Month: May 2014

By Pradip Phanjoubam

One of most admirable innovations of the newly sworn in BJP government led by Narendra Modi is the manner in which the charismatic though controversial Prime Minister, networked his various ministries, binding one to the other in an “organic” way, as has been described. In the inner circle of power wielders, he appointed politicians of known calibers as cabinet ministers. In the second circle, are the ministers of state, but most of those given independent charges of government departments are also given charge of being junior ministers under a cabinet ministers. Thus an experienced hand is sought to guide a less experienced one but also the experienced hand is also put on the alert that a junior colleague in the same department may outperform him or her.

Although this has not been demonstrated yet, there are also speculations that the new government plans to have a separate minister of cabinet rank to ensure smooth coordination between the various related ministries.

Whatever the criticisms of Modi, so far his government does seem to be fired by a sense of purpose, and if we may add, mission. It remains to be seen if the metaphor of the shadow which Eliot raised to almost the status of a proverb, begins to fall between the plans and their execution. On a cautionary note again, the much admired sense of mission this government exudes with so far, history has proven, can warp into an ultra-nationalistic monster, in total contravention of the liberal understanding of democracy and the welfare state, but nonetheless still coming under the guise of democracy. One does hope these fears prove unfounded, and the new government delivers not a Rightist and ultra-nationalistic agenda but its promise of all round growth and development that the country is starved for at this moment.

Amidst all the extremely well orchestrated and professionally disseminated propagandas which have virtually deluged the Indian media in the current times, it is difficult to figure out the veracity of news and analyses of such a complex subject as determining the political will of a billion and more people. As a matter of fact, the deluge of data and their interpretations by so called dispassionate experts have only accentuated the confusion in the minds of the general consumers of these information. As for instance, on the question of whether the popular verdict to usher in a BJP government with Modi at its helm was a result of a fragmented and polarized electorate or whether instead Modi unified existing divisions in the society, there has been no convincing answers.

Many think Modi paved the way for the electorate to sweep aside differences of caste, creed and colour, all of them finding a common denominator in their shared interest of a promise for a better future for themselves that would result from a growth in the macro economics of the country, a promise for which the media by and large have portrayed Modi as the only capable deliverer, hyping up the example of Gujarat’s fabled growth under Modi as chief ministership. There have been many credible voices against this claim, including by economist John Dreze, an associate of Amartya Sen, and somebody who has devoted his career to understanding the phenomenon of poverty in India. But the “Modi Tsunami”, or “TsuNamo” as again the media sensationally referred to, swept all these voices of dissent aside.

There are others who think election 2014 has actually fragmented and polarized the Indian society even more critically. They explain this is why a party which garnered only 31 per cent of the votes polled could win a clear majority in the Parliament. One of the indications of this divide, especially of the marginalization of the significant other population group of India – that of the Muslim – they say is that all of the meager seven Muslim candidates set up by the BJP all over India, which including the Congress turned BJP, veteran journalist and political chameleon M.J. Akbar, lost. In this regard, it is heartening that the Modi cabinet has a Muslim representative in the former chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah.

Incidentally, the Northeast also has two in the so far 45-strong ministry.

Surprisingly, or should one instead say not surprisingly, the ministry which functions as the nodal agency for all development works in the Northeast, DoNER, has gone to a former chief of the Indian Army. Whether this is for the good or the bad, it would be too early to comment, for indeed, there has never been any guarantee somebody from the Northeast knows the Northeast better in a holistic way. As an Army man who has served in the Northeast, one can almost vouch, at least as far as physical geography and demography spread is concerned, the general would have a better knowledge of the place than many Northeasterner. Whether only this level of knowledge is enough to be a good captain of the places politics, is the million rupees question which will begin to be answered in the next few years.

One thing is certain. The fragmented nature of politics in the Northeast being what it is, the place has seldom thrown up anybody who can qualify to be called a leader of the Northeast. From the pre-partition days, the name of Gopinath Bardoloi is often cited as one who has earned this stature, but though there can be no doubt he was a great leader of Assam fighting for the cause of the Assamese, there can also be no gainsaying that Assam is hardly the Northeast. He saved Assam from the campaign of the Muslim League and its local leader then, Md. Saadulla, also a former chief minister of the state, to have Assam included in Pakistan, but Bardoloi’s politics, premised fundamentally on Assamese nationalism as it was, in the long run resulted in the bifurcation of Assam. The Bengalis of Assam’sBarak Valley too are less than happy with his politics which resulted in Sylhet being bartered away to Pakistan.

In the current times, former chief minister of Nagaland and now an MP from the state, Neiphiu Rio, is mentioned in certain circle as one who has emerged as a leader of the Northeast, deserving to be given charge of the region. Would this claim be endorsed by all of the Northeast by and large? Unlikely. For while Rio is a charismatic leader of Nagaland state, and perhaps of the other Nagas outside of the state too, he is hardly likely to know, much less be interested in the nuances of the politics, aspirations, yearnings, insecurities etc, of the rest of the Northeast. The sectarian nature of his politics was evident in the manner the unsuccessful campaign of his party, the Naga People’s Front, NPF, to garner the Manipur Outer Parliamentary was conducted. In the aftermath of the election loss, he even charged the Nagas of betraying the Nagas in Manipur, revealing his peculiar political vision where Nagas are expected to vote only for the Nagas. In fact, this is the brand of democracy everybody and every other party should avoid to the extent possible.

As a matter of fact, the man Rio accused of sabotaging the Naga vote solidarity, Prof. Gangmumei Kamei, is one person who could have fitted the bill of being a Northeast leader. As a brilliant academician and a respected public intellectual, he is acceptable to not just to the rest of the Northeast, but much beyond. His agenda is informed not by sectarian political outlooks and therefore can see beyond narrow walls of ethnicity and region.

Former Lok Sabha speaker and former chief minister of Meghalaya, Purno A. Sangma, is another. However controversial his party politics may have been in the past, his political commitments is marked by the kind of catholicity of outlook which can make him acceptable to the most of the Northeast. I have distinguished here “party politics” and “political commitment”. He is someone who has been much visible to all the states of the Northeast, having participated in, therefore understands the local campaigns in most of these states.

Though low profile, the universal ideology of his party would have probably made the genial and affable Dr. M Nara of the CPI, an acceptable face too beyond his state.

Very surprisingly, though large and therefore carrying the most clout, Assam has not thrown up leaders who have been able to be Northeast leaders. The state has seen many ministers in the Union cabinet, and even a President of the Union. All of them were very accomplished men no doubt, but none have been able to find a resonance in the Northeast states except in Assam. Sadly, it seems, Assam is too preoccupied with itself. In the intellectual, media and arts circles, there are many Assamese who think Northeast but for some reason or the other, very few politicians are inclined similarly.

This list of possible Northeast leaders is far from exhaustive, but the point one is making is, there are very few leaders in the Northeast who have risen above the confines of their individual states. This probably is another reason, though not the only one, or for that matter the most important one, for this tendency to have somebody away from the Northeast to be chosen as a leader of the Northeast. The marginalization of the Northeast in the consciousness of the Indian mainstream is the most often cited reason for this seeming discrimination, and while not disputing this explanation altogether, the need is also for Northeast leaders to stretch their political visions beyond the confines of their individual states and communities.

Returning to the Modi government’s innovations, though still not tested and proven in practice, the other proposal particularly relevant to Manipur is that of having a full-fledged cabinet ranked ministry to oversee the coordination of inter-related ministries.

Evidence of an abysmal lack of such a coordination and cooperation is stark everywhere. It is common sight, round the year, for instance for the PWD to black top roads and soon after the PHED department to come and dig up these roads to lay their domestic water supply pipelines. If it is not the PHED then it could also be the Telecom department committing the wasteful carnage to lay their underground cables. There probably is nobody in the towns of the state, in particular the capital Imphal, who has not wondered in dismayed amusement, how the government’s right hand does not know what its left hand is doing. It would be highly appreciated if the Manipur government too could come up with some innovative measures to minimize this chaos caused by non-coordination of its related departments.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/does-the-northeast-have-a-northeast-leader/

By Tinky Ningombam

Some people say age is just a number. Sadly all practical theories seems to point otherwise. For people unwilling to face inconvenient truths, a diplomatic truce.

Just a few weeks back, on the eve of her birthday, my dear friend Linthoi went into a depression of sorts lamenting over aging, over the loss of an “era of innocence.” Call her a drama queen, but her words not mine. And I, true to my garb of an empathizing friend, played Oprah and tried to convince her otherwise. I told her about the rich experiences we have had, the maturity we have attained, the wisdom that our age has brought us and the inevitability of linear time and our need to be at peace with it. The futility of arguing with a philosophy scholar is one that only a first-hand experience will demonstrate. For my elaborate opinions gave her more fuel to enter into a debate that not only lasted for hours but managed to make both of us more confused of the presumably “mid-life crisis” that she thought she was having. The same state which I also partook by virtue of being of the same age.

The only good thing that came out of that conversation was our resolve to “never grow old”. That we vouched, we shall remain as true to our young selves and not become middle-aged ergo boring women who only talk about marital woes and skin problems.

Being in the wrong side of 20’s is in fact a slow and treacherous torture, more from peer pressure than anything else. Like someone just dresses you up for stage impromptu and throws you out to play your part without a rehearsal. Where we are expected to “act our age” and give up “behaving like a kid.” And somehow if you don’t, you are judged for being insecure. But that is life I guess, life means just action, no rehearsals.

The entire episode reminded me of Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s book “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. For those who have not had a chance to read it, the story revolves around the “age-less” and quite narcissistic Victorian gentleman called Dorian Gray who wished that he would remain forever young and his face and body would not age a day. That in his place, his portrait picture should be the one to grow older and he was willing to sell his soul for it. In a supernatural turn of events, his wish is granted and he never ages a single day but the portrait does, showing every wicked frown, every heinous scar that his life of debauchery takes him through.

And so it goes, Oscar Wilde’s classic example of the Faustian crossroads that humans always seems to face in life. Are we willing to sell our soul for something that we believe is most important to us? Which in the case of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was Dorian’s everlasting youth which he bargained for, leading him down to the path of crime and immorality. Therefore, making us question how vain we are, for our youth? How important is youth to us that we want to bargain the lines on our face made by a frown, a scar, a smile; signs of all the good and the bad in our lives, signs that tell of our passing time on earth.

A lot of people that I have met over the years have always told me that the only regret that they have about growing up is the loss of innocence. The “metaphorical” innocence or ignorance if I may, that is attributed to childhood. The carefree days where you are not expected to know everything or have an answer, in contrast to when you grow up, when you are expected to know everything and be wise.

But is ignorance indeed bliss? Will we be happier not knowing? Will it be good to forever trust people and be gullible to lies and be naïve to the rest of the world?

I truly think the grass is always greener on the other side. The self-important pain in the neck that I am, I know that I will always be restless to know. To know the answer, to find out the truth, to ask the unquestionable. So will I still want to be ignorant? No, I don’t think so. But has it made me happier to lose my childhood innocence? Of course not.

However I do believe that the protected environment that the most fortunate of children grow up in, not having to worry about earning a living or protecting oneself from physical dangers is an ideal world on its own but which is not the reality of life. The tragi-comic reality is that whatever muck and misery that adults seem to dive into, mingled with some momentary materialistic or man-made pleasures is the life that awaits us when we close that door of uninterrupted bliss. And in my personal opinion, the sooner one comes to terms with that, the better adept one will be to venture forth and prosper.

It is ok to be nostalgic about youth. After all, in youth, you are in the pink of health, you are not bogged down by responsibilities and you look as fresh as a daisy. But that is exactly why you have friends and peers, people who will age the same way as you and have similar ailing. How else will you complain and feel better?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/eternal-youth-anyone/

By Malangba

On Buddha Purnima, I mentioned the name “Gautama” to my wife. Though I cannot claim much knowledge about his teachings I have had an unmistakable attraction towards this historical figure. The romance that I find around this figure could be because of my ignorance of the finer details which are lost to me. Yet, the personality of Gautama never fails to amaze me. The received notion is that his death was due to eating improperly cooked pork, some say mushroom. The details are not that important but the very everydayness of how he died. He died a very ‘ordinary’ death. The mundane, even profane some would say, reasons that led to his death point to the here and now. The way he died has been interpreted in a very interesting manner. Swine and mushroom, cleanses the world of the debris of life. Commentators have made a connection here. Buddha was a cleanser, just like mushrooms which decomposes the dead trees. If not for mushrooms, the world would have been veritable mess. If not for spirits like Buddha, the world would have been a veritable mess. The world now is still a mess but the teachings, the life of Buddha, to many, gives a respite to this veritable mess.

My wife has been critical of this romance that I find in the Buddha, “the enlightened One”, the Tathagata. There is an aspect to her criticism that has kept me thinking. She finds fault with the Buddha’s act of leaving his wife Yashodahara with their only child Rahul. I try to reason out with her that everyone has to make sacrifices, and here the Buddha made a sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. She has a ready answer in “but at the cost of injustice to his family”. I say, “ they also made a sacrifice, they are remembered because their sacrifice was a part of the Buddha’s sacrifice. To that she replies, “ he never asked them, he had to run from home at the dead of night – like a thief!”. Here, I had to pause for a while. I then replied with restraint –“ See, he left them knowing well that they would never face the dearth of anything in life, they were in the palace, she was the wife of the prince, his son was already a prince, he left his family surrounded in the luxury and abundance anyone could desire”. She didn’t bother to answer. But she had already won this duel of words. It did not take much time to realise what the unspoken retort was. The Buddha deprived his wife and son, which nothing in the world could replace.

This realisation that my wife may be right, as was the case in some other cases also, was unsettling. Is there no way to please everyone? If the Buddha was not successful then, perhaps, it will be a difficult proposition for anyone. I tried to find a good answer but none was satisfactory. On one side what my wife pointed out could not be ignored yet my conviction that Buddha did the right thing gnawed on the other end. The solution came from an unexpected telephone call.

I have a friend, whose religious affiliation is hard to determine. He called to inform me that he was in Sikkim to join a Vipassana meditation course of ten days. This, I came to know, was after a prior course of Tantra in Pakhara, Nepal. His was some sort of spiritual quest. The call was two days before Buddha Purnima last month. He came to visit me and my family enroute home, Imphal. He stayed with us for a week. He brought serenity and positive vibes to our home. Somehow his presence was relaxing. He told stories about his experiences with meditative practices and taught me the basics. Every night, when my wife was watching the fights conducted by one very talkative, hysterical and very popular news editor, we spent the evening, before bed time, talking about the importance of silence and such other things. Some of them did not make sense. We made many performative contradictions – talking endlessly about the importance of maintaining Noble silence being just one. We also indulged in some back biting – which I learnt is against moral precepts taught by the Buddha. I learnt many things from my friends in his short stay. But the important thing came the night before his departure.

Somehow, Buddha’s leaving, forsaking, if you please, his family for the answer to the riddle of suffering surfaced in the discussion. My friend enlightened me with the information that this issue was addressed by the Buddha himself by admitting that it was not necessary. What he said was that he erred, he made a wrong decision. To think that we try to pass of as angels when the Buddha himself admitted wrong-doings was another realisation of the illusions that we weave around ourselves. But that’s beside the point. What my friend said dissolved my urge to find an answer, to defend the indefensible act of the Buddha. It was a ready balm to the unsettling question that I was put to answer. I won’t say I was wrong. I shall say my wife was right. Buddha agrees with her.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/swine-mushroom-and-renunciation/

By M.C. Linthoingambee

We sleep a little bit more, we enjoy a little bit more, we feel a little safer and that is all thanks to the soldiers that works day and night to keep us safe. How many times have we all given something without asking for something in return? Drifting our faces into the pages of history we see the footprints of Shubhash Chandra Bose, Chandrshekhar Azad, Shahid Bhagat Singh. These are just the mention of a few for there are many others who gave their lives so that we can have today and tomorrow. “One individual may die for an idea; but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas and dreams of one nation are bequeathed to the next”. These are the words of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So, if we really dream for a better India, maybe we can make it happen? There are many unwritten chapters that still waits in a corner to be discovered by somebody or someone. These hidden stories needs to resurface to relieve the tale again.

The time of the Kargil War in the wake of 1999 took a massive hit on the soldiers with the India and Pakistan fighting it out. There are many who laid their last breath just to leave a safer home for their families, children and most importantly us. The very order of the United Nations states the unprecedented prevention of a world war ever happening again as the wake of the two great world wars left unexpected suffering to mankind. So, why can’t we learn to shake hands and be friendly when we know of the consequences that might occur from our actions? To term it accurately we are more selfish than selfless. So, what has been happening for these soldiers over the years? The early return of the war left rewards for those that left a part of themselves into giving us a safer India which concluded with the promise of a hefty compensation of flats, a job and more. Today in 2014, several years after those days, these promises became blurred and slowly faded with each year that added to not owning up to those liabilities. Some are still waiting for those promises to come true while they run around, knock upon door to door to help them bring home the honor that is due to them. The Times Now Campaign under the #Sacrifice Forgotten is one of those few step that works to help achieve that forgotten faith that gained a voice for these martrys and their families that are struggling to keep their families up and running.

Times Now reported in July 2007 how Colonel Vasanth Venugopal, Commanding Officer of 9 Maratha Light Infantry silenced eight terrorists and in the encounter made the supreme sacrifice of his life. But today, seven years later the martyr’s wife, Subhashini Vasanth is yet to be given what is rightfully hers. The Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has assured that required action will be taken in Subhashini Vasanth’s case and has promised to address many such cases that have been brought to the Government’s notice. With the new Prime Minister at the helm, there is hope that maybe these promises will be made true. The Right to Life and Personal Liberty is one of the growing concerns that lays that all people be granted the same privileges of living a healthy life as all others. So, we will just be going by law in making a person’s life count. It is time that these forgotten heroes be remembered and cherished for their work and not thrown up like a crumpled paper pieces that lays beside our desk. As our birthright, we have all willfully surrendered our rights to the Preamble that reads as follows: “We, the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a (Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic) and to secure to all its citizens:Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;Equality of status and of opportunity; Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the (unity and integrity of the nation); In our Constitutent Assembly this 26th of November, 1949, do hereby, adopt, enact ad give ourselves this Constitution.” These written words at the beginning of the page of the Constitution of India is known by many and written on all school textbooks as a mandatory awareness of knowledge. It states to mean that we stand for our people and not rule over them. These Martrys are citizens same as “You and I” and not robots which can be built and rebuilt at will and adjusted. It is time we defended what was written a long time ago when we fought for our freedom because they are still struggling for that freedom.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/breaking-trust/

By RK Lakhi Kant

On the fringes of the forest
The city begins from here
Vehicles one after the other
Beep, bop, and whir at the red light
A new township coming up
Aware suddenly of the cuckoo singing
While walking towards the red light
A powerful sound, a pitch higher
Than the humdrum of the city
Natural sounds like the cooing
Are superior to the mechanical
Sounds which are the epitome of matter
All noises converge on the cuckoo’s song
The song says, “feel free”, and it is the
Bird’s song on my way out which dilutes
All other sounds produced by the city
Like a forest watch who protects the green land
The bird keeps the city/forest buffer intact
And provides calm to the mind
But somewhere down the line the song
Disappears among the city sounds

Cuckoo 2nd meeting

My way takes me back again to the red light
On another day
This time I find out that the
Cuckoo seems to be impatient, in a hurry
Unlike the last time when it was soft and composed
In its calling
So useless are our endeavors
When the cuckoo starts calling
So cheap all this materialism is
One small clean sound penetrates
And dissolves in a moment
All the cluttering city sounds
A thanksgiving we owe
To the cuckoo for showing we
Cannot be manipulated all the time
By the sounds that drive the city

Cuckoo 3rd meeting

Getting further away from the cuckoo’s song
Carrying the cuckoo in my mind
I head back toward the place I stay
Thinking and becoming more and more
Engrossed in nature’s revelation of its superiority
O! So pleasant this land is
But why is it trying to become a
Graveyard of spirituality
The song exceeds matter and provides a way out into
Aesthetics, spirituality
Ensures something which is positive
And negates the negativity of life in the city
O cuckoo! Unburden my mind from
The depths of materialism
I announce my dependence on nature’s kingdom

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/cuckoo-1st-meeting/