Day: March 30, 2014

By Amar Yumnam

In a recent tribute to one of the best souls in contemporary India, Khuswant Singh, Vikram Seth has written: “At 7 o’clock this evening, though thinking of Khushwant’s death, feeling sad, and sitting in a library writing this, what came to my face was a smile — and I almost reached out for a scotch and soda. This was the hour when one rang his doorbell and was welcomed in — for an hour precisely — before being ‘welcomed out’ again.” I read this piece of Seth while I was pondering on a recent lost of contact with a best friend of mine. The best friend may be in contact or out of contact with us, but he/she would never be and can never be out of our mind.

Policy making in a big and highly heterogeneous, both in demography and geography, country like India should also be characterised by this kind of continuous feeling for the others like us. This should be more so a character for the larger and dominant groups, and for the federal government while generating policies and programmes for the units in the federation. This is paramount in a country where the state formation is still incomplete after seven decades of freedom from the colonial rule. The recent evanescent approach to opening of a Passport Office in Imphal made me more painfully ponder on this issue.

In Imphal we recently had a Passport Mela instead of a Passport Office. A few months back there was a piece in the New York Times, which I read everyday, about a fair in Chicago 183 years ago. It reads; “Museums are monumental; fairs are evanescent. Museums are substantial; fairs are amusements.” Thanks Goodness, Manipuris have not been made items in museums but only attractions in fairs in Passport Mela. But the fact is that the Chicago fair of 183 years ago is now a permanent museum. Hope there is no plan for such. Having nearly exhausted all the pages in my own Passport, I need to approach the Passport Office for additional pages, but I did not visit the recent Passport Mela in Imphal for I consider myself not to be an amusement item.

It is at such a moment of questioning and introspection induced by what happens around the country and within the province that the forthcoming elections to the Indian Parliament have arrived. Except in two instances, I have never had the opportunity to fully participate in the electioneering process in India as they manifest on the soil of Manipur. In most instances, I was always far away from the home soil. In fact, the forthcoming elections for the Indian parliament happens to be the one I am present continuously for the longest period on the eve of it. So I take it as an opportunity to meticulously observe the Indian attitude to Manipur and her people. The recent approach to treating the Manipuris as an amusement item, as exemplified by the two days Passport Mela in the campus of the oldest paramilitary force with historical roots to the reign of the Britishers, is a latest testimony of the Indian government’s approach to the land and people of the region. The forthcoming elections to the Indian Parliament are an opportunity to record the disapproval to such an outlook of the Indian government towards the people and land of Manipur. For Manipur, the earlier elections had been more like a case of having no alternatives but fundamentally toe the traditional line of just follow what the power that be at the provincial level at that point of tie happens to be. But this time the consciousness of the people is definitely more robust than ever, and the widespread awareness of the regional issues and the recognition of the overriding significance of the country-level legislature are higher.

The treatment of the people and land of Manipur as amusement items has been a path dependent phenomenon of the governance of the country. As we all know, one political party has been in power both in the centre and the province except very short interruptions. It has been the ingrained attitude of this political party that the land and people of Manipur are nothing more than amusement items. We need to teach a lesson to this party for various reasons. First, if we allow this principle and the accompanying outlook to continue for long, the continuance of the country as a unified one would not be for long. Second, India needs to nurture the nation-building process sooner than later. Third, there is the compulsion to foster the unique strengths of the country. Manipuris should now exercise the power of democracy to tell the world that the prevailing approach to dealing with the land and people is just not acceptable; the people are looking for an alternative approach to trust building has to be made known. This would be good for both the province and the country.

Happy Cheiraoba to all. Let us start our New Year with a new music and new tone. We have both the rare opportunity and the instrument to be used. Rare things should not be wasted.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/03/development-and-democratic-process-the-choice-and-the-compulsions/

By B.G. Verghese

WHO’s certification of India as “polio free” last week is truly something to cheer. The country’s health workers and Rotary International that helped fund the campaign deserve grateful thanks. But we have not merely to remain polio-free but fight and overcome many other killer and debilitating diseases, malnutrition and insanitation. The Supreme Court has once again “ordered” that manual scavenging be abolished under the 2013 law and scavengers be swiftly and satisfactorily rehabilitated.  But who cares? Gross failure must be recorded across parties whose priorities are very different, pieties apart. Which party has made eradication of manual scavenging a poll priority in what is turning out to be an increasingly dirty, slanderous and indecorous general election being largely fought by casteists, communalists, criminals, footloose party-hoppers and self-serving “leaders”.As well said by the poet, “if every man got his deserts, then who should escape whipping!

The other major accompaniment to electoral dirt is mounting violence: Maoist, cross-border inspired, and slander. Manifestoes have been put out but these are for the most part pro forma essays for the record, devoid of true purpose.

Another positive development has been the Supreme Court’s order, following a report by a panel headed by Justice MukulMudgal on alleged spot-fixing and betting scandals in the BCCI-sponsored Indian Cricket Premier League. The man in the eye of the storm is N. Srinivasan, President of BCCI and Chairman of India Cements Ltd which sponsors the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and several of its players, including the Indian captain, M.S.Dhoni who is one of its vice-presidents. Srinivasan had stubbornly refused to recuse himself until such time as the charges against the BCCI and his son-in-law, GurunathMeiyappan of India Cements have been independently investigated and cleared. The Court has now ordered that Srinivasan shall relinquish charge of BCCI and Mieyappanbe precluded from any association with CSK until further notice. It has transferred charge of the BCCI to Sunil Gavaskar under whose guidance the 2014 IPL tournament will be played from April 16 onwards.

The Mudgal Committee has also disbelieved Dhoni’s testimony that Meiyappan was only a “cricket enthusiast” and not a team official who indulged in betting. The Court has not questioned Dhoni’s captaincy on this account nor disqualified CSK and the Rajasthan Royals for the corruption charges levelled against them. These matters will be decided after due deliberation.  These are wise decisions intended to maintain the integrity of Indian cricket, cut out the sleaze and restore the sport to Indian cricket fans from corrupt elements.India finances a large part of international cricket, such being the size of its market. It must therefore play straight bat. Unfortunately there has been a tendency to convert cricket, like much else, to commerce. IPL has come to be controlled by a cabal of politicians, moneybags and other influentials who have used sport to sell their own privatepolitical or business agendas. The Supreme Court’s bold intervention will hopefully surgically excise the cancer.

For the rest, the news remains grim. That Maoists are out to disrupt the poll is no surprise. What continues to surprise is continuing policy ham-handedness.  Naxalism is more than a law and order problem. The legal, administrative, developmental and human rights framework in which it must be tackled is decrepit and confused. Few have the time or the inclination to do what is needed. Strong presidential intervention could help give momentum to the reforms that are necessary. Political illiteracy on the subject is gross as is seen by the banal electoral rhetoric on the subject if it is mentioned at all.

Perhaps more worrying is the stepped-up cross-border intervention from Pakistan not only in the form of jihadi attacks in J&K as in more dangerous efforts by ISI-sponsored sleeper cells operating through the Indian Muhajideen to stage terrorist  attacks in sensitive areas, stoke communal polarisation and communal violence, disrupt orderly elections and the polity more generally. The IM’s local leadership is now fully in the net after its current operational head, Waqas orTehseenAkhtar alias Monu was recently arrested at Naxalbari.

Unfortunately, the communal undertones of the poll campaign by the major parties are singularly perverse. The RSS Parivarhas called for a consolidation of the “Hindu” vote. Western UP, especially the area surrounding is yet emotionally-smouldering as is Muzaffarnagarand various temple towns. If the BJP nominated a communal thug like PramodMuthalik of the Ram Sene and then expelled him under pressure, it did the same with Sabir Ali, just expelled from the JD(U), who BJP vice-president, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed an associate of the IM terrorist, YasinBhatkaland then asked if Dawood Ibrahim would be admitted next? The Party quickly expelled Sabir Ali. But who admitted him in the first place and why?

Modi also crudely derided India’s three “AKs”, namely, AK-47’s,AK Anthony and AK-49 or ArvindKejriwal (referring to his tenure of 49 days as a chief minister)for providing “unique strength to Pakistan”. Not to be outdone, the Congress nominated Imran Masood as its candidate from Saharanpur but expelled him a day later after he commented that in Gujarat there were only four per cent Muslims. But were he to stage a riot in Saharanpur, the 42 per cent Muslim population here would “chop him into tiny pieces”

Elsewhere Jaswant Singh has been expelled from the BJP for insisting on fighting the Barmer seat against the official party candidate, while in Amritsar, NavjotSidhu, who formerly contested from there, has refused to campaign for the new party incumbent, ArunJailtey.

Further afield, India wisely abstained in the UNHRC vote on Lanka as it found the rather wide-ranging UN probe recommended by the US too intrusive. The vote was 23 in favour, with 12 against and 12 abstaining. While human rights are vital, they cannot be made an instrument of western coercive diplomacy.

In this grim scenario, SharadPawar’s jokes are improving by the day. Some time back he boasted of spending far in excess of the CES’s poll ceiling. He has now advised mathadi workers (head loaders) to avail of the differingpolling dates at their place of residence and pace of work (Navi Mumbai) to vote twice by erasing the indelible ink mark on their left index finger in the intervening period. Asked to explain this ardent advocacy of bogus voting, the NCP President and Agriculture Minister cheerfully described his remark as a joke. India’s population must be full of dullards who did not catch his brilliant humour unaided. The CEC would be advised to bar this senior leader from holding any elective or public office for six years. Harsh? No. The electorate will surely applaud the superior joke!  Ashok Chavan is also showing a rising humour graph. Modi, of course, remains in a class by himself.

www. bgverghese. com

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/03/only-shrill-abuse-now/