tech weapons and equipment; there are approximately 50 launch pads, with 750-800 terrorists poised for infiltration, for which dumping of arms, ammunition and equipment is in progress; there have been 35 attempts of infiltration across the LoC involving approximately 224 terrorists, out of which 54 succeeded, 32 were killed and one-Nissar Ahmed was apprehended recently; 19 Pakistani terrorists tried to enter India from other borders, mainly Nepal; in operations by Army and security forces so far this year, 116 terrorists were killed, 40 were apprehended and eight surrendered; in 66 terrorist attacks in the Valley this year, 30 innocent civilians and 27 security personnel were killed. Mr Abdullah has timed his latest statement on AFSPA with the Save Sharmila Jan Karvan rally from Kashmir to Manipur, which began on 16 October. However, what has emrged from latest reports about Irom Chanu Sharmila hunger-striking and force-fed for 11 years for removal of AFSPA is how she is at her ‘supporters’ mercy and how they have kept her propped and prevented her from leading a normal life. Her statements in an interview to a Kolkata daily are indeed significant: “The man I love is waiting for me impatiently. He came here to meet me but my supporters refused that idea… (At first) they insulted him and threatened him,” Sharmila said about Desmond Coutinho, a 48-year-old writer and activist, who met her in March this year. “It was a stormy night. He was sitting near the meira shang (women’s shelter) where the meira paibis (women activists) gather. They were hard-hearted.” The couple met on March 9 at a court, only after Coutinho sat on a hunger strike himself for two days. Before she was released for a brief period, Sharmila requested the judge to provide him with security. Had it not been for the security, “Desmond could have been beaten to death”, Sharmila said.

In the Northeast, ULFA under Paraesh Baraua, NSCN-IM, PLA and some other groups, with their elements in Burma and China are continuing their anti-India operations, which now involve not only terrorist attacks in the Northeastern states, but also training and supplying weapons to Naxal-Maoists. “Police commandos”, who replaced the Army in the parts of Manipur where AFSPA was removed have been reported to have beaten all earlier records of human rights violations.

Not only the top brass of the three services, particularly Army, but the Defence Minister Mr. AK Antony has repeatedly and clearly stated that AFSPA must not be removed or amended, because any non-police personnel handling internal violence need to be covered, like the police is covered by the Criminal Procedure Code. Even with AFSPA, soldiers or para-military personnel do not have the kind and amount of power that a policeman has.

What certainly should be done is to rename AFSPA as Security Forces Special Services Act.

Martyrdom of Husain reminds of victory of truth

By Tanveer Jafri Whether it is the English Calendar or calendars adopted by different religions… more »

By Tanveer Jafri
Whether it is the English Calendar or calendars adopted by different religions of the world, the beginning of most of them is welcomed with joy and happiness. But unfortunately, the first month of the Islamic year, i.e. the month of Muharram brings to life the black episode of Karbala which not only became the first act of religious terrorism in the world, but also put forward an example of sacrifice for truth, symbolized by the determination of Hazrat Imam Hussein. Like every year, the Muslim world is observing the martyrdom of this grandson of Prophet Mohammad Sa. and son of Hazrat Ali and Bibi Fatima, which took place more than 1331 years ago.

This is a day of gloom for the Muslims, particularly the Shiites. Requiems are held and people hurt themselves with swords and knife chains and walk on fire, just to mourn the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussein and his family. Food and drinks are freely distributed among the poor to remember the three day hunger and thirst of Hussein.

According to the Islamic history, in 680 AD or 1331 years ago, Yazid, the king of Shaam (present day Syria), asked Hussein for his recognition as a Muslim king, since at that time, Hazrat Imam Hussein was the lone legitimate inheritor of Prophet’s legacy i.e. Islam. Yazid was a cruel, raffish, characterless and destructive minded despot. Hussein didn’t want to recognize a despicable person like Yazid as the king. Shaam is said to be one of the most powerful kingdoms of those times. Initially, Yazid sent his messengers and ambassadors many a times to convince Hazrat Hussein to provide him recognition as an Islamic ruler. But Hussein refused to get impressed by Yazid’s allurements and his big army. Hussein wanted to foster true spiritual Islam. He was worried that posterity would talk how the heir of the Prophet degraded Islam by handing over its reins to a characterless person like Yazid. Rather, he wanted that Islam should be presented to the world in its original, pristine form. He wanted to tell the world that Islam is a religion, whose true believers never bow down to tyranny, oppression, mendacity, cruelty and fear. Hussein used to say, “It’s better to die respectfully rather than living a life of notoriety.”

After being rejected, the furious Yazid decided to go on war against Hussein. Yazid wanted to kill Hussein in Medina. But in order to avoid bloodshed in this holy city, Hussein decided to leave for Karbala (in today’s Iraq), along with his 72 family members and colleagues. Before starting, he made known to his companions that there is every possibility that they would be killed by Yazid’s humongous army. Hence, every person in his group was not only a true and dedicated Muslim, but also a saviour of Islam and a real ‘Jihadi.’ On second day of Muharram, Hazrat Hussein reached Karbala and camped on the bank of river Furaat (Euphrates). On 7th Muharram, Yazid’s army removed them from the riverbank. It is said that the summer season was on and heat was at its peak in that desert area. In such a condition, Hazrat Hussein and his companions were denied food and water for the next three days. At last, on 10th day, known as Youm-e-Ashura, all the males of the group were martyred by Yazid’s troops one after another. Those killed by Yazid’s men included Hussein’s brother Hazrat Abbas, his 18-year old son Ali Akbar and 6-months old innocent son Ali Asghar. According to the folklore, Hazrat Hussein himself went to the enemy to ask for water for that innocent child. Instead of giving water, they killed Ali Asghar right there in Hussein’s lap. Only Hussein’s son, Zainulabideen, who was ill at that time, remained alive and later on he was declared the heir of Hazrat Imam Hussein. After killing all the male members, including Hussein, on the evening of 10th Muharram, all the female members and Zainulabideen were captured by Yazid’s men. Their wrists were tied with ropes and they were publicly insulted on way from Karbala to Kufa to Shaam. This black evening of 10th Muharram is known as Shaam-e-Garibaan.

Shiites consider themselves the descendents of Hazrat Imam Hussein. But the martyrdom of Hussein shouldn’t be seen as the legacy of any one sect or religion, particularly in today’s scenario when once again same kind of terrorist forces are asserting themselves on Islam. The incident at Karbala inspires us to bravely combat and expose these terrorists. Not only the Shiites or Muslims, rather modern day’s educated people, intellectuals, historians and experts, all have been influenced by this sacrifice at Karbala. In India, Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Sarojini Naidu, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru et al have paid their homage to Hazrat Imam Hussein in one way or the other. Mahatma Gandhi’s decision to take 72 people along with him during his famous anti-British Dandi March is said to be influenced by Hussein’s group of 72 people. Even today, in different parts of India, a large number of non-Muslims pay homage to Hazrat Hussein on this sad day. The sacrifice of Hussein and his colleagues is not only more relevant today than any other time in the history; this immortal story also reflects the Islamic principles in true form.

AG`s opinion on AFSPA is non-est in law

By Suhas Chakma The proposal of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for removal of the Armed… more »

By Suhas Chakma
The proposal of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from certain parts of Jammu and Kashmir has exposed the fraught being played by the Central government playing on the basic tenet of the constitution i.e. federalism. As the Ministry of Defence opposed Chief Minister Abdullah’s proposal tooth and nail, the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to extricate itself from the controversy sought an opinion from the Law Ministry. On 18 November 2011, Attorney General Ghulam E. Vahanvati informed the MHA that the Governor of the State is the final authority for declaration and revoking of the AFSPA as per Section 3 of the Act. The AG based his opinion on the Supreme Court Judgement of 1997 that upheld constitutional validity of the AFSPA in the case of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights Vs Union of India.

The AG’s opinion is all but absolute mis-interpretation of the SC judgement in the case of NPMHR Vs Union of India. The SC judgment did not examine as to whether it is the Governor, who is legally bound to operate on the advice of the State’s Council of Ministers, or the State Government, which is the actual authority for declaration or revoking of the AFSPA. The constitutional validity of the AFSPA was examined in the specific context of whether the Act is violative of the Constitution because ‘public order’, which is addressed in disturbed areas through deployment of the Central forces, is a State subject. The SC upheld that the AFSPA “is not a law in respect of maintenance of public order falling under Entry I and List II.” The Court also held that the AFSPA “does not displace the civil power of the State by the armed forces of the Union and it only provides for deployment of armed forces of the Union in aid of the civil power.” The Court further clarified that “The expression ‘in aid of the civil power’ in Entry 2A of List I and in Entry 1 of List II implies that deployment of the armed forces of the Union shall be for the purpose of enabling the civil power in the State to deal with the situation affecting maintenance of public order which has necessitated the deployment of the armed forces in the State”. Therefore, the SC judgement reiterated the primacy of the State government and did not justify any discretionary power of the Governor as being interpreted by the AG. If there is no civil power in the State, Governor’s discretion would mean declaration of emergency and/or President’s rule under 356 of the Constitution.

The AG has further failed to appreciate that the AFSPA cannot be considered as a stand-alone Act. The AFSPA comes into effect only after an area is declared “disturbed” under Section 3(1) of the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act which is unequivocal about the role of only the State Government. Section 3(1) states “where a State Government is satisfied that- (i) there was, or (ii) there is, in any area within a State extensive disturbance of the public peace and tranquility, by reason of differences or disputes between members of different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such area to be a disturbed area”. There is no reference to the role of the Governor under the Act and once the “disturbed area” notification is revoked by the State government, the AFSPA simply goes!

Major political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, the AIADMK and the Trinamool Congress have been opposing the Communal Violence Bill on the ground that it poses a threat to federalism. However, these political parties have maintained silence on the opinion of the AG, while the BJP on record opposed the revoking of the APSPA from J&K.

It is essential to bear in mind that the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act was enacted in 1976 to provide for speedy trial for certain offences through the establishment of Special Courts. While Special Courts have seldom been established, the Act has been abused discriminatorily against the States ruled by the minorities. At present, the areas declared disturbed are the entire State of Manipur (except Imphal Municipal area), Nagaland and Assam, Tirap and Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, 20 km belt in the States of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya having common border with Assam and 20 out of 22 districts in Jammu and Kashmir. The most curious case is Tripura which in September 2011 further notified 34 out of 70 police Stations as fully disturbed and six police stations as partially disturbed. According to the Tripura Police, 32 insurgency related incidents took place from January 2010 to September 2011 in which only one civilian and two security forces were killed. Though the Naxal affected States have been witnessing far more violence, the Centre has not declared areas from these States to be disturbed as they are ruled by the powerful State governments.

The declaration of certain areas to be ‘disturbed’ has effectively come to mean bringing these areas effectively under the Central rule without declaring the same publicly or under the Constitution of India. Those opposing the Communal Violence Bill need to take a principled stand. After all, the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act in essence addresses the very issues of the Communal Violence Bill and not the insurgency or national security problems. If the Central rule can be imposed through the backdoor by abusing the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, there is no reason as to why the Communal Violence Bill would not be invoked for the same. Armed conflicts are increasing by day and time has come to lay down the law clarifying the role of the Centre vis-à-vis the armed conflicts including the Naxal conflict. Ethnic origin and religious belief must not be seen to be the criteria to judge the competence of the leaders or Indian-ness of the people they govern.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/ags-opinion-on-afspa-is-nonest-in-law/

A Message from Irom Sharmila Chanu

Translated by Chitra Ahanthem. It is the day that left its mark on time. If… more »

Translated by Chitra Ahanthem.
It is the day that left its mark on time. If only human beings were able to relate to nature and her form: the breeze, the birds in the skies, the insects chirping away. If only human beings were able to live without being petty or mean minded like the living beings around us, there would not have been the ongoing war to be better off than the other. There would not be a relentless drive to suppress the other person to get your way in life. But men seem to have only learnt from how animals in the jungle prey on weaker animals and their bloodthirsty instincts. The use of weapons of destruction like guns has led many a young lives to leave their homes and taking part in the theatre of war.

Many lives have been affected and a thousand marital ties are affected by the unending struggles. Men’s inability to trust nature and God’s creation has led to the quest for artificially manufactured things and the transient comfort they can give. This has encouraged the race for getting more and more money leading to violating what is due to other people. People have forgotten to be humble and only learnt how to forgo truth.

The state and nature of a society and its people are reflected in the nature of its political leadership. Over time immemorial, different communities have co-existed peacefully with one another in harmony. The people of the hill and the valley used to share the products of the land. If the produce of the land was low, the produce was still shared equally. The roots of the rush to acquire more land and other trappings of power and influence are an outcome of a weak and diluted leadership. While one cannot take along their belongings once they pass away, the practice of fighting over who gets to control which part of the land has led to divisions between communities and the call for breaking away. So long as leaders are more concerned in amassing wealth for themselves and counting their money, who is it that will lead the way? The leaders are the ones who should be the backbone of the society. It is their duty to revitalize people who are tired and worn out. It is their mandate to soothe down the minds and hearts of people.

I hear many things that leave me astounded. I hear these stories from the people around me. They tell me that they stand in line at petrol pumps. They say that they start queuing much before the day breaks till about 3 in the afternoon only to be told that the petrol stock has got over. They tell me that they feel sleepy and exhausted after their quest for petrol. And I think to myself: this petrol that is so necessary is something that is not of our state. Then I think about how our ancestors lived. They had limited world exposure but lived self sufficiently. They did not have to depend on other people. Would their way of life be inconvenient for them? Today, we seem to be getting lost in the gloss and glitter that exist around us. Is the quest for glitter making us lose our heads and in the process taking away our mind faculties? Will it not be possible to think that such gloss and glamour do not exist and then reorganize our lives accordingly? It is only when we know our own selves as we really are that we can begin to think of collective good. The ability to think of collective good can only contribute to the betterment of a society.

I do know and I do hear that among the daily wage earners who have been newly recruited, 54 of them came up with Rs 3 lakh each to give to a doctor who is related to the Chief Minister. The total amount, coming to a little over a Crore and a half was taken as ‘favour money’ but later, the joint government order mentioned that there could not be any demand for their job regularization. The trade for a government job has reached suffocation point and for this tiny state that is yet to be able to stand on its own, it only leads to disillusionment among the youth of today who are well educated and have the ability to contribute to the development of the state. People who are equipped with degrees are left out of gaining employment if they cannot get the amount that is required to guarantee a job. They remain wasted while the state and society stay in dire need of their attention. This state of affairs has only contributed to the malaise that is prevailing in Manipur today. It is this discontent that is the root cause of all that ails the state.

The pursuit of government jobs happen because someone with a government job is ensured financial security in the form of his pension and other entitlements. The race for government jobs means that people sell off their ancestral property and other holdings to collate the amount that is required. The subsequent efforts to recover the money spent for a government job results in government departments being crippled with corruption. The sense of duty has entirely disappeared in every sphere, be it the judiciary, health care system. That is why we get to see confrontations arising out of disgruntlement from the common men who are fed up with the way the system is operating.

The emergence of the select few who have power and money at their disposal have emboldened them and led to treading on the lives of the less fortunate. It has become common for them to exploit those who earn on a daily basis by taking way their basic human rights just as it has become normal to hear about crimes against women. The powerful and the wealthy are well connected to the leaders who are leading the pack of thieves and are hence not wanting for anything in their existence. But the rampant exploitation of the poor daily wage earners and the farmers who are at the end of the social and economic spectrum leaves them without the resources to live comfortably on one hand and leave them without the means to have their grievances addressed. Left without the backing of powerful, they face an uphill process when they attempt to air their life stories of unaddressed issues.

My beloved people!
Just as all living beings have faith are drawn to Mother nature as one to her bountiful lap, let us place faith in our mothers who have borne us. Our mothers who are like no one else, keeping guard in the dead of the night with a fire torch in hand. May the light in your torch lead us to a better society where love and harmony exists between different groups. May it bring together all the fragmented pieces. May Mother nature continue to bless us with her bountiful gifts to feed everyone.

May people have access to health care for every-one. May anger and disillusionment go away. May those who stone and set fire to vehicles that are carrying food and other supplies for their fellowmen leave behind their destructive nature. May the seething anger that leaves us half dead and half alive and caught between hunger and excess, May all that is uncalled for go away. May we be able to live in peace as nature does. May we strive to be selfless. May we be able to imbibe the spirit of sacrifice. May the movements that started with a vision to serve the people and all those who set out to work for the people by getting into governance find their way back to what they set out to do. May all their wrong doing and their pretensions of doing good turn into what is right. May all that is wrong, get resolved. May we be able to find the way to a better Manipur! May we be able to give up setting fire to the centers of learning. May we be able to save the pillars of our society from HIV/AIDS so they are able to stand together as one. May we be able to save lives. May a new beginning be heralded that brings justice to every one. May all that is evil and wrong be changed by truth.

The above text was handed over, to be distributed to all media outlets, as Irom Sharmila was being led towards the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate on Nov 30, 2011.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/a-message-from-irom-sharmila-chanu/

Preserving a Tourist Destination

By Bobo Khuraijam With all its wit and might the babus and the bheiyas were… more »

By Bobo Khuraijam
With all its wit and might the babus and the bheiyas were gearing up to celebrate. Having little to lose and yet nothing to gain, fishermen who have dwelled on the phumdis of Loktak lake aired their grievance coming out on the streets. As per the new rule, set by the Akhang Ahei(s) of the state, fishermen are not to be allowed to dwell in their phumdis, anymore. These fishermen, since the days of Moirang Kangleirol, have been dwelling in the phumdis. The present day Akhang Ahei(s) were not born that time. To tell you the truth, they must not have seen Loktak Lake properly. They must have seen it, typically like a tourist, from the photographs, from the calendars of DIPR; from a picnic trip to Sendra, or at the most they must have seen it from the aeroplane. We are told that aeroplanes before they land on the Tulihal turf, they take a nice golai at an arm’s length with Thangjing range, just above the Loktak.
THE ASSIGNMENT: They (Akhang Ahei) were assigned to do the ‘thinking’ as well as the ‘doing’, they came for their mundane official visit, termed ‘field visit’ on their official vehicles to the lake. After spending a few flickering moments, after going through a soporific study of the ‘field’, they returned to their official offices. Heavy with information(s) and wrapped up with knowledge(s) and powered by the office, they took official decision. The decision: fishermen dwelling on the phumdis must be evicted..Err!!!…phumdis floating on the Loktak Lake must be cleared out, they are junks, floating and dirtying the lake. In the eyes of these Akhang –Ahe(s), the five leikais who dwell on the floating biomass are nothing but mosquitoes which are to be eliminated. Well, we affirmed, that the decision taken by the officialdom has got to do a lot with the information they digested before sitting their entrance. Their vision is to preserve the lake by dividing it into this and that zone. To preserve something by ruining the livelihood of hundreds of families is wisdom worth prescribing in the text books of the children; particularly to those children whose parents have been indulging in the noble profession of cheat and lie, who has been feeding their children with money earned by khadrak and nothing but khadrak only. The amount of money spent in buying an official chair could be much higher than the commercial value of the phumdis. The unfathomable cord of the umbilical between the Loktak and its native fishermen, the insight of the organality they share with each other will be hard to understand. No matter a thousands birth the authority may take. As a token of benevolence the fishermen are allowed to fish in some specified area. And for that they have to take permission from the almighty authority. As a symbol of scholarly idiocy any kind of research work is to be done with the kind permission of the authority. Is not it true that this land of ours belongs to the then Kings and Lords who were the supreme of all Supremes, who were the ultimate of everything? The leaves should rustle with the permission of the authority. The grass should take permission to be green. The sky cannot be blue without any permission either. That is the only reason why the resented fishermen had come down to street to protest against the decision taken by the sarkar. They were dealt with an iron fist; their temporary settlement in a community hall was ransacked, cooked foods were destroyed by leader boots of the cops. They were forced to go back to their village. Never bother to think that they would be welcomed by their empty homes, where the gloomy sky would be their only roof, the dark horizon would be their protective wall.

DESTINATION: The tourism festival started with this as a backdrop. Rightly called the Sangai Festival, the rumbling from the south of the capital was comfortably swept under the carpet. True to its colour, the festival started with a bang and also ended with a bang. Is it not a wonder that the psychos who infiltrated a thunder bolt amidst tight security ring did not take DC Paarmit. The fire brigade vehicle which came to douse a food stall caught in fire did not take permission to dump its front wheel inside the earth, just after crossing the entrance. Permissions apart, the name and the emblem of the festival is SANGAI which has little to do with the Loktak Lake, with the floating phumdis, with the floating park; as per the official thinking and doing. Good enough, we saw video actors canvassing the event through the local television network. Inviting us; yes, the local population to become tourist in their own courtyard, unlike the neighbouring state who endorses their tourism destination and events on satellites channels and other mass media which caters to people far and wide. The gyan of the Akhang Ahei(s) and the lousing of the Thikadaarship did not permit them from doing that. A few foreign stalls selling cheap products at unreasonable prices are not enough. For the first time we heard the local police being polite: police ki maigei dagi ningsingjari. They kept a halt of their usual show of strength of beating up anyone who appeared up on the stage. Of course, the cultural evening is a delightful destination despite the chill. We pray the organizers to have a thorough screening of the content of the items. One such item took us beyond the frontier of human imagination; by staging a ‘save Sangai’ campaign, torturing us with conceptual blunder. At the backdrop of the stage was the motif of the dancing deer, which again did not, reminded to any of us of the Loktak, the Phumdis and the Fishermen? You have to take permission from the authority for that. Time did not wait when Manipur celebrates.

FOOTNOTE: every time very-very important person coming from Delhi is greeted with empty streets, except for the staged mobilization of public. Leipung Ningthou calls it, “ahaangba atiyada khusem gi leichil na leitengba”.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/preserving-a-tourist-destination/

Flashback: The roots of the Hollywood Studio System

By Subir Ghosh Before Hollywood had come an abject failure – that of the Motion… more »

By Subir Ghosh

Before Hollywood had come an abject failure – that of the Motion Pictures Patent Company (MPPC) to monopolise the film business. This was a cartel of 11 leading American and European producers of films and manufacturers of cameras and projectors.

In December 1908, a “trust” was formed by major American film companies (Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star, American Pathé), the leading film distributor (George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak, to inflate the prices of equipment they alone could manufacture. The companies pooled patents and made thousands of short films. Only cooperating companies, licensed by the MPPC could manufactur “legal” films and film equiment. It was a big bully.

The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on American screens, standardised the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited in the US, and improved the quality of American motion pictures by internal competition. The MPPC was modelled on the Edison licensing system, which had existed ephemerally in 1907–1908. It was a desire of one man – inventor Thomas Alva Edison, who owned most of the major American patents relating to motion picture cameras – to control the industry with allies.

The Edison Manufacturing Company’s would routinely file patent lawsuits against its competitors. The American film industry was crippled. Biograph was the only Edison rival to survive since it used a different camera design. The sesser mortals had no hoice but import foreign-made films, mostly French and British. Not content, Edison also harassed distributors and exhibitors on the ground that if they did not use his machines and films exclusively, they would be subject to litigation for supporting filmmaking that infringed Edison’s patents.

Rivals Essanay, Kalem, Pathé Frères, Selig, and Vitagraph approached the Edison Manufacturing Company in 1907 to broker a licensing agreement. Lubin too was invited, but Biograph kept out. The motto of this agreement was clear: to “preserve the business of present manufacturers and not to throw the field open to all competitors.”

And when the MPPC was formed, it sought to eliminate the outright sale of films to distributors and exhibitors, replacing it with rentals, which allowed quality control over prints that had formerly been exhibited long past their prime. Then came a uniform rental rate for all licensed films. Price as a factor for the exhibitor in film selection was thus removed.

The cartel monopoly slowly increased. Eastman Kodak, which owned the patent on raw film stock, sold stock only to other members. Since MPPC had control of patents on motion picture cameras, only its own studios were able to film. Similarly, the MPPC with its deals with distributors and theatres, decided who screened their films and where.

Independent filmmakers responded by moving their operations to the small suburb of Hollywood to the west of Los Angeles. This was not done without a reason – it was on the other coast, far away from Edison’s home town of New Jersey. The Hollywood area came under the purview of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. It was averse to enforcing patent claims. There were other reasons for selecting this location. Southern California had a beautiful year-round weather and varied countryside; its topography, semi-arid climate and widespread irrigation gave its landscapes the ability to offer motion picture shooting scenes set in deserts, jungles and great mountains.

The beginning of the decline of the MPPC coincided with the growth of Hollywood. In fact, it started soon after the cartel was formed. In 1911, Eastman Kodak modified its exclusive contract with the MPPC, and allowed Kodak to sell its raw film stock. The immediate fallout was the the number of theaters exhibiting independent films grew by 33 per cent within twelve months.

The MPPC also overestimated its power of influence. Its practice of using detectives to investigate patent infringements, and of obtaining injunctions against the infringers, was outpaced by the dynamic rise of new companies in diverse locations. The MPPC was hamstrung with Edison’s aversion for longer films. It took the MPPC players four years to come up with their feature films. By this time, independent filmmakers had released hundreds.

With the outbreak of World War I, Europe was cut off from the MPPC. The war hit it more than the independents who mostly made Westerns for an American audience. As revenues dipped, the final nail in the MPPC’s coffin was struck by a federal court which ruled that the organisation had gone “far beyond what was necessary to protect the use of patents or the monopoly which went with them.” The big bully was finally cut down to size.

The independents, meanwhile, were on a roll. Their feature films generated more interest among filmgoers than the two-reel, fifteen minute narratives of the MPPC did. They were all over the magazines, and each film was a unique product that was heavily advertised. Gradually, the independents no longer remained independents – they became a system. This system did precisely what the MPPC had failed to do – have total control over the industry to produce, distribute and exhibit films. We will be calling it the Hollywood Studio System.

`Getting to Zero`

By Victoria N Getting to zero would be disheartening if in case of results at… more »

By Victoria N
Getting to zero would be disheartening if in case of results at school or in college. Getting to zero as per the World AIDS Day theme for this year would however pose as a motivational factor for those aware of HIV/AIDS. This years’ theme of the three zeros namely, ‘Zero New Infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS related Death’ in its simplicity covers all aspects of HIV. In the state however, as much as the legislators may raise hue & cry over all the zeros, the fact remains that a new infection(s) is being made this very day while another person is discriminated socially and yet another is being cremated upon due to AIDS related death.

In the socio economic context of our state, the challenges of developing effective response to HIV/AIDS is immense Owing to our social setting, People living with HIV (PLHIV) are kept at safe distance like as if the person exhales spurious gas when around. The fear of getting ‘contaminated’, despite all the awareness programs raised by many organizations, government bodies and NGOs across the state is still not able to reach the public in masses as expected or hoped. A new infection is being made vis-à-vis mother to child, Intravenous Drug User (IDU), blood transfusion or through sexual methods this very moment globally. The effort of reaching out to the masses has helped only to a point when the society or family looks at HIV as something that is not taboo. A new infection can only be stopped through careful propagation of awareness and understanding HIV.

Medical practitioners and health professionals should be made aware of the legal and ethical issues regarding discrepancy for tests, refusal to treat somebody with HIV and even measures about guarding themselves against transmission due to their professions. In many clinics across the state, Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is not given to health professionals. It is disturbing to learn that some of them are not even aware of PEP despite working in a profession that puts them at high risk of getting infected.

It is a need of the hour to adhere to legal bindings around it to an extent that those who do not comply should be made to support a PLHIV in all aspects. Our society should begin by understanding that ‘Zero new infection’ can be achieved only if we are aware of HIV. By shutting ourselves from the so called ‘tabooed disease’ and not discussing it we are risking perhaps our own children from getting infected.

Given the states’ muddled setting of law & order amidst the JAC cultures and the endless climb in the social status, it is only natural why many new infections are being made by just being ignorant. If those sitting idly, or protesting against the many causes are being made aware of how HIV is transmitted and accept PLHIV just as they would accept anybody with a chronic illness, there would be lesser infections and in return lead to more acceptance socially. Many people tend to forget that society is formed by like minded people or groups.

From educational establishments, government departments to healthcare services, discrimination in the form of cautionary alienation to disturbing mental and emotional trauma exists. It is a fact that even though healthcare professionals are ready to treat patients with HIV with their newer knowledge and methodologies, the discriminatory factor still exists. Taking into account the plight of a mother whose son was refused treatment when admitted for jaundice at a local hospital because he was HIV+, it was disheartening to learn that the hospital gave an excuse of being overbooked so as to prevent the boy from checking in since the doctors and nurses were afraid to attend to him. There may be many and worse cases than this and yet no action has been taken up against such establishments. If a child is denied admission in school, the school authorities should be booked, if a person is denied employment, the matter should be taken up, Likewise, if a hospital, medical professional denies treatment or if the facility doesn’t provide substantial precautionary methods such as PEP etc to its staff, the license should be revoked or fined. Many such legal bindings exist and had a case such as the aforesaid occurred in the western countries, it would have made headlines yet it is being overlooked here. More often than not, PLHA’s are often referred from one department to another. It is as if nobody wants to take responsibility or rather, the fear psychosis that plays the discriminatory role.

Recently, there was a case of the locality people spraying a crematorium with phenyl after a person who was HIV + had been cremated. Not only is such an incident insulting but also shows the lack of understanding of HIV in our society. It is indeed appalling that even during death, people discriminate.

After the decades of HIV identification and sensitization, it is high time that we use the varying degree of knowledge available and tackle with targeting multidisciplinary approach by providing knowledge with training, workshop and creating professionals/social models to interact. Reducing its spread requires behavior change by both the infected and the uninfected. Such change cannot happen without a paradigm shift in the values and attitudes that shape individual and cultural behavior, enabling communities to openly address taboo issues around sexuality, social inequality and HIV/AIDS.

It is about time we rose to the cause, our own cause of preventing further spread by understanding HIV and ‘Getting to Zero’.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/getting-to-zero/

Fractured Democracy

By Seram Rojesh Irom Sharmila, 39 year old woman of Manipur has completing her 11th… more »

By Seram Rojesh
Irom Sharmila, 39 year old woman of Manipur has completing her 11th year of her hunger strike on 4th November 2011. She has been fasting to repeal the Armed Forces Special Power act 1958(AFSPA 1958). Against this act, 12 mother of Manipur had challenged the government of India by showing their body without any clothes in public on 15 July 2004. A student’sleader PabemChitaranjan self-emulated himself on the independence day of India, 15 August 2004 to strengthen the movement against AFSPA and the rule by Delhi as he considered “Indian Colonial rule”. People from other state in the region, Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have been strongly opposing this Act. Now, manypeople who believe in democracy in India and around the world have also joined the movement to repeal an undemocratic, draconian and most dangerous act of the world.

One can say, it is only after Anna fast and the India Against Corruption agitation, the issue of AFSPA and Iromsharmila’s fast became part of the public discourse in India. This entire 53 years struggle against this act is quite enough to throw it from India, but the kind of an “exclusive and aggressive nationalism” and its neo-colonial politics by the dominant and majoritarian political class in India, this act is still disturbing, torturing, oppressing, subjugating people living within the territory in India under “Disturb Area”. In fact, one can say that the Indian State is disturbing the life of the people in both sides for those who are receiving AFSPA and also performing AFSPA particularly the personals of Indian armed forces for those who have joined to the armed forces as supposed to protect the citizens residing within the territory from the external aggression and war from any foreign countries. Because of the impunity and enormous power given by the Indian state to the armed forces in the disturbed area, many of them are forced to commit a crime against the people, women, men and children. Many of them become a killer, rapist, molester in the disturbed area. It is mainly because the armed forces in the disturbed area are made above the law of the country, India. It is because of the legal protection of the Indian armed forces are enjoying in disturbed area. The rapist Army Jawans who raped ThangjamManorama in the early morning of 11 July are still free and they are in service with their uniform on the ground. Section 6 of the AFSPA say, “No prosecution suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the central Government in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.” There has not been a single case that Government of India had given“sanction” to a particular case it was demanded in the case of Manipur.On the issue of punishment to the rapist Army in the case of Manorama rape and killed in custody of the Indian armed forces in Manipur, the Home Minister of India, in 2004, Mr. Sivaraj Patel said that “if they are punished than the moral of our armed forces would go down. They are fighting a war from a very far mile ago”. 7 years is passing through since 2004, none of Indian armed forces who were responsible of 11 July have not been punished. So, it is not in a case that some black ship military personals rape women in Manipur or Kashmir or in any other disturb areas. It is the state itself raping, torturing, killing hundreds of thousands of women, men like Manorama. It is the kind of “Indian Nationalism” is raping women in disturbed area. All this criminal acts are done under the name of “Bharat Mataki Jai”. Time has come to be engaged critically to this kind of nationalism in India.The armed forces personals are also victims of “this nationalism”. In the process many of the armed forces personals had been transformed into a killer, rapist, all kinds of criminals in the disturb area where they are made above the law. It is because of the kind of enormous power and legal protection they are provided. When these armed forces came out from the disturb area like Manipur, Kashmir & Nagaland to the other non-disturb area, state and metropolitan cities of India like in Delhi, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Utter Pradesh or any other places, they can’t even talk to public decently not imagining to rape and torture in uniform. They have no power to do so as they are given in disturb areas. One can recalled an incident in Delhi that an armed forces personal who was part of the security group of the President of India was punished and put him into the jail after he was found for raping a woman in Delhi.

IromSharmila started her fast formally on 5th November 2000 after she saw 10 dead bodies killed byMalom massacre on 2nd Nov. 2000. 10 civilian were gun down by ISF. Among the 10 civilians, one woman was 60 years old and 54 years man who was also a Manipur government employee. Onechildwas the child bravery awardee under 19 years awarded by Persident of India. They were waiting a bus at the Mallom bus stop. They were all gun down by the jawans after they found one bomb wire from 100km away of that bus stop. Jawan have sent a message through the 10 dead bodies to those who planed and put wire to that area as if anyone planed anything which might hurt to them than they would kill the people whenever they found people anywhere. None of the armed forces personal who killed 10 civilian has not been punished in the last 11 years. Iromsharmila is still fasting. She is not only asking particularly to punish the killer armed forces because she knew that until and unless AFSPA is not repealed, Indian Armed forces could not be punished. AFSPA section 4(a) allows shooting to kill people on the mere suspicion, on the basis of the decision of the armed forces. Under this impunity, 14 killed on 18 June 2001, 12 killed at Tabungkhok, Tamenglong in 2000, 9 killed at RMC hospital in 1996, 15 killed in Oinam village operation at Senapati in 1987,13 killed at Heirangoithong in 1984 and many more, not ending the list and many more will be killed in future. If this act AFSPA continues to operate, it will continue to witness the endless massacres. More than 20000 people have been killed in the last 53 years of AFSPA regime in Manipur.

One of the many dangerous part of this act is the power of the executive has in the Distured area. The armed forces have both the executive and judiciary power in the disturb area. They have both the power to arrest and prosecute the people. The institution of judiciary is dismantled in the territory of AFSPA regime in India.There is no institution of Judiciary under AFSPA.

The institution of Judiciary is themselves the Armed Forces. All the basic fundamental rights of being a citizenship provided by the constitution of India are suspended in the AFSPA regime. You can’t imagine a democratic state and society without the functioning of a powerful institution of judiciary. Interestingly, general people in India still claim that India a “largest democratic country” in the world even though these people believe in AFSPA a way of governance for a section of a certain population within the territory of India . One can say that the constitution of India is not applicable in disturb areas. AFSPA is another face of the constitution of India. Manipur, Nagaland, Jammu& Kashmir and any other disturb area is now under the “state of exception”. The well-knownacademician Mr. George Agamben argues in his book that the state of exception is not making a new law but simply the suspension of the constitution for specific reasons.

It is argued by the state and ruling class of India that AFSPA is necessary because of the situation in Manipur or in J&K or any other in disturb area. It is said that if the situation is good than there is no need of AFSPA application. George Agamben clearly said that the discourse of necessary is nothing but the justification of the state of exception.

The very institution of “Army” of a nation is made for war and instituted to defend the country from external aggression from enemy territory or to deal with enemy. It has no place and role in the civilian population, within a territory if the civilian populations are not subjected as “enemy” of the country. After the Dantewada incident anattack by Maoist and killed 76 CRPF personals, the idea of enemy of Indian state became very clear. The Chief of Army and all the political parties in India saying that Indian armed forces can’t be deployed in the central India because it would create more problem rather that solving the problem. Army can’t be deployed to deal with “people of own country”. The same Chief of the Army and all the political parties are saying a different language that without the army and power of AFSPA, it couldn’t rule the people of Manipur, North East India and J&K. The discourse of “our own people and can’t deploy Army never comes” to the discourse of Manipur or Nagaland even though they are living within the territory of India. Practically, it shows that people of Manipur and all the disturb area are considered as the enemy territory within the territory of India. People are enemy of the country that is why they have to be dealt and deployed by the Indian Army and Para-Military forces.

AFSPA is a symbol of fractured democracy in India. It is a manifestation of emerging supper power neo-colonial state of India. One can understand that Indian state is under undeclared war against the population within this territory of India be it Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir or any other territories who lives under disturbed area.

Repealing AFSPA means ending this undeclared war by the Indian state to people of Manipur and all the disturb areas. It means in once senses giving full citizenship rights to the population of disturb area. It means to end the nature of neo- colonial state of India. It means to integrate the population of disturb area into a more democratic political system if not fully in India. It does mean transforming Indian state from a nature of neo-colonial state to a more democratic state. It does mean applying one rule of law in India. It means fully application of constitution of India in every part of present territory. It does mean not restricting the application of so called democratic practices at least up to West-Bengal, Delhi and Tamil Nadu etc. It does mean the transformation of today’s fractured democracy of India into a more little Democratic India. Most importantly it does mean a big relief for the people who have been living under military occupation in the name of AFSPA in the territories of so called “disturbed areas” and beginning a new life.

Seram Rojesh,
Doing PhD, Delhi School of Economics,
Department of Sociology, University of Delhi

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/fractured-democracy/

AG`s opinion on AFSPA is non-est in law

By – Suhas Chakma Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights The proposal of Chief Minister… more »

By – Suhas Chakma
Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights

The proposal of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from certain parts of Jammu and Kashmir has exposed the fraught being played by the Central government playing on the basic tenet of the constitution i.e. federalism. As the Ministry of Defence opposed Chief Minister Abdullah’s proposal tooth and nail, the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to extricate itself from the controversy sought an opinion from the Law Ministry. On 18 November 2011, Attorney General Ghulam E. Vahanvati informed the MHA that the Governor of the State is the final authority for declaration and revoking of the AFSPA as per Section 3 of the Act. The AG based his opinion on the Supreme Court Judgement of 1997 that upheld constitutional validity of the AFSPA in the case of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights Vs Union of India.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/ags-opinion-on-afspa-is-nonest-in-law/

AG`s opinion on AFSPA is non-est in law

By – Suhas Chakma Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights The proposal of Chief Minister… more »

By – Suhas Chakma
Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/ags-opinion-on-afspa-is-nonest-in-law/

The Sangai Festival without Sangai Dance and Tour Operators

By N. Mohendro Singh It is a nice experience that the Sangai Festival, a routine… more »

By N. Mohendro Singh
It is a nice experience that the Sangai Festival, a routine memento of the Department of Tourism, Government of Manipur has provided a temporary sigh of relief of disillusioned masses in this troubled state with confused aspirations. It is paradoxically interesting to see a mass of kachha stalls on the dirty and dusty ground signaling the commencement of the so-called Sangai Festival without Sangai Dance of the poor animal threatened and visibly endangered, (Sangai) and also without enthusiastic involvement of Tour Operators and Tourist Guides.

Well, Manipur has witnessed a series of Sangai Festivals and may witness in future also. But any major intervention of this kind of extravaganza should be, — as matter of conceptual clarity and practical relevance, — guided by three indispensable components:
a) Defined objectives and vision
b) Lasting relevance, and
c) Practical feasibility.

The same handloom items have been the face-saving commodities of all kinds of exhibitions including Sangai Festival; perhaps symbolizing the acute weakness of going by the same beaten track while the whole world has been given a new exciting spirit and hope unleashed by Speed, Scale and Size. The spirit of modern era gets lost.

Let me begin with the basic theory of tourism. It is all about demand and supply. On demand side, we have: —
• Individuals/organizations/groups,
• Time,
• Money,
• Culture,
• Motivation,
• Recreational and educational attractions, and
• Good weather.

On the supply side we have:
• Destination-attractions,
• Transport,
• Accommodation,
• Food,
• Shopping complex and
• Comfortable environment.

They will determine the level of comfort and duration of stay which further determines the so-called Tourism Multiplier.

Both demand and supply forces are brought into play by the efficient Tourist Operators; — a group of committed professionals, individuals, groups and organizations. Don`t think that Tourism is an isolated baby born without parent. It is very much a social output, – a fine output of better management of human relationships at different stages, vertically and horizontally. Much more important is the fact that we have to capture the human mind with the human touch and professional maturity. The standard of social hospitality and social environment is decidedly crucial. How can we think of tourism in Manipur as Livelihood? This is perhaps a basic challenge. How can we motivate the educated youths to take up this job? Absolutely a practical professional approach of projectisation could be an encouraging attempt.

Of course, there are many types of tourists. It is difficult to generalize the pessimism. But the most basic knowledge required is how to go about against so many odds and handicaps imposed by open defiance, militant conservatism and animosity of small men. However, I am constrained to tell you of the well accepted benefit of employment-multiplier of the “smokeless industry”. Right now, one employment in tourism sector creates employment of 2.36 persons (say 3) in other sectors. This is what we call Employment Multiplier accompanied by the painless transfer of income. As such, it may be hopefully assumed that a reasonable level of tourism development in Manipur has enough potential to reduce the spectre of unemployment and poverty. But we should not forget that Empowerment, Capacity Building and Development should go together. Has the Department of Tourism taken note of the established facts of economic relationship?

The next question is who is key player in the hospitality industry? Necessarily the key players are Tour Operators and Tourist Guides. Of course, by this the role of the government is not undermined. But by and large, tourism as such is very close to self employment. While the support base of the public utility service is required for a successful tourism entrepreneur, he is expected to acquire four distinct qualities such as; —
1) Some educational background,
2) Command over language (English/Hindi)
3) Decency
4) Trustworthiness.

Remember, `trust` is most important, because it is a product of integrity, consistency, competence, openness and loyalty. It is necessarily a rare asset of any community.

The Sangai Festival should devote a substantial part of their exercises to grooming a group of young professionals having commitment rooted in domestic institutions. Otherwise, one time solo dance during the kind of extravaganza could at best be a piece of fairy tale, — not getting itself institutionalized as long term professional pursuit. This aspect demands a careful attention of the Government of Manipur, particularly the Department of Tourism.

Let me again tell you of three kinds of activities involved in the process of development of Tourism Industry in order to reinforce the contention. The primary activities consist of Hotels, Transport, Travel Agency and Destination improvements. The secondary activities consist of supply of goods and services for hoteliers, caterers, transport agencies, retail shops, bank facilities, ticketing and shopping. The third activities consist of entertainments, public utility, special festivals and sports etc. Can we act on the third activity without any basic reference to the primary activities? Can we put the cart before the horse? In fact, any planned intervention cannot ignore the evolution or stages and also “relationship management”.

The tourism multiplier depends largely upon the income-expenditure ratio at a particular stage and also upon what the market can bear. The general pattern of tourist expenditure is that 30% of the expenditure is on accommodation, 25% on food and drinks, 5% on internal transport, 10% on recreation and entertainment, 25% on purchase and 5% on sundry items. If the local economy is able to produce the goods and services that the tourists demand, the greater will be multiplier effect. The fluctuations in the general pattern of expenditure cannot be ruled out depending upon the stage of tourism development. The development process is marked by four stages, namely: Discovery, Development, Maturity and Decline.

The tourism policy should have a built-in-mechanism to address the operational concerns to ensure that the employment and income multiplier is maintained at optimum level. A time has come for the Government of Manipur to undertake an exhaustive study and identify the stage of tourism development in the state. Otherwise the Policy Mistake may negate the benefits of isolated exercises such as the Sangai Festival. In fact the Sangai Festival should be an integral part of the tourism policy. The Sangai Festival without tourism policy speaks volume. There is need for a closer interaction between the private players and the Government.

Tourism is not solely meant for expenditure; but more for revenue earning. Today Tourism Governance has increasingly acquired the rising intensity of professionalization and projectisation. Looked at from the broader perspective for a dynamic contribution and also far away from the basic identity of Hospitality Enterprise, the Sangai Festival, 2011, by and large, conveys just a minimal message. Yes, the Sangai Festival is important, but more important is the way the Festival is managed and much more important is the SPIRIT with which the Festival is organized.

Flashback: The Feature Film`s Coming of Age

By Subir Ghosh In the early years of film production, cinema as a medium did… more »

By Subir Ghosh
In the early years of film production, cinema as a medium did not threaten the cultural status quo. Non-fiction films had dominated and films were always exhibited in “respectable” venues like vaideville and opera houses, churches, anc lecture halls. Films started making an impact on the cultural landscape with the story films becoming gradually popular, and exhibition of films gradually shifting to the nickelodeons.

Film historian Roberta Pearson writes of the early critics, “The industry’s critics asserted that the dark, dirty and unsafe nickelodeons showed unsuitable fare, were ofte located in tenement districts, and were patronised by the most unstable elements of American society who were all to vulnerable to the physical and moral hazards posed by the picture shows. There were demands that state authorities censor films and regulate exhibition sites. the industry responded with several strategies designed to placate its critics; the emulation of respectable literature and drama; the production of literary, historical, and biblical films; self-censorship and cooperation with government officials in making exhibition sites safe and sanitary.”

What Pearson writes here is about an American scenario, but one worth looking at a bit closely.

The nickelodeon was a multi-purpose theatre that grew in popularity in the early years of the 20th century. Usually situated in converted storefronts, the nickelodeons featured motion pictures, illustrated songs, slideshows and even lectures. These were one of the two main exhibition sites for films, besides the vaudeville theatres.

The term “Nickelodeon” was first used in 1888 by Austin’s Nickelodeon, a dime museum in Boston, US. It became popular when Harry Davis and John P. Harris opened their small, storefront theatre with that name in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 19, 1905. Although it was not the first to show films, it was the first theatre in the world “devoted exclusively to exhibition of moving picture spectacles.” The idea caught on. Louis B Mayer converted a theatre into a nickelodeon, and announced that it would be “the home of refined entertainment devoted to Miles Brothers moving pictures and illustrated songs”.

The nickelodeons usually exhibited films that were typically 10-15 minutes in duration, and in a variety of styles and subjects, such as short narratives, “scenics” (views of the world from moving trains), “actualities” (precursors of later documentary films), illustrated songs, local or touring song and dance acts, comedies, melodramas, problem plays, stop action sequences, sporting events, and other features which allowed them to compete with vaudeville houses. In 1910, there were an estimated 10,000 nickelodeons in the US.

Slowly cities grew, as did the audience sizes. Films also grew considerably longer in duration, resulting in the ticket prices being doubled from five cents to ten cents. Conventional film theatres grew in number, and the nickelodeons receded into history.

There were many in the American film industry who were finding it increasingly difficult to tell a story in the 15-minute constraint. The one who broke away from the norm was Vitagraph which produced the first major multi-reel film, a biblical blockbuster called The Life of Moses in 1909/10. The five-reel film encouraged others to follow suit.

The ones who threw a fit over this conversion were the existing distributors and exhibitors. The limited seating arrangements at the nickelodeons required shorter programmes. The studios initially played ball. They treated each reel of a multi-reel film as a separate identity, and released them to the exchanges according to the agreed schedule. Nickelodeons were free to show only one reel as and when they wanted. The transition to feature films, therefore, was severely restricted. Ironically, the impetus came from European films that were being imported into the United States. Italian films specifically were all multi-reelers and hugely popular.

In 1911, three Italian films treated American audiences to a pictorial splendour that they were sorely missing in domestic productions. These were the five-reel Dante’s Inferno (Milano Films, 1909), the two-reel Fall of Troy (1910, Giovanni Pastrone), and the four-reel The Crusaders or Jerusalem Delivered (1911). In the spring of 1913, the nine-reel Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines, 1913) landed on American shores. The film ran over two hours and was a spectacle that featured over 5,000 extras, a chariot race, and real lions. It had the audiences in thral. The 12-reel Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, Italia) would change things forever. The depiction of the Second Punic War featured visually stimulating scenes of the burning of the Roman fleet and Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps. Italian blockbusters were to change the US film industry for good. And in the bargain, had a far-reaching impact on world cinema as well.
Feature films were finally here.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/flashback-the-feature-films-coming-of-age/

Sangai Festival 2011: a scrutiny

By Chitra Ahanthem The ongoing Sangai Festival with the theme “Destination Manipur” being organized by… more »

By Chitra Ahanthem
The ongoing Sangai Festival with the theme “Destination Manipur” being organized by the Government of Manipur and fronted by the Tourism Department is definitely creating a lot of buzz around us. A casual glance of the various activities playing out under the festival makes one feel that that the festival, which is aimed at bringing tourists and business opportunities to pitch the state as a destination point is indeed more polished than other Tourism festivals that has happened in the state so far. Local newspapers and some regional newspapers carry stories about the “attractions” at the Festival but there is no blip on any major media outlet. Ironically, the media stories of “attractions” of the festival are not on local artisans or products but on stalls and products from foreign countries! But before this piece ends up sounding like a rant against the festival, let’s do a careful scrutiny listing both the upside and the downside of the festival.

First, the positives:
1. There was a touch of professionalism in the arrangements made at the main venue at Hapta Kangjeibung. Unlike other editions where the stalls cluttered the ground, they were more organized and left a lot of room to walk around. Having the cultural performances and other evening items inside the Bheigyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT) is great thinking, with the Hapta ground being extended in such a manner that one can walk into BOAT. Till last year, one had to get inside the venue ground and then walk outside and then enter BOAT. Taking the performances inside BOAT has taken care of seating arrangements for people while also giving a wide space for people to walk around. Of course, it is another story altogether that the area was used by VIPs to zip in and out of the venue, thereby kicking up dust (both literally and figuratively). But well!

2. The sight of smartly dressed young boys and girls as stewards is a nice touch. Normally, most functions in the state are marked by young girls trying very uncomfortably to do their job on stage, like tagging the dignitaries on stage, handing gifts and flowers etc el. This festival edition sees professionally trained young people doing the honors. I was very impressed when one young man had the basic courtesy of handing tea to the professional photographers taking shots of an evening performance. Normally, only VIPs and dignitaries gracing such functions are served! Photo-journalists operate to document what is going around them in very uncomfortable positions just so they get that perfect shot, and the least that can be done for them is to have some refreshments served to them. I sincerely hope that it wasn’t a one off gesture and that it continues.

3. The media center was good for the fraternity to check the latest developments on the festival. One hopes that by the next edition of the festival, the organizers will think of putting in work stations in the media center so that stories can be filed from the venue itself without journalists having to bother with going back to their offices and then filing their stories. All it takes would be to make Wi-fi operational and to provide plug in points for computer laptops.

The negatives:
1. A tourism festival meant to showcase the best of Manipur’s culture, handloom, handicrafts and its tourist potential featuring stalls selling products being brought in from outside the state somehow does not fit in. There ought to have been more stalls with handicraft and handloom items from the state, rather than those selling shoes and purses. The later could have made their presence in the various other Melas /trade fair that takes place. The organizers should have looked for applications from firms producing local goods and given the platform of the festival for the products to be talked about and noticed.

2. The festival also features a Photography contest with four categories. I may be mistaken but I distinctly remember that the cash prize amount when it was first announced on various social media sites was different from the amount being attached to the prizes now. The more important factor apart from the matter of cash prize amount is the lack of clarity on the copyright and use of the photographs being submitted for the contest. It is often a norm for one Government department to pay well below the market price for photographs and having the photograph being used by other departments. This is a total infringement of copyright and totally unfair on photographers. The current photography competition does not mention how many times the prize winning photos or submitted photos will be used and whether they would be used only by the Department of Tourism. In any case, Rs 25,000 as the cash amount for the first prize is too low for the photos to be copyrighted to the department.

3. The separate parking space for media personnel is welcome indeed but the first vehicle that got stolen was that of a media person! It tells you there is not much guarantee that your vehicle will be waiting for you once you get out of the festival venue. And this is in the backdrop of a very strong presence of police commandoes and army personnel. This is being flagged off because if vehicles can get lost despite the huge security presence, then there is an equally serious matter: that security can be breached. One hopes that there is better vigilance for the remainder of the festival.

End-point:
The festival had its funny moments too. Every time any proceeding of the festival was being announced on the mike, the announcer said “phestibel”. I also noticed that most people at the er..phestibel had a common fashion accessory: the patch of cloth over the nose and mouth.; to ward off the dust at the venue. Though the ground was covered by a thick sheet, the entry of vehicles of the VIPs would make people scurry to cover their nose and mouth. I overheard someone say at the festival, “This is crazy! We are paying an entry fee, a parking fee and then eating kanghou bora at hiked rates. Let’s go home.” The other person responded with a “go home and do what? Today is load shedding day.” That conversation said it all for me: if the festival is about getting people to spend their time and money then it is a success. But if the annual Manipur Sangai festival is about bringing tourism opportunities, a lot more needs to be done.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/sangai-festival-2011-a-scrutiny/

The Laparoscopic Cinema of Anand Patwardhan

By Joshy Joseph It happened during the 1988 International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held… more »

By Joshy Joseph
It happened during the 1988 International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Trivandrum. I was trying to persuade Anand Patwardhan to agree to receive the first copy of a book on Malayalam cinema at an official ceremony from the reputed film critic of The Guardian, Derek Malcolm. The author of the book was a friend of mine. Anand agreed to receive the book but not without posing a question to me : “Why Derek Malcolm? Is it because he is a white man?”

Many years later when Films Division interviewed Anand for a curtain-raiser film on Films Division for MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival for documentary, short and animation films), I heard him saying : “Luckily, we need not refer to Ben Kinsley as Gandhi, since FD has the original Gandhi footage !”

Anand speaks so lucidly through his films and in person. That is why, even while working for an official documenting agency, I always go back to Anand’s films for measuring the actual height and weight of Indian history. Anybody who has attended that edition of MIFF at NCPA in Mumbai, where Anand’s film Ram ke Naam was screened and stood out in sharp contrast to the official version of the Ayodhya issue, would understand me better.

Every time I wake up for a sunrise shoot or patiently wait to capture a clear-sky sunset shot, I cannot help envying Anand. I cannot recall a single ‘beautiful shot’ in his films — a shot devised for the sake of achieving beauty. It is the political conviction that illuminates his skies without bothering about the acceptibility factor, that strikes me over and over again. It is not for nothing that Anand’s films have withstood so confidently the test of time. And about the wrath of a nervous officialdom towards him and his films, it is only a cinematic addition to the good old stories of flourishing court poets aplenty juxtaposed with one or two poets of destiny.

In Kerala, experienced farmers always advise us not to buy spotless vegetables from the market. They tell us that naturally-grown vegetables normally have spots on them. In a supposedly advanced method of cultivation, systemic insecticides are fed to the plants as they grow, unlike the general practice of spraying pesticides from outside. That is why they are called ‘systemic insecticides’. So, any insect that touches the plant, dies on the spot! And the vegetables and fruits remain spotless like the glossy images in advertisement films!

Once, in the course of a MIFF selection process, Anand’s film on the fishermen’s issue was rejected on the ground of ‘bad image quality’. The chairman of the selection committee was a Hindutva element in disguise who had, wonder of wonders, no difficulty in choosing his own film for the festival! Anyway, the list of selected films reached me through a colleague who was visibly upset at the turn of events and chose to confide in me. He asked whether something could be done in the matter.

I immediately relayed this information to a daredevil friend of mine who was on the staff of the now-defunct weekly paper, The Sunday Observer. It was a Saturday evening. Overlooking space and deadline constraints, they flashed the story the next day — “Miffed Patwardhan withdraws his film”. The story, or rather the strategy, worked — Anand’s film was included on Monday.

Later, when we met at a cocktail party, I said ‘cheers’ to the selection committee chairman and murmured in a lighter vein, “You are Vinod and he is Anand, both meaning joy. Now enjoy.”

Changing to a serious note, I asked to know the reason why the film had been rejected. In some sequences, according to him, the visuals were very grainy. He knew that in the capital of sleek Hindi commercial cinema and corporate advertisement films, ‘the image quality’ bit could be used as a ready-made purdah to conceal the actual facial expression in the presence of truth.

Recently, in a court battle over the Bombay bomb-blast case, one party requested the court to view Anand’s Father, Son and Holy War to get an idea of the conditions then obtaining in the city before arriving at any judgement. Whether the court admitted the plea or not is not the point. Rather, the point is that in a case which involves a gun-toting Hindi film star, the reference point of facts was an Anand Patwardhan film. When countless crores go down the drain to project the pelvic thrusts and the dishum-dishum of constipated poster boys, Anand’s investment is his political conviction expressed by means of a precise aperture that records vital twists and turns of contemporary history.

Anand’s film War and Peace is an epic documentation of how violence is perpetrated and is being perpetuated in the name of patriotism. This film unforgettably unveils whipped-up mob frenzy through bombastic speeches of politicians and their heady narratives of nationalism. A cunning master-narrative is woven into this, which acts as an eyewitness and an argumentative self at the same time. The film encompasses the viewer, too, for almost three, most fruitful hours; thus, the unity of trinity becomes a complete experience. This is masterpiece cinema.

War and Peace gets into the interiors of two nations — India and Pakistan — as if in a laparoscopic operation. Even as the right-wing political party then in power kept puking vehemently, Anand’s camera surveyed the body politic with remarkable surgical precision. They wanted to restrain him by asking him to remove even the film’s reference to Gandhiji’s assassination. Hey Ram! Gandhiji never got assassinated in this country!

I have a feeling that Gandhiji knew why Bonsai plants don’t grow tall. When seedlings, root cuttings and small grafted plants are to be developed as Bonsai, they are first cultivated in ground beds. Here, the branches and root tips are pruned repeatedly. Each pruning session helps the plants to develop ‘dwarfing’ habits.

State-of-the-art pruning of political documentaries in India happens today more in the avenues of huge inflow of international capital through funding agencies and the pitching sessions they organise, than in the public-sector sphere. This will become clear if one watches and analyses the kind of projects that are backed by the European Documentary Network (EDN) and its offshoots like STEPS India.

In portrayals of marginalized individuals, or dushtu-dushtu, mishti-mishti analyses of Kashmir or the North-East, you won’t find a junior Anand Patwardhan anywhere in the picture. No wonder, these pitching film-makers are often to be found bitching eloquently about Anand and his ouevre. They say Anand’s films are very functional and lack spiritual dimensions. So, to remedy the situation, they go out into the world and try their desperate best to discover the exotic ‘other’.

Vaikkom Mohammad Basheer, the great Malayalam writer, wandered all over India for many years in search of truth. One of his incarnations was that of a sadhu on the Himalayas. Explaining why he quit being a sadhu, Basheer said some people would collect firewood, split it into smaller pieces and use them to start the kitchen fire. These people would not ask Basheer to share in the work; “just meditate without distraction,” they would say. But Basheer still used to get distracted — the very arrangement of avoiding distraction, distracted him.

Indian documentary today is taken seriously by the world because yesterday an Anand Patwardhan happened here. Your ‘spirituality’ became possible due to the ‘physicality’ of Anand Patwardhan’s films. I don’t have to reserve these words for an obituary.

I would like to recall another incident at MIFF. Anand was secretly summoned by the organisers just before the awards ceremony to select a two-minute excerpt from his film which had won a prize. The clip was to be screened at the awards function. The then Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Joshi, was the chief guest and he would hand out the prizes.

Just when a sequence from Father, Son and Holy War was being shown on the screen where Manohar Joshi — now on stage in a full-sleeved black safari suit — was asking for the blood of a minority community, Anand’s name was called out to receive one of the awards. While the audience cheered, Anand, dressed in his usual kurta-pyjama, shook hands with Joshi and received the award. Anand is an undomesticated political animal.

The sharp edges can be flattened with awards, awards and more awards. But, mercifully, the laws of the market do not apply to Anand. I have always respected him for consciously distancing himself from those ‘dwarfing habits’ about which I have spoken earlier.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/the-laparoscopic-cinema-of-anand-patwardhan/

Promoting Peace Education along the Asian Highway (AH) No.1

(This paper ,an edited version here was presented at the Confucius Institute Lecture Hall ,… more »

(This paper ,an edited version here was presented at the Confucius Institute Lecture Hall , Kyoto World Peace Museum, Ritsumeikan University, Japan on the 16th October 2011,Orgd by APPRA ( Asia Pacific Research Associate) on the theme :- New Agenda for Peace Research in the Asia- Pacific. )
By Leban Serto
This paper explores the intersection between the subject of Peace Education and the Asian Highways (AH) which are a series of roads. The main focus is on the AH No 1 and indicating the urgent need to promote the ideals of Peace Education along the AHs, to touch the lives of communities and nations. As laid down in UNESCO’s (United Nation Educational Social and Cultural Organization) declaration that – the education for a Culture of Peace to create and encourage peace ‘ in the minds of men and women’ , based on the universal values of respect for life, liberty, justice , solidarity, tolerance, human rights and equality between men and women. Today, these goals are advanced by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of Cold War tensions. Towards the creation of a nonviolent 21st Century, the decade of 2001-2010 has been declared as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. The growing movement of Peace Education since Hague Appeal for Peace,(HAP,1999) which launched the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) has facilitated many seminars; consultations and projects in countries across the Globe. The 50 point Agenda of the HAP ( A/54/98) is now an official document of the United Nations (UN) is also an important rallying point for promotion of Peace Education. .My personal involvement with the campaign for Peace Education began since 1999 in India. Since I also belonged to the North East India region, through where the AH1 will pass, and it has generated a lot of interest and curiosity, which has made me to work and research on the intersection for promotion of Peace Education agenda along the AH 1.

The paper also addresses some concepts of the Peace Education and Peace Agenda which would be best implemented in the region to reach out to the communities along the Highways crossing beyond nations and therefore fulfilling some of the promises as laid down in the in the Charter of the United Nations. UN through its UNESCO, have ratified strong resolutions defining a culture of peace. These have been widely accepted by the international community, including Resolution A/53/243, the Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace, which outlines eight critical actions areas ( UNESCO , Education for a culture of peace) and calls out for actors of peace to act at national, regional and international levels to eliminate the roots of conflict: Fostering a culture of peace through education ;Promoting sustainable economic and social development ;Promoting respect for all human rights ;Ensuring equality between women and men ;Fostering democratic participation; Advancing understanding, tolerance and solidarity; Supporting participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge; Promoting international peace and security.

The Background and Asian Highways (AH) Vision for the future: The AH project was initiated by the United Nations in 1959 with the aim of promoting the development of international road transport in the region. AH, the Great Asian Highway is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and Europe and the United Nations, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to improve the highway systems in Asia. It is one of the three pillars of Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project, endorsed by the ESCAP commission at its forty-eight session in 1992, comprising Asian Highway, Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) and facilitation of land transport projects. The Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on the Asian Highway Network was adopted on November 18, 2003 by the Intergovenmental Meeting; include which identified 55 AH routes among 32 member countries totaling approximately 140,000 km (87,500 miles ) the IGA treaty was signed by 23 countries. In 2007, 28 countries were signatories , which subsequently rose to 32 countries in 2008. A significant part of the funding comes from the larger or advanced nations as well as international agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB). AH1 is the longest route of the Asian Highway Network, running 12,845 miles (20,557km) from Tokyo, Japan via Korea, China, Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to the border between Turkey and connecting with Europe via Bulgaria (AH5). In India the AH1 is, 11,432 km (7,145 miles).

The brief description of the Asian Highway projects should develop an immense interest and challenge; though there are also skeptics who think the project is too ambitious and is next to impossible though the works have commence and discussion and consultation have started. On the other hand, the civil and political strife across nations in some Asian countries is also hindering the progress and work of the Asian Highways. Nonetheless, the challenges remain. Asia, with the North and South Korean stalemate, the fragile situation in Myanmar and insurgency issue in North East India are visible; the war like situation in Pakistan and war in Afghanistan is also causing immense concern. It is a reality that the Asian Highway will pass through these conflict areas and region in near future. The need for Peace Education is felt even more. Therefore the challenge before us is that, it becomes an important rallying point to develop strategies how we could promote peace education not only in these conflicting points but to start from Japan, where the Asian highways is one of the important strategic point in Asia.

Challenges and Opportunities
In this connection, my communication with Richard Schneider CEO, of IGE (Institute of Global Education) narrated “One example of a cross continental effort was the Pan American road from Alaska to the tip of South America. It required cooperation and monumental effort from many countries and took many years. But it was finally done and was altogether successful. He is of opinion that – “ In building the AH 1 , the participation of every level of society will be required; bricklayer to teachers, religious leaders of every stripe, the common persons and the political leaders, the intelligentsia, musicians, poets and the youth. A new sense of world citizenship will need to emerge and strengthened- Nationalism will need to be tamed and redirected to a sense of the common good.” In my communication with Cora Weiss, the president of Hague Appeal for peace she remarked about the idea of the Peace Education promotion along the Asian highway as – “And the point of the Peace Trail, or Road to Peace, is that increasingly things are being organized not on a state by state basis, but regionally.. and the next form of organization can be the length of a highway, especially one that goes through national boundaries, demonstrating that peace education has/knows no borders.” The idea of Road to Peace or Peace Route going through so many countries, we can see in our imagination of Peace Education camps, schools courses integrated into education schools and universities along the way, and exchange of faculty visiting each other schools.
Uli Jaeger’s laudatory speech in May 2011 at the Becker Peace Prize jointly given to Gavriel Salomon and others , highlighting the work of Salomon and the concept that “not all Peace Education Program are created equally”. He also talks about the intractable conflict within which one had to make peace with the real enemies and how “complicated conflict is sometimes” and they are not all similar in different parts of the Globe and would definitely need different strategies and approaches. We must develop good research and scientific peace work to benefit the local communities in bridging the gap and building a culture of peace. This brings us to the challenges and opportunities as along the AH , there will be many communities where some are comparatively more advance having democratic systems and on the other hand where some are in deep conflict with complete lack of governance and basic amenities of life, protection of human rights. The Infamous Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent are also along these Highways and there was economic sanction imposed against the Myanmar military Junta and a full scaled war in Afghanistan. There are also immense cultural, ecological, linguistic varieties existing along the Highways and new discoveries will definitely found along the way.

It would definitely be an exciting time and moments in history as we venture out to promote peace education which is so needed along the highways and the countries and communities which are inflicted, affected and torn apart by violation of human rights and lack of social justice and tolerance that are in need of healing and reconciliation. The value of peace and tolerance are an essential part of quality basic education, Basic education not only provides the skills of literacy and numeracy, but also provides the values and attitudes needed for self- development, improving the quality of life and for active participation in society. Educational and training programs must be available to people at all levels, formally and non-formally. In such programs, the dimensions of peace education must include tolerance, respects for human rights and democracy, international and intercultural understanding, cultural and linguistic diversity .We must also urgently incorporate the MDG (Millenium Development Goals) 2015 along with the Peace program at hand.
(The Writer is from Manipur and presently serving as co-ordinator of the Peace Studies Dept at Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) Shillong, available at leban.serto@gmail.com)

How real is the danger of military strike on Iran?

By Tanveer Jafri While many countries of the world are investing more in research and… more »

By Tanveer Jafri
While many countries of the world are investing more in research and development of cheaper and cleaner nuclear energy, the nuclear research programme of Iran has drawn ire of the West since a decade. Although Iran has repeatedly claimed that its ongoing nuclear research program is for peaceful uses and its purpose is merely to become self reliant in nuclear energy, the western countries, particularly the United States and Israel are not ready to accept this argument. The United Nations agency IAEA has several times expressed its concern over the Iranian nuclear programme. In its latest report, the IAEA has said that it has “credible” information that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.” Recently, a fresh resolution was passed by the IAEA calling on Iran to clear the doubts and concerns of the international community regarding its nuclear program.

On the other hand, Iran has called this report completely “non-professional, unbalanced and politically motivated” and prepared under “pressure” from the United States. Iran says the IAEA serves as America`s puppet. In the wake of this report, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again insisted that Iran’s programme is for peaceful purposes and it will never stop it.

But according to the IAEA report, the research carried out in 2008-09 is a matter of serious worry. It has said that research pertains to such devices which have no other use than to detonate a nuclear bomb. In response to this report, the US has said that Tehran has repeatedly failed to convince the international community that its nuclear programme is for non-military purpose. Amidst these, speculation of possible military action against Iran has caught up. While the US and Israel seem to favour such an option; Russia and China, on the contrary, have vowed to oppose tooth and nail any sanction against Iran in the UNSC, let alone military strike. Even the US administration is apparently divided over the use of force on Iran. The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that attacking Iran may have “a serious impact in the region and on U.S. forces in the region.” Panetta opined that bombing Iran would merely “delay that (nuclear) program or derail it up to two or three years at most.”

In response to such discussions in the Western media, Iran has issued a stern warning. Parvez Sarwari, the chief of Security Commission of Iranian Parliament, said that Iran has the courage to turn Israel into a heap of dirt, in case any such mistake is committed by Israel. He said that he is eager for the moment when Israel provokes Iran to demonstrate its power and technology. This echoes Ahmadinejad’s view aired some years ago where he said that Israel must be “wiped off the map.” Such kind of threatening certainly gives strength to American and Israeli fears that Iran is actively involved in creating nuclear weapons.

To understand this speculation of war, we need to consider two other factors than the nuclear programme of Iran i.e. the disputed Presidential elections in Iran in 2009 and the ongoing anti-regime uprisings in the Arab world, better known as Arab Spring. These two things, in addition to Iranian nukes, have helped create such a negative atmosphere against Iran. Just after the Presidential elections in 2009, the protesters, led by the loser candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi, occupied Azadi Square in Tehran, accused the government of large scale poll rigging in the elections and demanded re-election. The government suppressed that movement by the use of force. Encouraged by the Arab Spring, once again the protesters took to streets in large numbers. This time again the movement was brutally crushed.

Iranian government claims that these protests are getting tacit support from the US and Israel, hence need to be suppressed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also complements this assertion by saying that Arab Spring could “turn into an Iranian winter.” At the same time, pro-Nejad Iranian lawmakers have called for hanging of those opposition leaders who are involved in “conspiracy” against the government. This kind of internal conflict presents similar kind of excuses to the enemy countries, which were evident in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya in recent years. In other words, wherever the US intervened militarily, it had the support of a large section of local people.

Though Iran can have a sigh of relief since the US will hesitate from acting against it, keeping in mind the ‘intolerable’ losses it had to suffer from military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. In case Washington decides to land on Iranian soil, the resistance to its forces will be much stronger and violent than it had experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apart from this, the current financial position of the US won’t allow it to take on any new military adventure. Hence, the shadow of war on Iran is not so real. It may be a mere pressure tactic being used by the US and Israel to make Iran fall in line.

The Salesian way in Manipur

By Yambem Laba IN 1957, two Italian priests, Fathers Bianchi and Revilicho of the Salesian… more »

By Yambem Laba
IN 1957, two Italian priests, Fathers Bianchi and Revilicho of the Salesian order, arrived in Imphal and established the Don Bosco Youth Centre at Chingmeirong, about three kilometres north of Imphal along National Highway No. 39, and which later became Don Bosco High School. Catering to the needs of boys of the state and adjoining Nagaland, the school soon began to occupy centrestage in the matter of education. Salesian nuns soon followed suit and established Little Flower School for Girls. Till about 10 years back, these two schools would produce most of the Top Ten rankers in the annual matriculation examinations conducted by the state. In fact, the two schools began to be identified as elitist institutions that catered to the needs of the “high and mighty” of Manipur. The joke at one point of time was that these two schools together produced more first divisioners in the matriculation examinations than all the government schools of Manipur put together.

Perhaps it was this stigma of being labelled an elitist establishment that prompted Father MC George, rector of Don Bosco High School, Imphal, in 2002, to conceptualise and put into action a concept now called Bosco Mangal — Bosco being after Don Bosco and Mangal in Manipuri meaning light. This was long before the Centre conceptualised the Right to Education Act and the Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan programmes that aimed at education for all Indians.

The Bosco Mangal project, launched on 12 October 2002, heralded a revolution in catering to the educational and allied skills needs of a people then caught up in almost 50 years of insurgency and conflict. In a way Father George inverted the pyramid of established educational norms and practices of the so-called elite school establishments by taking education to the doorstep of the have-nots for little or nothing.

The Bosco Mangal project includes Youth Animation and Peace Programmes, Primary School Teachers’ Training, Basic Education Programme, Sponsorship for Poor Youth, Community School Programme, Intensive-Leap Frog Schools, Life Aid for People Living with HIV/Aids, Caring Community Project and Vocational Training Courses. These programmes were framed to contribute in making Manipur a better place, offering all young people the possibility of learning, growing and blooming so as to be able to live in good health, peace, joy and harmony.

Till date, when we imagine a child reciting his/her nursery rhymes in English, one tends to place such children in the metros’ income group, taught by well-paid teachers. But what the Bosco Mangal project has done is reverse this very notion. I was surprised to meet village children assembled in their teacher’s outhouse doing the same with much gusto. The teacher herself is just another village girl who finished her higher secondary school education and had the good fortune of becoming part of the Primary School Teachers’ Training Programme. Her students do not carry any text books because they are so poor they cannot afford these, so the teacher has to do double time to make sure her wards can copy the lessons down and also memorise them. She is paid by the Bosco Mangal project, but it is a pittance compared to what her compatriots earn in government or established private schools. But the satisfaction on the face of the young teacher in Keibul Lamjao village near Moirang in Bishenpur had to be seen to be believed.

To the village elders, the Bosco Mangal project is almost a Godsend. They still cannot believe their children can now recite poems in English without their having to spend a fortune in the process. That Christian missionaries are doing this and not once have spoken about conversions has added more credence to the crusade for universal education. So unlike the case in conservative Hindu villages as also even more conservative Muslim villages.

What is innovative about the project is that the Basic Education Programme aims at providing basic literacy skills to enable children — between seven and 12 years of age, who have never been to school or who had dropped out at an early stage — to get admission in regular schools. This is achieved by working in close coordination with village elders, women and youth groups.

At the Bosco Mangal Literacy Centres, the children are taught English, Maths, Hindi and Manipuri for two hours. The teachers too are put through life skills training.

What follows is parental sensitisation, courtesy Village Educational Committees, and after the children are put into regular schools financial assistance and scholarships are then provided for the needy ones. The Bosco Mangal project does not end with just teaching children how to read and write — they are provided with health check-ups and made part of a Self-Help Group in each Literacy Centre.

A unique innovation is the “leap frog” programme, whereby a child who had missed school for a couple of years is made to sit through two to three promotional examinations in a year so that he/she can be relocated to a class appropriate to his/her age. This has resulted in a very positive response from parents who want the Literacy Centres to continue and have pledged their support for the teachers concerned.

But educating children does not appear to be enough for the protagonists of the Bosco Mangal project for they have also successfully launched vocational training classes for young people. At the Thangzing Vocational Training Centre near Moirang, girls are being trained in embroidery. The trainees say they earn about Rs 1,500 a month but once out they can earn about Rs 3,500 a month on their own and this gives them the economic independence that has been lacking for so long in Manipur.

Heading the Bosco Mangal project in Manipur today is Father PX Francis, a soft-spoken Salesian from Kerala, who is a linguist in his own right and authored the first copy of the Bible in the ancient Meitei Mayek script. He speaks fluent Kabui dialect, besides Manipuri, and he is at ease amongst representatives of the foreign funding agencies as they weave across numerous villages where the Bosco Mangal project operates.

In a place like Manipur where the government has been such a dismal failure in providing education to the masses — so much that quite a few insurgent groups had taken up education as their agenda, besides the liberation of Manipur — the Bosco Mangal project has shown the way for both the overground and underground governments of Manipur can learn and try to follow the ideals of St John Bosco, who was born in 1815 and died 73 years later near Turin in Italy. Today, thousands of his establishments across the globe are reaching out to young people in their areas.

The writer is a former Imphal-based Special Correspondent of The Statesman

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/the-salesian-way-in-manipur/

The first of the Goliaths

By Subir Ghosh The first blockbuster in film history was argubaly the fallout of Hollywood’s… more »

By Subir Ghosh
The first blockbuster in film history was argubaly the fallout of Hollywood’s first major ego clash. David Wark Griffith, better known as as a shorter DW Griffith, who had failed to make it big in theatre and had subsequently written scnarios and acted in films of Edison Studios, produced and directed the Biograph film Judith of Bethulia in 1914. This was one of the earliest feature films to be produced in the United States. But Biograph thought that longer films were not viable. They believed that a movie that long (61 minutes) would hurt the audience’s eyes.

Griffith walked out of Biograph with a retinue of actors, and joined hands with Mutual Film Corporation to establish a studio, Reliance-Majestic Studios. The first production of this set-up was called The Clansman (1915), which would later be known as The Birth of a Nation.

It was in July 1914 that Griffith began shooting the twelve-reel film that would have assured him a place in film history had he never made any subsequent film in his career. The Birth of a Nation, the longest feature film thus far (190 minutes at 16 frames/ second) hastened the American film industry’s transition to the feature film. The film was such a smash hit that Griffith spent the rest of his life trying to surpass, defend, or atone for this film.

Till this point, the longest of the feature films would not exceed an hour – Griffith’s cinematic risk changed the industry’s standard in a way still influential today. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission. It broke all box office records but also stirred up controversies in the same breath. Its depiction of slavery / race relations in the Civil War and the Reconstruction era came in for flak from many.

The film was based on Thomas Dixon Jr’s 1905 novel The Clansman, which depicted Southern pre-Civil War slavery as benign, the enfranchisement of freedman as a corrupt Republican plot, and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a band of heroes restoring the rightful order. There were protests over the portrayal of African American men (played by white actors in black paint on faces) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, besides the representation of the KKK as a heroic force. The film was banned in many cities, but still became a blockbuster. It was also the first motion picture to be shown at the White House.

In film history, however, The Birth of a Nation is remembered as groundbreaking for its innovative application of the medium of film. The film earned $10 million in the first year, and over the next 35 years went on to gross $50 million. The social impact nevertheless stayed on – even in the 1970s, the KKK was said to be using this film a recruitment tool.

Critic Roger Ebert has argued about the film: “The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil.”

Griffith went on the defensive. He added some titles on a part of the film during its second run:

A PLEA FOR THE ART OF THE MOTION PICTURE: We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue – the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word – that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

He soon began working on his next Intolerance (1916), as a response to the criticism of his conroversial blockbuster. This relatively unsuccessful film dealt with the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of Babylon; the Crucifixion of Jesus; the events surrounding the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre; and a modern story.

Intolerance, though as expensive as the earlier film, could not match up to the success of The Birth. Griffith was forced to look for other avenues. He joined forces with Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks to establish United Artists in February 1919. The foursome were corced to take this step by Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening control over actor salaries and creative decisions, a process that gradually evolved into the rigid studio system. Hence, the name. The initial plan was to produce five films in a year. But with in the aftermath of the First World War, films were becoming more expensive. To make five quality productions to hit the theatres became a tall order. Griffith quit in 1924.

He made many films in the later years, but major box office success avoided him. He even made two talkies with the advent os sound, and ended his filmmaking career in 1931.

Griffith is not known to have invented new techniques in film grammar, but he was the first to understand how these techniques could be used to create an expressive language. Chaplin called Griffith “The teacher of us all”. The stigma of The Birth of a Nation never really could be washed away with Intolerance. This made Orson Welles remark in chagrin, “I have never really hated Hollywood except for its treatment of DW Griffith. No town, no industry, no profession, no art form owes so much to a single man.”

Debates over Griffith still rage on.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/the-first-of-the-goliaths/

Higher Education in the Northeast: The Disconnects and the Challenges

By Amar Yumnam Higher education in our region has been a major issue of debate… more »

By Amar Yumnam
Higher education in our region has been a major issue of debate and discussion among academics based in the colleges and universities here. By now there seems to be emerging a kind of critical mass deeply involved in the application of mind on this issue. Earlier the discussions on this were confined mostly in private roundtables, but now it has become an issue being taken up for formal public articulation. In fact, in the just concluded thirteenth edition of the Annual Conference of the North East Economic Association held at Assam University, a special session was devoted on evolving a common curriculum for Economics in the region. In this session attended by some of the best minds on the subject in the country and the deeply committed ones from the region, moderating the deliberations on the issue has been an absolutely rewarding exercise personally and a landmark towards contextualising the teaching and research of Economics in the region without sacrificing rigour.

Global Scenario and Our Take: It is heartening to note that every university in the region has been trying to achieve two things in particular in so far as the delivery in the teaching and research on the subject. First, some of the faculty in the region are fully conscious of the imperatives for incorporating rigour at levels competitive enough, if not at par, with the best in the world, and thus ensure a kind of market for the Economics Graduates from the region. Secondly, the leading academics of the region are now fully aware of the successful way of delivering the subject through contextualisation. Now there is collective determination for sharing the successful faculty for widening and deepening the knowledge base of Economics in the region. Even more lovingly, almost all the academics are conscientiously committed to this direction.

This heightened concern and involvement of the academics of the region is particularly significant in the light of what is happening in higher education around the globe. The periods of exclusivism, isolationalism and survival in limited worlds are gone for good. The global higher education systems, particularly in the developed parts of the world, are now endeavouring to find newer and newer ways of addressing the contemporary crises plaguing the world, and take the various disciplines further forward by intensely exploring unchartered territories. The crises in the political and economic systems have served as the push factor as well opportunities for reorienting the various disciplines and empowering the students to take on the challenges for taking the human civilisation further forward.

The Challenges: The higher education system in the region is now at a very critical juncture. The efforts of the last few decades have not gone in vain. In fact, the region now possesses a threshold level of capacity in quite many fields, in which I can be very sure of Economics. But this is no time for complacency but a time to fight on even further, a kind of period for Trojans.

As said above, some of the disciplines (of course Economics is also one) are really exploding in both direction and approaches of study. This is the first major challenge of the academics in the region in so far as the necessity for keeping up with the latest advances and exposing the students of the region to the flavours of the frontier developments. This is not going to be a mean task. Secondly, the time has now come to seriously theorise on the empirical socio-politico-economic issues of the region; a culture for this has to be inculcated among the young researchers of the region. Thirdly, a strong linkage and continuum of seriousness has to be involved right from the undergraduate stage till the end of masters’ or research degrees.

The Approach: While facing the challenges head on the responsibility of the social sciences is particularly high. The region is now passing through a very critical stage of societal transformation with very complex political economic dynamics. In research in social sciences there is the need for catching the moment. While in physical sciences, it may be possible to simulate the real world conditions in a laboratory, it cannot be done successfully and absolutely meaningfully in the social sciences despite the rising application of game theory and experiments in research in such disciplines, particularly Economics. This regional reality has to be dovetailed to the need for keeping up with the latest advances in the disciplines. Achieving this objective cannot be done without a strong policy support accompanied by financial commitments. Further, the time has now come for us to apply our mind on ways for facilitating continuous revisions in curriculum in a way faster than the existing processes. This is particularly so in subjects like Economics, and it did come up for serious articulation in the recent meet of economists of the region.

In all this Manipur has a unique problem. Long years of stagnation and non-involvement in higher education seem to have dulled a particular generation of faculty in the colleges of the State. While they are still in service of the colleges technically speaking, their involvements in academic pursuits and delivery are doubtful. Here we must hasten to add that the silver lining lies with our younger faculty. Unlike the senior colleagues, the younger ones possess greater exposure, higher commitment and healthier dedication to nurturing future minds. We have to evolve a kind of policy which recognises this and see to it that these young academics do not follow the path of their seniors towards dullness.

Wronged Battle

By Bobo Khuraijam Pretentiously enough, Leipung purportedly went into a hiding. We wanted to fashion… more »

By Bobo Khuraijam
Pretentiously enough, Leipung purportedly went into a hiding. We wanted to fashion an identity which would stand out from the crowd. The hangmen on the highway tightening the noose around everyone’s neck helped us fathom an imagination. That it was a right time to strike a pose which would help us look different. Should we inform none of you that the identity of Leipung seemed to be in a crisis? It has been reported that there has been some fake ‘leipungs’ around the corner who nurture a philistine dream to encroach our space. How fake they are, we asked. They said it is deadlier and fakeir than an election promise or an air hostage’s smile. “kibana loirehe, Madhop!”, should we bellow? No. we do not want to add more noise to the already polluted soudscape of the town. Instead of that we should do something different, we thought. Like the tall placid gentleman with a long hair and bell bottom trousers, who shows up as soon as the interval light sunup inside the Imphal Talkies, with deep fried eatables, we thought we could sell eatables to the patrons who are queuing every fuel stations day or night. Those days of “A” certified movies in Imphal Talkies, we enjoyed the eatables from the gentleman Bheiya along with the music of Boney M during the intervals. The engaging smell of ammonia sprinkled by thousands on the wall near the cycle shed would not deter us from enjoying the taste. Could we bring back that entertainment level of service to our patrons in the fuel stations?

MISADVENTURE: Some of our members collected as much umbrellas they could. They tried renting it out to the patrons. Not a single soul hired the umbrellas. They said the umbrella was of no use as it is already winter. Though the blockade started a summer back, it has passed a monsoon: the show is on till this winter. Next, our members collected some quirky items … unused Luna moped, some even without engines or tyres, dried bamboo poles, wooden sticks or…every unimaginable thing in the world were collected. Those things were going to be used in lieu of vehicles to mark their ‘space’ of waiting the Petrol Godot; needless to say that our members made zero profit for hiring out those things. Yet, they got richer with MP3 songs and videos of mobile shots via the blue tooth. It was a perfect place for entertainment exchange. Male patrons giggled watching together the mobile videos, nearby female patrons gave curious glance, as if they knew something about the video. The muted sound of the video must have awakened too many senses. Next number: our members tried selling eatables. Again, nobody cared to buy. Each of the patron had taken a vow that not a morsel of food would be allowed to enter their mouth no matter how starved they were. They said that they would eat only when their fuel tanks got filled up. That was the spirit: A unique solidarity of empty stomach for an empty fuel tank. We reaffirmed how determined the driving patrons are. Aspiring scholars could give a try in finding out the driving force of our driving patrons even with empty stomach and empty tanks. What drives them in spite of emptiness? We assure they would not return empty handed if they find a plausible explanation behind the mystery.

LESSON AFTER: Next we pick up another lucky number; lucky number; lucky number; our members coughed up enough courage to make friends with our black friends. The best option was to get cosy with our leikai hero, Shri Oidabamayum Gandhi Singh, who now drives a white swanky car after doing all black things. The only black thing that he did not try doing was selling charcoal! Our members took several rounds of joint sessions with Gandhi, behind the Mapal Kangjeibung, not only because the place is high profile but it is a liberated zone secured by securities. It was not easy to act smart with him. After all he was already a smart fish. Why would members of the Leipung suddenly get interested in him? This very question was sitting on his tongue. He would not let it go by virtue of his blackmanship. Our members are after all Leipung members. They knew where the softest target was. There is a catwalker from the next Leikai who have won many beauty awards. Today’s space for musing would not be enough to describe her beauty. Allow us the service some other time. Well, coming back to the point, Gandhi falls for this beauty. He would shower her with the most expensive gift in the town. New years, Jeebanitas, Yaoshangs … come what occasion, he would never let go the chance without any gifts. The sad part is she would accept all the gifts but never give an answer to Gandhi’s proposal. Yes or No: only silence. And this is what makes Gandhi a dejected man in spite of his senthok (s). Anybody with his stature would have taken it lightly and start looking for some other queens. He has given all his heart to her. Among our members, one happened to be a distant cousin of the catwalker. Our member assured Gandhi that he would cupid around to make his dream come true. Of course, the brew from CSD canteen was the ice breaker. But then our members had his thamoi gi profile with them. The give and take mantra was followed. One may find us manipulative, scheming up to meet one’s interest. We don’t give a thi. It was a matter of retrieving Leipung’s endangered space. Gandhi showed us the way. The trick was to contact other black friends who have Thao Parmit from the Sarkar. They sell off the permit. That’s how fuels are sold at blood pressure prices. In the name of doing something different, in the name of saving our so called identity, we went out to sell fuel in black. We failed. It was too dark: darker than the meitaan. We got lost in the crowd of black marketers. We convinced ourselves that our uniqueness can never be dwindled. No matter how one may try. Unique like the solidarity between empty stomach and empty fuel tank, enjoyable like the gentleman Bheiya’s eatables, as engaging as the ammonia’s smell; we are back from hiding after two fortnights – unpretentiously.

FOOTNOTE: we heard that recently Taibi and his team were awarded the best improved state. How improved we felt after hearing the news? Leipung Ningthou calls it, “Shanti Das ta Puya ebagi manna pishanba”.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/wronged-battle/