Tag: Editorial

Leader writer: Leivon Jimmy
The education atmosphere in Manipur never gets better, and apparently will never be.

Proving this point would not be a hard topic for anyone especially denizens of the state who have witnessed unique forms of agitation every now and then.

One of the most unfortunate and grim realities creating worse case scenarios out of the educational system are ‘we’ sons/daughters of the soil. Our reckless acts have always been posing as a threat to the career of students’ community.

The most glaring and effective example at the moment is the ongoing agitation demanding separate district for Sadar hills. The agitation has given enough hardship to the general public but the most important issue remained the career of thousands of students, who have been deprived the right to education for over a month now. Around 7000 students of 136 schools, alone in Saitu-Gamphajol sub-division, are at stake.

The educational institutes have been paralyzed for more than a month now but there seems to be no immediate measures in sight to save this lot from both ends (the agitating and government).

To mention some ground realities, Children are using the National Highways as their playgrounds. They were seen running along the highway in packs carefree. The most shocking discovery is that the phrase “an idle mind is devil’s workshop” fits in very well, as these children started to even mimic the blockade supporters.

Looking back to the past, the people have seen similar deprivation but much worse, the educational system in the state especially in valley districts were paralyzed for several months in protest against the July 23, Kwairamband incident. The July incident has already created a huge gap in the academic career of a generation, huge enough that many fears what the future holds.

Keeping aside these two issues, there are frequent strikes, bandh, blockade annually on many issues, most of them does not relax educational institution from the purview of the agitation. And still there are more issues ahead of us that could bring similar fate on academic atmosphere.    

It is questionable, is it really necessary to deprive the students of their right to study however genuine the demand is?. Students are considered the future pillar of our society but if the pillars are weak will our society be stable?.

Where is the Right to free and compulsory education act passed by the parliament on August 4, 2009, providing provision of free and compulsory education to children from 6 to 14 years.

If we are serious enough, this is the high time that all the section of the society including the government, to put a full stop to the trend of unnecessarily disturbing educational institutions in any issues. So that we could pass down a whole new legacy to the next generation free of gambling students lives and career.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/where-is-the-right-to-education/

Leader Writer: Hrishikesh Angom
The educated unemployed youths of our state have bestowed some faith in the state government after the declaration of recruitment result of 503 graduate teachers under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikshya Abhiyan (RMSA). Although the recruitment process was not that proficient, the result could be written in golden letters in the history of the state. It has been a notion that government jobs in the state are purchasable at a certain specific rate, say ten lakh rupees for some grade-I post or five lakh for grade-II. Majority of our youths remain dejected while only some fortunate could procure jobs by paying the requisite amount. This has been in vogue for quite a long time. However, the RMSA result could be regarded as a “revolutionary” step taken up by the state government towards establishing confidence among the educated unemployed youths. Many proficient youths have been selected as graduate teachers without spending a single paise. We have much faith in them that they will work with dedication to bring a radical change in the education scenario of the state unlike the previous years. Among those successful candidates, many possess master’s degree with consistent good academic records besides the prerequisite qualification of B.Ed. Notably some candidates are also PhD degree holders who are well-qualified to teach at the university level. This new recruitment policy has indeed rejuvenated hope and aspiration among the youths. Many might have languished if they were not given such opportunity this time.

The dark side of this new recruitment policy is that malpractices are still going on in some examination centres in far-flung areas. Mass copying, impersonation etc. are very much prevalent in these centres. Quite often students from urban areas moved to these centres and turned up with flying colours in examinations. In the midst of such practices, those successful candidates cannot be judged exactly as “qualified teachers”. There may possibly be many candidates who have scored high marks using all sorts of unfair means. Nevertheless, such recruitment policy is a step towards curtailing “corruption” in the most controversial department of education (schools).

It will be more appropriate if the authorities concerned formulate more proficient recruitment policy free from corruption and nepotism. The youths are the backbone of the society and hence healthy competition must be encouraged among them. Corruption has really disturbed the minds of our youths. This has been going on for quite a long time. Our society may perish soon if the youths are made to go this way. The government cannot alone fulfill all needful things for the youths, but then things like corruption free job recruitment will at least give a ray of hope to them. Only RMSA will not work. There should be transparency in every competitive and job recruitment examination. RMSA recruitment should be an exemplary approach. The youths have much greater expectations than this.

The government should better keep up the aspiration of the youths by ensuring corruption free competitive examinations. The RMSA result is just a trailer. The full picture is yet to be presented by the government. This trailer has lit up the faces of many youths who have nearly lost faith in the present system. The government should think seriously on this matter. Corruption can be rooted out if the government employees are recruited in a more transparent manner. The newly recruited teachers of RMSA will think twice before moving way from their responsibilities. The buyer-seller type of relationship between the government and the employees will eventually come to an end if the recruitment is made purely on merit basis. The youths will surely welcome the change with great expectations from the government.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/great-expectations/

Leader Writer: Sukham Nanda
The issue over the present Sadar Hills districthood demand in the state is becoming more sensitive day by day as the issue seems to be tending towards the communal line following continuous pouring of total oppositions from different sections of Naga communities of districts of the state to the demands of the Sadar Hills Demand Committee keeping Sadar Hills as one of the full fledged revenue districts by the state government.

The agitation of Sadar Hills Demand Committee by launching indefinite economic blockade along the existing National Highways of the state which are the only life lines of the people has completed 20 days today as a result the common public in the state have started facing serious grievances due the continuing reduces on the stocks of different essential commodities in the state and subsequent rise of prices of various commodities in the main markets at present. But how long such situations of the state will continue to the state, this is the common questions raise by the common public of the state.

It would be tough time for the state government to deliver the present demands easily even though the state Chief minister O Ibobi Singh  himself recently claimed that, whatever demands made by the Sadar Hills Demand Committee was genuine, but it would be right decision for the state to allow continuation of economic blockade along the existing National highways for so long and letting the common people suffer. There must be a solution to each and every problem which the state government need to find out before matter is affecting to the entire administration of the state.

State government need to recall the past similar instance of serious effects on the entire administrations of the government during last year prolonged economic blockade along the National highways of the state called by the Naga bodies for their certain demands. Who knows the present economic blockade will more terrified than last year economic blockade called by the Naga bodies. Time has come for the state government spell out utmost sincerity and ability to solve existing problems before it is too late.

On the other hand, the issue of Sadar Hill due to the emerging of strong opposition from the Naga bodies has added more complex and the very demand itself is now letting the general public to take as demands of a particular Kuki community. The motive behind the unprecedented claims of total opposition by the Naga bodies against the declaration of Sadar Hills as full fledged district seems adding fuel to the fire upon the state government, and declaration of extending support to Sadar Hills Demand Committee by the different Kuki bodies from various districts of the state are questionable, and which can be now openly term as issue of communal tension which the state government need to be worry.

It may be mentioned that, the people of the state specially the two major ethnic communities, Kukis and Nagas have experienced the sorrows and hardship in the past during ethnic clash from then onward elders of both communities have been still praying the lord for not return of such incidents in the future, but who knows the issue over the Sadar Hills may be another reason for reoccurring of the similar events that had taken place in the past.

Considering the complicacy of the issue of Sadar Hills state government need to tackle the issue delicately as technically as the issue has become amounting to communal issue at present and same time the peace lovers Kuki and Naga brothers to sincere to withdraw their present steps a little backward and reconsider for bringing an amicable solutions through dialogue or through joint gathering so that peace of mind can bring be prevailed to all common people of the state.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/dont-let-sadar-hills-issue-be-the-cause-of-another-communal-flare-up/

It is forty three days now since Manipur has been under another siege, yet the any substantive action on the part of the state government is conspicuous by their absence. There are certain matters of the law and its breach that cannot at any cost be allowed to go out of the hands of the government, and ensuring the highways are free of all barriers, manmade as well as those caused by natural disasters. This is even more so for landlocked regions. If a similar blockade was happening at the international level, it would have been clearly interpreted as an act of war. Yet the government continues to drag its feet on tackling the issue. If the state government is unable to handle it, the option of Article 356 of the constitution must have to be resorted to, and a brief spell of Central rule brought in. Even in the face of a complete administrative breakdown, if the Central government continues to turn a blind eye just because this is a state under the Congress and thus a feather in the cap of the Ruling party at the Centre, the blame for all the misery heaped on the ordinary people must be shared by it in equal measures. To break this prolonged impasse what is called for now is decisive action by the authorities, both in the state as well as the Centre.

What the government must also be cautious of is that it could come to a stage when the people by and large begin to take the matter into their own hands. So far, thankfully, there have been very little signs of public unrest. Hopefully this does not happen, but when the ground has been made dry as cinders, a little spark can cause infernos. A few days ago, there were rumours that two truck drivers were brutally killed on the highways causing deep concerns of dormant communal animus being shaken awake. The rumours were proven false and the matter put to rest quickly, thanks to the police which was prompt in ascertaining the truth of the matter. But the incident should have alerted the government of the dangers. In the face of the extreme difficulties, people would be touchy and ready to believe trouble mongers and alarmists, and this can have grave consequences. It is however praiseworthy that the people of the state have shown exemplary maturity every time they collectively came to be under stressful spells like the current one. In the past, be it violent strikes in the valley that crippled life in the entire state for weeks or blockades of the state’s lifelines in the hills, angry and annoyed as they all were, they never allowed a total degeneration of communal sanity to give way to mayhem and chaos.

This however does not mean the government should take things for granted. Every day is a new day and there is no saying public response to similar situations will always remain the same. A few days ago the government issued warnings that it would file FIRs against the leaders of the agitation for the creation of a separate SADAR Hills district on the ground of their call for an armed struggle to have the government concede to their demand. However past experience would have informed everybody, including those on whom the charges have been slapped, that this is just another gimmick and one which will not be executed in earnest. There are also some PIL’s coming up at the High Court not on the issue of the district demand, but on the agitation’s fallout of strangulating the state. There can be no argument that the court would strictly adhere to how the law defines the matter and disregard the politics behind it. In all likelihood, the blockade leaders would be summoned to appear before the court to explain their action, which it is again predictable, would not be honoured by the latter. The state government then would be directed to do the needful, and accordingly the police would issue arrest warrants against the named persons. The latter would go into hiding, and long after the issue has been settled the court orders would remain unrevoked but forgotten by everybody. The script has been replayed so many times before and the repetitive cycle has transported the situation to the realm of the absurd. When will the law of the state ever come to be in the full grip of the government? With those in the government continuing to be the first to breach the law, literally and in spirit, thus surrendering their moral authority to rule, this is unlikely to be in the near future. Pertinently, when will the different communities in the state ever come to see things rationally and not always through lenses jaundiced by narrow communal and ethnic considerations? The real hope for the state must come from them, our leaders having abdicated every public responsibility they were entrusted with.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/still-no-end-in-sight/

Life in Manipur ceased to be something to be exulted a long time ago. In its place we have today the protest culture. And hence there is never a week that passes without some form of a protest bandh or rally or strike. Again, except for our religious festivals, not many of the days we observe as holidays or else as simply a day to be remembered, are actually in the real sense of the words, celebrations. Most of these are observed in recollection of dark and tragic events. The state’s calendar year hence is dominated “dark days,” “gloomy days,” and “protest months”…. Then there are of course the predictable general strikes, as for instance on January 26 and August 15, apart from a horde of other absolutely impromptu strikes and bandhs, that are immediate responses to developments that are not upto the liking or taste of any given group big and small. While we do not deny that all these reflect the condition of Manipur today, it is also true that we have inherited an oppressive negativism in our attitude to life. The forward looking outlook that eggs individuals as well as entire people to ever increase their levels of achievement, have been eclipse. This, we have no doubt, is a recipe for ultimate social disaster. Unless we overcome it, doomsday cannot be far away.

It is true we are in bad times. Even if it is again true that all this is not of our own making, we must find ways to make progressive action and thought exist side by side of the protests and struggles. Otherwise, we cannot hope to open up our horizon to a brighter future. We are tempted to refer to the famous existentialist vision of life as a never ending struggle, as so aptly illustrated by the Sysiphus hyperbole, in which Sysiphus the figure from the Greek mythology is seen pushing a rock up a hillside in Hades as a punishment. If Sysiphus slackens the rock slips. If Sysiphus gives up, he   would be crushed. The only real option left before him is to keep pushing the rock up, even though he never knows where the summit is, and when he can ever find time to relax. The trouble with this kind of a vision of life is, it is suffocatingly intense. Although there is much truth in it, we still are inclined towards the romantic. Life is multifaceted and offers immense possibilities. The sense of urgency in the picture of Sysiphus struggling up the hillside allows no room for appreciating life’s myriad other offerings. And in the process our vision of life also gets narrower and narrower, until it is reduced to just the rock ahead…. and tragically nothing beyond.

We are today caught in the Sysiphus trap. Apart from what is immediately before us, we have no energy left for any kind of creative pursuits, or even to visualise alternative and more fruitful routes we can take to the future. Everything around us has become so drearily prosaic, and with such predictable narrative depths. This is reflected in our present day literature, poetry, song lyrics, shumang lilas, movies and even a greater part of our theatre. Protests and resistance, are all very well, but when they are carried out without offering a safe and productive outlet, can become so wasteful, destructive, and self consuming. By the awesome circumstance we are exposed to, our collective vision seems to have been dwarfed by our obsessive preoccupation with the present. We would not even call the situation explosive, for there is a picture of expansion and spread of energy in it, even if in a violent way. On the other hand, we would much rather prefer to describe the situation as implosive, where energy absorbs itself and everything collapse inwards and disappears into the depthless void of a black hole.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/inherited-negativism/

This is getting uncouth. Manipur is under a siege yet again because its lifelines have been blocked off first by agitators demanding the Sadar Hills sub-division of the Senapati district be upgraded to a full-fledged district, and now by United Naga Council, UNC, and its supporters amongst the Naga population in the state to oppose the demand. Quite unfortunately, the UNC is even insinuating that the demand for Sadar Hills district is part of a sinister divide and rule policy by the Government of Manipur. Although this was unsaid in so many words, the implication was also that all this is a result of machination by the dominant community and dwellers of the valley districts, the Meitei community. This is above of all, truly ridiculous. At this rate, it will not be long before the valley is blamed for poor monsoon or bad harvest as well. Rhetoric aside, let the government take this development seriously and come out with a comprehensive white paper on investment and government employment patterns in the state to see the nature of discrepancies and then to fix responsibilities as to who contributed or were the agents in bringing about this mess. As for activists and others keen to see dark and sinister motives in everything that happens in Manipur, it is advised they also sometime make use of the provisions of the RTI to get hold of actual government documents to see what kind of developmental funds have been earmarked for the different regions of the state and who were given the responsibility for their use before jumping the gun and pointing fingers.

The legacy introduced by the colonial administration of the British vintage still lives on. In particular the practice of administrative and political demarcation of the hills of the Northeast into “excluded” and “partially excluded” territories may have had their use in a colonial set up and perhaps even now, but they are also creating problems. Under this system, the plains generally were administered by general colonial laws but the other two types of territories were placed under special law that for one made these territories reserved for the tribals living in them and visits by outsiders to these area allowed under special permits alone. This system also excluded tribal areas partially or totally from the political and administrative processes under the broad policy philosophy of leaving them alone as long as they do not harangue British subjects or British administered areas. While laws of varying strength reserving tribal territories may be still desirable in order to protect the interest of the tribals, what cannot be forgotten is this would also have negative implications. While tribals coming under generally administrative region would not cause any constitutional problems, non-tribals coming under special administrative regions for tribal can cause serious ones. The case of Jiribam has been raised by so many, saying this small patch of plain area inhabited dominantly by non tribals should be merged to either Tamenglong or Churachandpur which are adjacent to it, just as Moreh is a part of the Chandel district. Moreh so far is not a problem because its population are by and large traders with little or no interest in politics, but the moment any non-tribal resident here begins to nurture political ambition and starts asking for the right to contest in elections from the Tengnoupal Assembly constituency or the Outer Manipur Parliamentary constituency, serious problems would arise, social as well as constitutional. If denied, it would amount to a breach of what arguably is the most major democratic right guaranteed by India’s republican constitution or for that matter any republican constitution – the right to franchise. Jiribam under either of the two tribal districts would pose the same problem.

Sadar Hills, under the circumstance should not have had any problem, at least constitutionally and administratively. It would have been two reserved districts made out of one reserved district. The problem here therefore is more ethnic as everybody is witness now, and little or nothing to do with any consideration of administration. The diagnosis being such, perhaps it would do well for the government to address it as such too. But as of now, the government seems to be, as has become its wont, simply waiting and watching for the storm to pass without thinking of lifting a finger to face the developing crisis. If things continue the way they are, and prices of essential commodities continue to climb towards the sky, the situation could get volatile and tempers of those at the receiving end may reach a flashpoint. Presuming nothing improves, who knows, the closing act of the Okram Ibobi government may be a transition to the emergency constitutional provision of President’s Rule to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/a-tale-of-two-districts/

Leader Writer: Hrishikesh Angomcha
Considering the limited number of postgraduate seats offered by Manipur University in its own campus, the state government should initiate the task of opening up postgraduate courses in the colleges. As of now, DM College of Science is the only government college to have opened up PG courses. Thousands of students graduate every year from various colleges, but then only few hundreds of them could pursue postgraduate studies in the state. The limited number of seats in Manipur University is a big challenge to the students. No doubt, the level of competition is high as thousands of students vie for admission to few hundreds seats for postgraduate courses.

The state education department should chalk out ways and means to offer higher education to maximum number of students. The only way to offer postgraduate studies to more number of students is to open up various PG courses in the colleges of the state. However, it is not an easy task for the state government to do all at once. The government should at least consider opening up PG courses in colleges like DM College of Arts, DM College of Commerce, GP Women’s College and Imphal College where enrolment of students is relatively high. With such arrangement many students will be able to pursue postgraduate courses in the colleges other than in Manipur University.

Even the regional campuses of IGNOU and IGNTU could not accommodate many students. The number of seats for PG courses in various colleges and universities of the state should be increased to accommodate the growing number of students graduated every year. Moreover, not many students could afford to study in other universities outside the state. So, the government should consider opening up PG courses in the colleges as soon as possible.

According to the preliminary census report of 2011, the literacy rate of the state stands at a staggering 74 percent which is even higher than the country’s overall literacy rate. However, this high percentage of literacy rate could not contribute much to the human resource development of the state. The education department should enhance human resource of the state by focusing more on quality rather than quantity of education. Like the elementary education the government should try to ensure higher education to each and everyone so that every person would be able to contribute significantly to enhance human resource of the state.

Besides PG courses various job-oriented courses must also be introduced in the colleges. The students would benefit a lot if such courses are opened up in the colleges. The outflow of students from the state would eventually come down if the education department works in the real interest of the students. The state government needs to put more emphasis on higher education sector as there has been laxity on the development of colleges for the last many years. The students must be encouraged to pursue higher studies by providing better facilities and conducive academic atmosphere.

Therefore, the state government should try to develop the infrastructures of the colleges as early as possible to impart quality education to the students. PG courses must be opened up in the colleges soon to boost human resource development of the state. The authorities of Manipur University should also consider increasing number of seats to various PG courses. Thrust to higher education sector will expedite the progress and development of the state. After all the students are the future pillars of the society.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/open-up-pg-courses-in-colleges/

That Manipur is in a mess today is more or less a truism. Consequently the tearing dilemma the chief minister, Okram Ibobi would be in is also unenviable. Even as the demand for a separate SADAR hills district intensified, with the agitators resorting to blocking off the main lifeline of the state, the Imphal-Dimapur road at Kangpokpi, in anticipation that the agitators may have their way, the United Naga Council, UNC, has imposed its own blockade along all the other highways that lead out of the state, thus effectively cutting off the state from the rest of the country. Thankfully though, Imphal is now very well connected to the rest of the country by air, thus offering some consolation at least for passengers. The widely held anti-valley, anti-Meitei attitudes of hill communities is also making the situation worse, as is evident from some of the press releases by the latter which try to portray the tussle between the SADAR hills district demand and those opposed to it (or more bluntly, between the demand for the creation of a new Kuki dominated district and Nagas’ opposition to it), as machination of the valley people or Meiteis. The most bewildered by this development obviously are the latter.
Under the circumstance, whichever way the chief minster inclines his decision, it is going to be seen as biased, thereby held as a legitimate reason to impose the only thing agitators in Manipur have come to know doing well, impose a blockade, bandh or boycott, all of which essentially mean the same atrocious act of disrupting life of the general public in the hope that this would coerce the government to do the agitators’ biddings. It is not entirely impossible those at the receiving end of this tussle, the valley to be precise, may also begin to lose their patience, and that will be when Manipur returns to the dark ages.

The government at this moment seems clueless as to how to tackle the problem and understandably so too. But this notwithstanding, the situation cannot be allowed to slip any further. If at all the government cannot find a way out quickly, as was suggested by a former president of the ruling Congress party, the emergency constitutional provision under Article 356 must be invoked and President’s Rule imposed in the state. This is not so much about punishing the government for allowing the situation to go out of hand leaving the state with the distinct possibility of completely descending into total chaos, but instead of finding a way out of the present dangerous problem.

It will be recalled there have been examples of what a PR dispensation can do which elected government simply cannot. This is especially so when it comes to matters of mediating or else of taking the state administration into areas that are in opposition of either ethnic or vote bank interests. Central rule being deemed to be neutral to these considerations, it can push sensitive issues much harder. Furthermore its tough gesture would be free from allegations of any valley or hill biases, imaginary or otherwise. The most prominent of these examples is the manner in which the PR government under former Governor, Gen. (retd.) V.K. Nayar, when he undertook the decision to clear the Palace Compound of encroachers from some hill districts who had actually converted the Hapta Polo-ground into a shanty town. No popular government had dared to do this or would have dared it either, because of the ethnic and political implications the action would have carried. There would also have been pulls and pushes from within the government with concerned MLAs opposing the move. The present situation is evolving to be of the nature. Since amidst the bitter ethnic distrusts displayed so far, it would be difficult if not impossible for the present popular government to resolve the crisis, let a PR administration do it. Even if the district creation issue is deferred, the PR administration would be in a much better position to forcefully open up the highways so that life returns to normalcy in the state, and any danger of ethnic tensions escalating is kept under control. The 11th session of the 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly is beginning shortly. If a comprehensive plan to resolve this crisis is not thrashed out during this session, we for one would like to see a resort to the only trump left in hand – Presidents Rule, to tackle the issue. The important point is, a humanitarian crisis resulting out of all these blockades must be avoided at all cost, for the price to be paid if the situation reaches a critical point and tempers explode on the streets everywhere in the state, would be too heavy for everybody.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/is-pr-the-way-out/

The fact that a personal decision of Irom Sharmila is now seen as a threat to the campaign against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, in Manipur is a demonstration of the strategic and structural flimsiness of any protracted struggle to resort to hero worship. It has to be said that Sharmila’s direct followers are guilty of having done this to a great extent. Even if it is not hero worship, they had built their campaign with her as the major, if not the only prop. The approach should instead have been to see Sharmila as a star campaigner, but not the heart and soul of the campaign, but unfortunately, for whatever their reason, this route was not given much importance. And so a single report of Sharmila’s love affair with a hitherto unheard of man, and her reported statement that she is disillusioned with her followers, which appeared in The Telegraph September 5 issue, displayed prominently as the Page-1 lead story, caused so much trepidation and even the fear that the campaign against the AFSPA would lose much of its steam. We hope this does not happen and the movement is able to find new legs that could do with but did not absolutely need Sharmila as a prop if she at all becomes unavailable. Indeed, the myriad human rights organisations actively involved in the campaign must now take time off to rethink, retrospect and reorient their future strategies. Meanwhile leave Sharmila to be where she wants to be.

But increasingly confounding is also the reason why The Telegraph chose to give so much prominence to Sharmila’s declaration of her very personal affair. This is even more intriguing for in all of the 11 long years she has been staging her protest fast, even on the day she completed the 10 year landmark, she was not seen as deserving headline space by this newspaper. Many other newspapers and television channels even ignored the event. So why this sudden interest in her personal affairs, even though it is clear she was the one who revealed it to the journalist who did the report. The timing, whether by design or coincidence is also curious for only a few days earlier the Union home minister, P Chidambaram had announced in New Delhi that the government was considering a review of the AFSPA. Moreover a reflected halo form the Anna Hazare blitzkrieg in New Delhi was beginning to hover over Sharmila, signifying perhaps liberal India’s conscience was being awoken, and the issue of AFSPA was beginning to attract national attention. It was in the midst of this that the story of Sharmila’s love affair butted in rudely. The story was heart warming no doubt despite the hiccups caused by a passage suggesting Sharmila was having very serious differences with her supporters, still the question of its timing as well as the prominence given to it, would undoubtedly make many suspicious that it may have motives other than plain journalistic calibration of news value. Thankfully however, it does now seem the sensational revelation is unlikely to sidetrack the anti-AFSPA campaign.

The development also should bring back the old debate of whether leaders make situations or the situations make leaders. The Sharmila case should again highlight the need to find the right balance between two. Leaders with vision give any movement the right focus and charisma, but it is also equally true that it is the peculiarities of a given situation which throws up a leader. For instance it is unlikely Gandhi could have happened in the 18th Century or Abraham Lincoln in the 20th Century. However, it would be wrong to also dismiss the contribution of human agency in shaping event and indeed history. If everything were to be predetermined by circumstance and leaders too were forged only by the impersonal forces of history, as Isaiah Berlin noted in “Crooked Timber of Humanity” a difficult ethical situation would arise whereby it would become impossible to hold anybody accountable for history’s many atrocities. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and all the other mass murderers of history would then appear to be no more than quasi-tragic figures, compelled by historical circumstances to do what they did. In this context, Pol Pot who killed two million of his countrymen in the span of a decade of his rule, believed what he did was for the good of his country even on his deathbed as became evident in what was to be his last interview by Far Eastern Economic Review. It would thus be prudent for the human rights movement in the state to assess the situation arising out of Sharmila’s changed emotional constitution from this light.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/leaders-and-followers/

When it comes to gender equality, Manipur is a land of contradiction. In many ways Manipuri women are much more liberated. Traditionally they have been economically independent and as in any agrarian society, they participated in the same occupations as their men folks. This is except in matters of soldiering, and there are in fact explanations that traditionally women in the state are vitally involved economic activities and in keeping the family hearth burning precisely because at times of wars, able bodied men automatically were conscripted into the state’s fighting forces. Since wars and raids were frequent, it became essential for the women to fill in and do the needful to keep the economy of the place standing. That the tradition of women shouldering the major part of the responsibility of taking care of family needs has hung on even after the advent of the modern economy is a failure of the tradition from growing with the demands of the time thus making itself anachronistic and redundant. What is also true is, while a traditional woman in Manipur would be much more independent and liberated than a traditional woman in most other parts of sub-continental India, the same is hardly true of the modern woman. Manipur, and indeed the entire northeast would fall far behind in this. Just considering the example of women leaders who emerge on the political horizon would be evidence. Again, the power of women in Manipur in the traditional sense is witnessed in the Meira Paibi movement, the most recent climactic demonstration of this power was on July 15, 2004 at the Kangla Gate in the now famous naked protest by 15 women. In many ways Irom Sharmila is another demonstration of this same phenomenon.

It is in the transition of this traditional strength to the modern incarnation of the Manipuri woman that the curtain has fallen. For evidence, look at the Manipur State Legislative Assembly. In the current one, there is only one woman MLA, and this too almost by default. Had the lady not been the wife of the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, it is unlikely she would have made it. In this sense, it can almost be said the lone seat occupied by a lady was won by the chief minister and thus it is his second seat in the Assembly. In other words, there is a woman in the Assembly only in form but in spirit it is a man’s seat, making it not altogether incorrect to say that in actuality there is no independent woman representative in the current Assembly. Compare this with traditionally conservative states like Rajasthan, Bengal, Tamil Nadu etc. These states have seen towering women leaders who even rose to the position of chief ministers. Is such a situation thinkable in Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh or for that matter Meghalaya, where women are supposed to have always occupied an especially powerful place in a matrilineal social structure? Something is just not right and this calls for right advocacy and intervention.

The trouble perhaps is also about a hangover from a patriarchal feudal past and the inability of the modern to overcome it. The values of this patriarchal order are ingrained deep in the society and its proponents incidentally are not always men. Women are equally responsible for its perpetration. This latter point is in two ways. One, in the manner Jean Paul Sartre explains in his introduction to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth” where he says through generations of oppression the oppressed begins to believe in his or her own degradation. She then identifies her own detested self image in others in similar predicament as her. Thus, it is often the mother-in-law and the sister-in-law who are the meanest and cruellest to the daughter-in-law. The other way this social inequality is perpetrated is by an internalised self interest of the feminine gender. This internalisation has become almost an intuition. Evidence of this is seen practically every day whenever a woman thinks it fit to project herself as the weaker sex, and as if by rights guaranteed by this status, insists on jumping long queues outside bank counters and ATM machines. True the patriarchal order is also zealously guarded by men who like to see their women as cultural show pieces, dressed and groomed the way they want, and behaving as helpless dependents they can lord over as chivalrous defenders. All these hypocrisy on the part of the feminine gender and the hegemonic stupidity of the strutting males in Manipur must first change before a radical transformation capable of bringing about a parity of power in the relationship between the two genders can come about.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/elusive-gender-equality/

The Sadar Hills District Demand Committee, SHDDC’s agitation for the creation of new district Sadar Hills, remains unrelenting and the blockade imposed by it is beginning to have a serious impact on life in the state. Essential commodities and other consumables imported from other parts of India are beginning to become scarce in the markets in Imphal, and consequently in the other towns and villages of the state as well. Very soon, if the inflow of petrol remains disrupted, the familiar and depressing sight of long queues outside petrol pumps would reappear. Public transport fares would soon begin climbing steeply and likewise cooking gas prices too would head for the ceiling. The question is, why has this become Manipur’s reality? How have many issues in the state become intractable and close ended, showing no promise for an amicable end?

The Sadar Hills issue is now more than 20 years old. Yet there is no indication that it will be resolved immediately. The inability of the government, not just the present one, but each one in power during the last two decades and more, to put the problem to rest is, to be fair, not solely the government’s alone. It is on the other hand a characteristic of most issues related to ethnic identity. Although there are not many acknowledging it, and instead plenty insisting on calling it essentially an issue of administrative lethargy, the fact is, the biggest stumbling block before the issue has been one posed by ethnic contestations over territory informed by archaic notions of ethnic homelands. The problem with these homelands is there are too many different notions of it depending on the vantage of different ethnic groups. The territories thought to be part of these homelands also invariably overlap. This precisely is the problem preventing any easy resolution to the Sadar Hills district issue. The proposed new district is to be created by severing this sub-division of the Senapati district from the Senapati district. Doing this is not an easy proposition for the area under the Sadar Hills, and largely Kuki dominated, is seen by the Nagas as part of their traditional homeland. Kukis and other communities in the area who are in physical occupation of it interpret this differently. As of now the SHDDC has taken the extreme step of blockading the National Highway-39, to press for their demands, but should their demands be granted, it can be certain the Nagas would resort to similar coercive measures on the stretch of the same highway they are in physical majority. Indications of intents of such recourses have already come from civil organisations amongst the Nagas in messages published in the local media.

So where do the state go from here? It is difficult to imagine this is a state which cannot even redraw its district boundaries without causing social unrests. This would have had some logic if the state’s two regions, the reserved hills and the non-reserved valley were to overlap after such demarcations. For in such circumstances, the new administration structure rather than becoming easier would become even more complicated. However, if the divisions were to be strictly within each of the two separate regions, there ought not to have been any problem. The valley was once upon a time just one district. It is now four. The hills could also have been similarly divided for administrative convenience, but homeland politics has other visions and insecurities, therefore nobody is willing to listen to this argument. Perhaps the government should factor these insecurities in its strategies and approach the problem from this standpoint. As for instance, it could experiment with things like naming the proposed Sadar Hills district as Senapati (South) and the old Senapati as Senapati (North). The point is to send out the message to those demanding as well as opposing the formation of this new district that the new district has no other intent than administrative convenience. This would be in the manner Imphal district was divided into Imphal East and West. Then there is the question of Jiribam. This small patch of plains inhabited predominantly by non Schedule Tribe population could have been merged with adjacent Tamenglong, but this, as pointed out earlier in this editorial, would create obvious problems as there would have to be substantial reworking of the administration mechanism in the district so as to accommodate general category population in a district reserved for schedule tribes. Not to be forgotten are the echoes of similar demands for new district status at Phungyar in Ukhrul district and Tengnoupal in Chandel district. While the voices of the latter two are still faint, as to whether they become threatening will depend on how the government handles the Sadar Hills district issue.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/senapati-south/

The murder of two non local immigrants was dastardly to say the least. Such crimes in the last few years, it is now clear, is not random but falls into a definite pattern. Even as the state is reeling under the impact of the economic blockade, anti-social elements are adding insult to injury by their atrocious and unthinking acts. The crime must be roundly condemned. In any case, xenophobia is no solution to whatever genuine concerns of possible demographic overturning caused by unregulated inflow of immigrants, economic or political. The government must ensure that the vulnerable sections of the society are given adequate protection to their life and property. It is very unfortunate that these ugly incidents have been periodically resurfacing in this beleaguered state. It is also unfortunate that between one massacre and the next, the government has not been able to evolve any farsighted policies to tackle the problem conclusively. All it has been doing is to fire fight, which quite obviously, to use a medical analogy, is merely in the nature of sedative but far from being a cure to the disease. So as in the past, the administration has, as a response to the most recent racial attack, herded non local immigrants to camps it set up and given them police cover. But the question is for how long can this be for? This is especially relevant because those housed in the camps are mostly impoverished daily wage earners and outside their places of work would be deprived of their meagre earnings. Sooner than later, by the compulsions of poverty, they would want to be released so that they can return to their places of work, and that is when the cycle of hate violence would likely be repeated soon as the public and government vigil drop.

The moot point is, while the government must do what it is doing now by making the security cover foolproof, it must also think of evolving longer term strategies to tackle this growing menace of xenophobic hate crimes. While it is a few miscreants who are responsible for these crimes, what is to be remembered is the crimes are the extreme manifestation of a general atmosphere of concern amongst the a good section of the population of the state that immigrants would come to outnumber the indigenous populations sooner than later. It may be recalled that so many powerful and well known civil organisations, have expressed this anxiety in no uncertain terms and indeed there is a parallel increase in the decibel in the demands for the re-introduction of the inner line permit system which would restrict immigration as well as prevent transfer of landed property to immigrants. A longer term solution to the problem would have to address this concern and seek to resolve or moderate it. If such an approach is not taken, the government would be left with no other option than to resort to the same strategy of bolting the stable after the horses have fled. This would be unforgivable for the matter involves lives and any loss of life is nothing to be callous about.

But what manifests as a concern of possible demographic imbalances may have a strong unarticulated component of competition for jobs. As had been written and thrashed so many times even on these same columns, immigrant labour always manages to drag down wages earning the ire of the local labour market. The fact that those the miscreants targeted were impoverished immigrant labourers may in fact be an indicator of this contention. Some years ago, the reason for the attacks in Assam on “Hindi speakers” was openly stated to be an outcome of competition for railway jobs of grade three and two. In Maharashtra the underlying causes for the attacks on non-Maharashtrians were also for the same reason. We are pointing out these possible factors so that the government does not miss them out in evolving its own long term strategy of tackling this ugly and shameful problem. Just to underscore the point, the government cannot afford to let its guards down in the immediate context for there are killers out there bent on creating xenophobic mayhem. They must be kept at bay. However the government should also think of some regulatory mechanism to check the inflow of immigrants. It must be acknowledged that beneath the loathsome xenophobia are some genuine concerns which must be taken care of. As the saying goes, good fences make good neighbours. At this point perhaps introducing such a regulatory mechanism, even if a mild one, is this good fence. It is needless to remind the government that such regulatory mechanisms exist in many other Northeast states.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/dastardly-crime/

The trial of the arrested United National Liberation Front, UNLF, chairman, R.K. Sanayaima, would begin sooner than later. The case is important for more reason than the obvious of the accused having transgressed the law. It will demonstrate among others the status government of India holds the various nationalistic uprisings (or insurgencies) in the Northeast to be. That is to say, this case will demonstrate whether the Indian state sees these shows of dissents as merely problems of law and order breaches or else radical political dissents arising out of historical and structural inconsistencies between the idea of the India and those who see themselves at its margin or else outside its fold. A lot of future resolutions the problem of insurgency in the Northeast as elsewhere in other parts of the country may indeed come to pivot around this case. Here is a case of an insurgent leader arrested in Bangladesh though officially unacknowledged, and two months after his arrest and illegal detention, surfaced allegedly in Bihar, and according to the official version, arrested while he was trying to cross into Indian territory from Nepal. There was a genuine worry at the time the arrested UNLF leader remained missing that he would be made to disappear without a trace, but this did not happen, indicating already the intent of his captors that he is better alive than dead. If it was otherwise, there ordinarily would have been no way to prove he had been arrested, much less executed. Quite obviously his captors knew this more than anybody else, but they did not do what had become a popular feared.

The arrested insurgent leader is now being charge sheeted. The charges against him can also be guessed. At its most grand, it would be waging war against the nation. The penalty for this, if proven, would be understandably tough. From all indications the arrested leader is also not shirking away from his role in the ideology he has been pursuing, or the fact that he had been the leader of an organisation outlawed under Indian law, his only caveat being that he was not waging war against India but defending an erstwhile sovereign kingdom’s right to self determination. In past cases of such arrests, the modus operandi had been far too often of the arrested leaders claiming, obviously on the advice of their lawyers, that they had nothing to do with the organisation they were accused of heading or had no knowledge of the offences against the law slapped against them, and in the absence of conclusive proof or witness evidences, eventually getting bail, which they then jumped. They get to be free again and continue their fight, but such moves morally demeaned the struggle they headed. In the present case, the table is being turned. With the same conviction that he fought his war, the UNLF leader is now defending the reason why he fought the war.

What the legal response would be is predictable and understandable. It can only go by the statute book. But what is to be watched here is the political response, or the statesmanship with which the Indian state would handle the situation. Would it too simply go by the statute book or look beyond and discover the larger picture. On the larger canvas of peace building and resolution to the various insurgencies in the Northeast, the Indian state’s attitude and decision on the UNLF leader case would have a profound bearing. It would also answer the million rupees question of whether resolving insurgency in the Northeast is a military responsibility or a political and statesmanship enterprise. In this way, we see the unfolding case to be an important litmus test. It will also determine whether the establishment is looking for a victory in a battle or thinking of winning the war. We do hope it is the latter. We do hope the arrested UNLF leader, for the very reason that has chosen to stand by his conviction, is not treated as a common law offender but a political prisoner with all entitled dignity accorded to him, even if he is ultimately rewarded the severest penalty for waging war against the nation. This is important, for it is now more than clear that the familiar tactics of delegitimizing insurgency by labelling it as criminal has not brought the intended result in all these decades. It only embittered the constituencies that threw up these defiant challenges to the establishment. It is now time to give these phenomena the legitimacy they always deserved, and then tackle it from this vantage. The trial of the UNLF leader R.K. Sanayaima in this regard can be the benchmark of a new and enlightened approach to resolving the question of insurgency not just in Manipur, but the entire Northeast and even beyond.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/crucial-case/

Sharmila’s response to the invitation by Team Anna to join the hunger strike campaign to make the Union government introduce a legislation in Parliament to constitute a statutory people’s ombudsman aimed at curbing official corruption effectively, was measured and mature. The invitation was obviously an afterthought following many comparisons and questions raised in the media about the public clamour over the fast by Anna Hazare and the lack of it in the case of Sharmila who had been on a fast for a record 10 years and still counting. It is unlikely Team Anna did not know the facts of Sharmila’s status as a jail inmate and for this reason it was not totally up to her individual volition to participate in their protest strike in New Delhi. The invitation in this sense was, so to say, a token gesture, or the biblical fig leaf, to cover up what was increasingly becoming an uneasy embarrassment. It was interesting to note how a great section of the media in the Northeast rallied behind Sharmila in varying shades of outrage calling for parity of concern of the Indian public in the two cases. There was also a good section of the national media, lead from the front by Chennai headquartered The Hindu, constantly reminding the Indian public of the difference in their reception of the two cases. Most memorable of all was well known social activist, author of Booker Prize winning novel “God of Small Things” and acknowledged champion of the underdogs in the Indian state’s assimilative nationalising mission, Arundhati Roy, who lent her voice to highlight this discrepancy further. The main thrust of her hard hitting articles derided the public hysteria over the campaign against corruption as this looked only at official corruption and not that of the corporate world or for that matter the corporate media, the indication of which became quite stark after scandals like the infamous Radia tapes expose.

Sharmila was humble in her reply. She wholeheartedly expressed her solidarity with Anna Hazare’s campaign but expressed her inability to join him and his team because of her internship in a Manipur jail. She instead invited Team Anna to visit Manipur, which she described as the most corrupt of all Indian states. Her last jab should have had the sting intended. Manipur must rank as the state with one of the most corrupt official establishment. From the lowly fourth grade employees to the top bosses in the political leadership and bureaucracy, all have collectively and in a collaborative manner, ensured that corruption is entrenched not just into the system but in the psyche of the people. Even the most humble citizen today talks with a clear conscience of the need to pay bribes to get in a child or ward to a government job position as if this was the most natural and only way such things were to be done. Roads and other infrastructures constructed continually are so substandard that they cannot even withstand the onslaught of a single monsoon not because of paucity of funds but because funds were siphoned off into individual pockets. Of such works, there will be no proof needed, as they are plenty of extremely visible examples stark before everybody to see. Corruption in other states is about occasional explosive scandals that break out in high places. Corruption in Manipur, although relatively much less in magnitude, is much more in spread and extend. Indeed it has been made a part of everyday life, therefore endemic and perpetuated endlessly in an unnatural cycle. We hope, even if as just another token gesture, Team Hazare visits Sharmila after their high profile campaign is brought hopefully to a happy conclusion. That would be such a jolt to the corrupt system at in this state. We hope Team Hazare also lends its highly audible voice to Sharmila’s own campaign against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA. They are out there on a campaign to what they believe would ultimately save India but this too is equally about saving the spirit of India.

No argument about it, putting an end to corruption would be a big fillip in the public morale and the economy of the country, considering the estimate that close to 40 percent of the Indian economy is black. But as critics have pointed out sharply and sometimes disparagingly, we hope the campaign also ultimately brings in other forms of corruption other than just the official ones. Corruption happens everywhere including outside the official realms. It includes the ways of cheating small time traders and contactors as well as those who award and approve their cheating ways. The very fact that prices sky rockets every time there is a road blockade or landslide is itself an indication of the cheating ways of many. On all these occasions, essential commodities, in particular petrol and diesel, disappear from the petrol pumps, but nonetheless begin to appear for inflated prices in the black market. How could this happen other than through the vile contagion of corruption?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/two-fasts-too-far-apart/

Since the government apparently has no clue as to how to break the impasse of the atrocious blockade along the state’s lifelines which is now close to completing two months, let it prepare at least to take care of the situation of extreme scarcity of essential commodities in the state, including very importantly, petrol and diesel. In its abject lack of will to do even this, other civil bodies, including students are beginning to take the responsibilities upon themselves. Like nature, society abhors a vacuum and there will always be a tendency for any vacuum of governance to be filled by whatever alternative available in the vicinity. This is precisely what is being demonstrated before everybody in the present situation. The government all of a sudden has become conspicuous by its absence and thereby leaving other power centres in waiting to step into the area of responsibility which should have been the government’s alone. It is a peculiar situation in which there is only the government to blame for students and others self-righteous, self-proclaimed leaders to assume law keeping responsibilities, and conversely, there is only the government to blame if what the students allege are being done by unscrupulous market manipulators to artificially hike prices to make a financial killing out of a public crisis turns actually to be the case. In this sense, it is a double responsibility the government is abdicating.

What the government should be doing now first and foremost is to settle the SADAR Hills issue conclusively. Even if this proves to be too complicated to resolve, considering there are conflicting interests pulling in opposite directions, it must at least do everything to control the fallouts of the blockade. First it must step out of its ivory tower to send out the message definitively that nobody can assume the powers that should legitimately rest only in its hands. Second, it must investigate and establish if the charges of gross and unethical manipulation of prices by unscrupulous traders to make capital out of the public’s suffering, is true. Depending on its findings it must take necessary actions to prevent this crime of greed and avarice and to exemplarily punish those who have been masterminding it. This is of prime importance. After all, it involves a very vital and emergent component of public welfare. If the government continues not to take this matter into cognizance, the situation can only get worse. Today it is students but who can say tomorrow who else will step in and decide to do what the government should have been doing all the while?

The government must therefore take stock of the availability of essential commodities in the market, and depending on its finding, begin a method of rationing them. If the blockade continues any longer it will be an emergency the state is faced with and emergency measures are called for during such times. It must also show its concern by personal examples. Ministers, MLAs and officials still continue to travel in huge convoys while the ordinary people are left with no option than to give up the use of their motor vehicles because of the acute fuel shortage. When these dignitaries travel together, they still use a car each for themselves. Cannot the Ibobi government at the least issue strictures on the matter directing ministers and MLAs to restrict their entourages when on necessary tours to the districts and when some of them travel together to the same destination, to share vehicles. This is not so much about saving fuel. It is more about sending out the message to the larger public that they too are concerned at the way things have been developing. Field Marshal Sir William Slim, whose forlorn cottage inside the Kangla is today becoming an important tourist attraction, had something to say of this moral solidarity between leaders and people as well as people and people in his book “Defeat into Victory”. He said when ration for the men in the battle frontline was delayed for whatever the reason, he made the soldier in the rear posts also go half ration until their colleagues in the front received theirs. This served a dual purpose. One, the soldiers in the rear posts were made to have a vested interest in ensuring there are no delays in reaching ration to the frontlines. Two, and more importantly, there was a moral bondage secured between everybody involved in the war effort on the Imphal-Kohima front. This bondage, according to him contributed immensely to the lifting of the spirit of his team and we all know how Slim and his team turned the table against the Japanese Imperial Army after a series of crushing defeats in Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Burma. Do we still have leaders of similar even it not comparable calibres?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/blockade-consequences/

var addthis_product=’wpp-252′;var addthis_options=”Google+1″Twenty years after it began doing the buzz in the Northeast, theNortheast region is still waiting for the much touted Look EastPolicy, LEP,…

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Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/fHCQbSc-B4M/

Before the onset of the monsoon, we had called the attention of the government in several editorials to potholes that had appeared on several major roads in Imphal, warning that if these were not mended in time, the monsoon waters would wash away the rather thin bitumen linings in and around these potholes, damaging the roads much more extensively. Despite these urgent appeals, the government refused to pay any heed, and now the conditions of these roads are there for everybody to see. One of the worst damaged areas is the one adjacent to the Andro Parking on the eastern side of the All India Radio, Imphal complex. There was a huge unattended pothole here for a long time and once it started raining, water accumulated in it and seeped into the earth and pebble bed the road rested on and weakened its foundation. The road has since been literally washed away leaving huge pits, and because these are now filled with rainwater, are virtually invisible, therefore extremely hazardous for motorists. Now that the thin bitumen cover has been washed away and the innards exposed for public view, even sycophants of the powers that be will think twice before defending the quality of work put into the making of these roads. Other than the Andro Parking area, the Uripok Road at the base of the B.T. Road flyover has to be seen to be believed. This relatively recently made road is now reduced to a dirt road. The RIMS Road from Nagamapal all the way to the point where it joins the Uripok Road is another stretch that would put anybody in a depression.

Much of these damages, and the consequent inconveniences and dangers thrust on thousands of ordinary commuters everyday could have been saved if the authorities paid heed to the timeless saying that a stitch in time saves nine. The cost to the state exchequer that would have been saved by such prudence is imaginable too. But then, as they say public property is nobody’s property, and those in the government who are entrusted precisely with these public properties are the ones who care the least about their charge. If this were not so, what we are now seeing in the capital Imphal would not have been possible. Furthermore, if this is what is happening in the capital, anybody can imagine what is happening in districts, the remote ones in particular. Yet, despite the obvious failure, and despite the avoidable waste of public funds, nobody will be held accountable for the mess. None of those involved in building these roads too would be fazed by the fact that the roads they built cannot stand the test of even one monsoon. Nobody takes pride in the work they do anymore, neither those actually contracted to do the job, nor those who awarded them these contracts, nor those entrusted to certify the compliance of standard of the jobs done. What everyone in the chain would have been interested in would undoubtedly be lining their pockets from the collaborative spinoffs they create from the entire process. In fact, it would not be very wrong to presume that there is a vested interest at work in building these roads not too well so that they are rebuilt practically every year so that the cycle of collaborative looting of public funds is ensured.

This is depressing. But this is also unfortunately what Manipur has become. It has lost all sense of social altruism and those leading the charge are those in power. But the call now must be not of witch hunting. It is not too late to make amends. Let a new work culture be introduced in the state. The effort has to begin with the government. It must first of all strive to introduce some structural changes apart from a stricter monitoring system of its infrastructure construction works. In this regard, it is surprising that in all of its developmental projects, including road construction, the government has not thought of factoring in the cost for maintenance. Nothing lasts forever, however well built, but the government should have known their longevity is directly proportional to the quality of their upkeep. The maintenance does not have to be always major overhauls, but mending little patches of damages so as to prevent them from setting off a progressive and ultimately total atrophy. The road stretch near the Andro Parking and the Uripok Road at the base of the BT Flyover are two loud example of this serious and indeed criminal oversight of the government. What has happened cannot be undone, but we at least hope the government would take note of the matter and do the needful so as to prevent a repeat. But then, we suppose this appeal would probably be as ridiculous as asking compulsive kleptomaniacs not to steal.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/no-stitches-in-time/

We have personally seen and experienced this before. Anything that appears in a newspaper which is not to the taste of an interest group and the next day the group would ban the particular media. The Imphal Free Press has gone through this on at least three occasions, and one of the bans in the Naga districts lasted nearly a year. Why is it that so many are so unable to tolerate and accommodate dissenting views? It is depressing that there is such a lack of respect for democratic values amongst the people here by and large, although everybody swears by it. We refer now to the current ban on The Telegraph that the Apunba Lup has imposed in protest against the newspaper’s report on a love affair of Irom Sharmila with a foreign resident of Goan origin and the supposed statement made by her that she had fallen out with her supporters on the issue. On its own the importance accorded to the story seemed a little too disproportionate for it was given front page lead space together with a picture and several blurbs punctuating the story. One would have expected such a treatment of the private affair of a woman from a tabloid (so aptly also referred to as gutter press) and definitely not from a respectable broadsheet with very wide circulation in East India, including the Northeast. In any case the story of Sharmila’s love affair had already been carried in the same newspaper in July, although on that occasion it was sensibly on an inside page hence not many noticed it or gave it much importance. In the current case the newspaper has done a follow-up the very next day in which it highlighted Sharmila’s statement on the state of Indian politics which is marginalising the Northeast apart from condemning the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, demanding its repeal. This story ought to have appeared ahead of the one that sensationalised a personal affair.

But the ban on the newspaper was unreasonable for one more thing. Although as we said the display which sensationalised the story could have been better, the fact is the reporter who did the story was not writing from his imagination, but faithfully reproducing what Irom Sharmila had told him. All these statements by her were recorded too. Another news channel, NDTV has also since broadcasted a recording of Sharmila saying precisely these things on camera in her hospital cell to a reporter on the same day as The Telegraph reporter, so there can be no dispute whatsoever the story was not concocted. Even if suspicion of this persists, Sharmila is in Imphal, and somebody should go to her and confirm the veracity of the claim by the newspaper. If she denies she made these statements, then perhaps the outrage leading to the ban would become justified. But if she confirms she did make those statements, let it just be said the newspaper in very bad taste sensationalised the report by the display and prominence the story was given, and leave it at that. Let its subscribers in Manipur decide if they should continue their subscriptions.

Let moderating voices prevail. Let Sharmila be where she wants to be and do what she wants to do. If she chooses to step down from the exalted pedestal she has come to be elevated on and live an anonymous and ordinary life, let it be her choice. Nobody should expect her to be a martyr, and in fact everybody should be dissuading her to not seek to be a martyr. The movement against the AFSPA is a just and honourable cause and therefore does not need any martyr to sustain the energy which has been driving it in all the years. To repeat what we have already said in the wake of the present tension over the revelation of the news, at its most fundamental, the issue is AFSPA and not Sharmila. It will help if she remains part of the campaign for she is so well known now and can attract international audience much easier than anyone else behind the campaign can, but if she wants to call it a day and get back to normal life, let her have her wish. The ban on The Telegraph too should be lifted unilaterally without further ado. At the most The Telegraph will lose a few thousand copies from its circulation figure, which though important is not vital for the newspaper with several lakhs print order daily. However the image of intolerance the drastic step would send out to the world will be much more damaging for the state and its people in the long run. Conversely, a show of magnanimity on the part of the Apunba Lup now will give itself, and through it, to the image of the rest of the state, a liberal democratic credential which can win over many friends in the days ahead.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/intolerance-unlimited/

How long must this be allowed to carry on? Why is everybody so casual about this endless self inflicted injury? Some injuries are difficult, if not impossible to heal, and the injuries these blockades, the frequency of which is continually rising, may actually cross the critical line from where there can be no easy return to normalcy or economic health or inter-community relations in the state. As it is, the fledgling private enterprises in the state have been condemned to existence in a limbo thanks to the prolonged acute shortage of electricity, abysmally bad infrastructure including most importantly surface transport, sinking standard of government schools and colleges and not the least the perpetual state of insecurity resulting out of the intractable uncertainty introduced by the law and order situation which has spiralled out of control as well as by the draconian measures and laws introduced to counter it. The latest additions to the state’s overflowing cup of woe are these blockades. Whatever the justification of the grievances that led to these extreme protests, the consequences are proving to be far too damaging and expensive. Things being what they are, it is time for all sides to climb down and rethink the method of agitation without giving up the agitation. Quite obviously the stir is beginning to prove counterproductive.

If all the parties in this faceoff were to step back a step or two each, the vision of a solution should begin to appear on the horizon. On the other hand, if they stick to where they have been standing all the while, and with a government seemingly not interested in doing anything beyond appealing to the leaders of the agitation to come to a negotiated settlement, though it has been made adequately clear on more occasion than one this is never to be if compromises are demanded, the situation can only continue to go downhill. The Central government as well as its eyes and ears in the state too seem simply content in watching the state disintegrate into total chaos for it too has not made a single gesture that it would try and bail the beleaguered state out of its present crisis. It too seems to be waiting for complete public disorder to break out and perhaps even a communal mayhem. What cynicism it would be if the doomsday prophets who have been predicting the fall of what they have termed as a failed state, are actually waiting and watching for some catastrophe to happen so that they can with academic satisfaction claim credit for self fulfilled prophesies.

Since the government obviously would not, or cannot, the all important question now is, do the people in the state have it in them to rise to the occasion and resolve this crisis amongst them? At this moment, obduracy no longer appears honourable or brave. On the other hand, it is the magnanimity of accommodation and flexibility which will go down as the qualities which define courage in this situation. It would also be a fine reward to prove the doomsday prophets wrong, and that the people of the state are able to resolve their common issues amicably in just and reasonable ways. Let the reserve of doomsday prophesies be proven instead. This state is difficult precisely because it is complex and complicated being multi-ethnic and multi-religion. But the victory will be when this complexity comes to be sublimated to ultimately begin to acquire the visage of sophistication. This we would say is the onerous challenge before the people – a test by fire which has the potential to destroy, but if the challenge is overcome, can leave the bondages that bind the spiritual and temporal integrity of the place much more securely. This would have been a lot more convenient and easy had the government been endowed with the vision and commitment called for in such moments. But unfortunately this is not to be, leaving the people to take forward this all-important project of redefining coexistence on their own. For a people who have lived together adjusting to each others’ idiosyncrasies for eons, this should not prove impossible although by no means an easy task. In the meantime, let us appeal to the government once again not to let things carry on the way it has been. Let it be accommodating but when things get beyond a point where the problem begins to threaten public welfare and order in a major way, let it not be afraid to be firm. Even as the matter of feasibility of the creation of Sadar hills district is being thrashed out, let it ensure that the highways are opened up using all the means within its command.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/09/selfinflicted-injury/

The banner signboards at the entrances of the Kangla announcing the name “Kangla” to onlookers and visitors are too cheap, if not ridiculous: as if anybody would mistake the citadel of the erstwhile kingdom of Manipur for anything else. Today no doubt it is an archival complex with immense historical and cultural significance and no longer a living monument where daily businesses of governance of war and peace are conducted, but this does not mean it must be robbed of its dignity. Leaders of the state as well as bureaucrats would have seen how things are done in historical sites all over the country and the world. None of them do it the way it is done at the Kangla. Imagine the Taj Mahal, Qutabh Minar, Red Fort, Humayan Tomb etc with similar signboard across their gate, as if these were some popular circus grounds. Normally a granite plaque with a brief history of the monument is erected in a neat and well kempt corner of the entrance areas so that visitors can read and get the basic information of what they are about to witness or are witnessing. We wonder how the difference in the aura and dignity in the manner these other monuments are announced to visitors and the way it is done to the Kangla is not noticed by our leaders, especially those in charge of the upkeep of the complex. It is not too late yet, let the government remove those ugly banners and do it the way the rest of the civilised world do it at the soonest.

We also wonder whatever has happened to the drive for restoring the Kangla. The government has been going about on a demolition spree everywhere in the city, but is still not able shift (after suitable compensation of course), a few families living inside the complex, who were once the temple keepers while the Assam Rifles was occupying the complex. It may be recalled troops moved out and the Kangla handed over the people by the Prime Minsiter, Manmohan Singh in 2004 following widespread street agitation against the Assam Rifles in the wake of the alleged rape and custodial murder of a young woman, Thangjam Manorama. It may also be recalled that much earlier the Kangla came to be garrisoned after the British defeated and took over the Manipur kingdom in 1891, and much of the symbols of the state, in particular the two Kangla Sha the mythical beasts which have since become the state emblem, at the entrance of the Darbar Hall were destroyed. After the British left, the troops stayed on. The two Kangla Sha have been restored since along with some other historical structures within the complex. It must however be said the restoration work, while commendable at places, at others are at best kitschy. For evidence, take a look at the gate of the Dubar Hall. It looks like one of those hastily made entrances to some cheap stalls at circuses and fairs which visit the state occasionally.

As suggested for the gateways, we wonder why the government has not thought of erecting granite plaques with histories and descriptions at each of the many interesting sites within the complex. The two restored Kangla Shas will be a prime candidate for this. The Durbar Hall, the Manung Kangjeibung which is possibly the oldest polo-ground in the world, and where modern polo took birth, the ruins of the Govindaji temples, as well as the newly constructed indigenous Sanamahi temple etc are some of these. On the northern side of the complex are also another set of very interesting monuments and sites. Some of the cottages sitting aside sprawling lawns lined with flower beds are of profound historical significance too. The cottage where Field Marshall Sir William Slim lived and planned his “Defeat into Victory” strategies against the advancing Japanese Imperial Army in alliance with the Indian National Army, INA, of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, being the most significant. Why cannot similar granite plaques with explanatory notes be erected at these sites as well? Today, for the uninitiated, touring the Kangla complex is like scanning an album of interesting photographs but without photo captions. Visitors often are left bewildered at trying to identify the monuments, even the modern classic the Slim Cottage, for adjacent to it are other similar cottages. The Kangla undoubtedly will be a major attraction for tourist once Manipur becomes a tourist spot as so many wish for today. If the law and order situation improves, we see no reason why it cannot be buzzing with tourists of all kinds too. Kathmandu is advertised as a valley in which adventure tourists can head in any direction and find a good trek. We see why Imphal valley, surrounded by hills all around cannot acquire the same unique selling point, or as this proposition is better known, the USP.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/kangla-usp/