Category: KanglaOnline

By Amar Yumnam
The Mega Manipur School recently had her Sixth Foundation Day. This function is going to be particularly memorable for me. After my speech at the function and while I was coming down from the dais a little girl, lovely one at that, of the Pre-Primary Class and whom I had just met asked me straight on my face as to what all I was talking about. This had multiples of lasting impact on me. First, in any case, I was completely floored by her straight innocent query. Second, what was my point of speaking any if I could not communicate with all who were present at the function? Was it a case of my suffering from the usual community habit of taking the children for granted? Should we not be altering our way of looking at things as in every generation the children were getting smarter? Above all, I was taught a lesson by this little girl about the need for communication. In fact, there cannot be any thriving society without an effective communication flows across communities, ages and space. Thanks to that little girl of whom I have taken photographs; I would forever cherish her refreshingly inquisitive face.

The necessity of communication is further reinforced by what is happening in connection with the political conclave at Senapati. The absurdity of all sides is being established by this and the reactions to it. It is absolute and unwarranted political gimmick which amounts to nothing more than a social noise for a head of people of one province trying to fan political instability in the neighbouring province. It is equally funny for the opponents of such political gimmicks to come to a reactionary mode and organise actions dictated by this. Neither side has nothing to gain nor proves any point whatsoever. While the organisers would presume to themselves as barking successfully, those opposing are to be blames for their own failure to endeavour for effective communication and surfacing only when something is being planned. The political class has to be cursed for its failure to evolve a system of communication and inclusiveness while being busy in self aggrandisement.

Absence of Enlightenment: All these make one seriously think of as to when Manipur would usher into a phase of Enlightenment like the one experienced by Europe in the eighteenth century. Well here it would be relevant directly to quote from a recent book on the phenomenon and impact of what we call Enlightenment: `Radical Enlightenment is a set of basic principles that can be summed up concisely as: democracy; racial and sexual equality; individual liberty of lifestyle; full freedom of thought, expression, and the press; eradication of religious authority from the legislative process and education; and full separation of church and state. It sees the purpose of the state as being the wholly secular one of promoting the worldly interests of the majority and preventing vested minority interests from capturing control of the legislative process. Its chief maxim is that all men have the same basic needs, rights, and status irrespective of what they believe or what religious, economic, or ethnic group they belong to, and that consequently all ought to be treated alike, on the basis of equity, whether black or white, male or female, religious or nonreligious, and that all deserve to have their personal interests and aspirations equally respected by law and government. Its universalism lies in its claim that all men have the same right to pursue happiness in their own way, and think and say whatever they see fit, and no one, including those who convince others they are divinely chosen to be their masters, rulers, or spiritual guides, is justified in denying or hindering others in the enjoyment of rights that pertain to all men and women equally.` (Jonathan Israel, A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy, Princeton University Press 2010)

We do not observe any of the Enlightenment principles taking roots in the soil of Manipur. While all are busy with communitarian-based politics, the society in Manipur today does not show any signs of positive engagement on issues capable of taking the collective forward. The long years of non-inclusive governance and development interventions had had a lasting impact on the propagation of non-inclusive politics. Now this has reached such a level that we are at a stage where it looks as if nothing positive is going to happen at the politico-economy-wide level. This indeed is the issue the political leadership has to address in right earnest so that a legacy of exclusion and chaos is not left for the generations to come. What Manipur needs today is initiation of a cycle of honesty, honest communication, inclusive approach and initiation of a cycle of positive loop for collectively shared progression. The current ruling paradigm of looting through contracts, supplies, nepotism and favouritism have failed and would fail to serve any social purpose today, and the scenario would only worsen once the larger Asian integration process starts impacting Manipur.

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IMPHAL, May 31: `A Working Women`™s Hostel for those hailing from the North Eastern states will be inaugurated in the month of June, 2011 at New Delhi. This will greatly help the working women from the region in terms of safety and comfort`, said Bijoy Krishna Handique, union minister of DoNER at New Delhi today.

According to an emailed statement, the 500 seater working women`™s hostel in Jasola is funded by the ministry of DoNER through the North Eastern Council (NEC) in association with the ministry of Women and Child Development.

According to the statement, the total cost of the project is Rs.17.44 crores wherein the share of NEC is 25%. Land cost for the hostel has been shared between NEC and ministry of Women and Child Development on a 50-50 basis. The minister has been in touch with Krishna Tirath, minister of State for Women & Child Development to make the hostel functional at the earliest.

Handique also said that construction works have progressed to a major extent for another hostel named Rajiv Gandhi Girls Hostel to accommodate 500 Tribal Girl Students from the NER at the Delhi University Campus at a total cost of Rs.23.33 crores jointly shared between NEC and ministry of Tribal Affairs on 60:40 basis. It is likely to be completed within this financial year. It is located at Dhaka Housing Complex, University of Delhi; Banda Bahadur Marg, New Delhi. NEC has already released Rs. 11.50 Crores towards this hostel project, the statement maintained.

Apart from these two hostels, there is already a fully functional 500 seater girls hostel at Delhi University North Campus wholly funded by Ministry of DoNER, the statement added.

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GAUHATI, June 1 (AP): Mahendra Nath Das was convicted of a murder so gruesome India`s courts gave him a rare death sentence and the president rejected his plea for clemency. Only one thing is keeping him from the gallows: There is no hangman.

More than two decades have passed since any convict was executed in Assam, and with no qualified executioners remaining, officials in this northeastern state are scouring the rest of the country for a candidate.

In all of India, where the death penalty is only by hanging and imposed only in the “rarest of rare” cases, there have been only two hangings in the past 15 years.

Das` conviction for publicly decapitating a victim with a machete could make his the third.

“We have started the process of putting up the gallows,” said Brojen Das, the jailer of the prison at Jorhat, 190 miles (300 kilometers) east of Gauhati, who shares a common regional surname with the condemned man.

But it is unclear when an executioner will be found to use it.

Prison authorities have written to their counterparts in the states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal searching for a hangman, but have so far gotten no response, said S. Thakuria, Assam`s top prison official.

Qualified executioners `” who know how to prepare the rope and tie the knot so as to cause a swift death `” are scarce in India. The last hanging took place in 2004, when a security guard was hanged in a Kolkata jail for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

Nata Mullick, India`s most famous hangman, came out of retirement at age 84 to carry out that execution, earning $435 and a job for his grandson as a maintenance worker at the jail.

A third generation hang man, Mullick executed 25 of the 55 people who died on the gallows since India gained independence in 1947.

He would run repeated dry runs, using sandbags the same weight as the condemned prisoner. He waxed the rope with soap and ripe bananas and tied it with five knots, hoping his preparations would keep the pain to a minimum and ensure the prisoner`s head was not severed during the drop from the gallows.

“It`s an art: Your skills need to be honed,” Mullick said in a 2007 interview.

But Mullick died in 2009. With the hangman`s job a far from glamorous profession, and the work so sporadic, few have risen to take his place. Local media said there might be one or two hangmen still around nationally, including Mullick`s son, Mahadeb.

The search could have implications for other death row prisoners, including Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, and Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the 2001 attack on parliament that killed 14 people.

Mahendra Das` crime traumatized Assam.

On April 24, 1996, he snuck up behind Hara Kunta as the rival official in the local transporter`s union sipped tea at a shop in a busy market in Assam`s capital, Gauhati.

With a swing of his machete, Das decapitated Kunta. Then he carried the bloody head by the hair to a nearby police station screaming, “I have killed him.”

Courts ruled that the public nature of the killing, combined with Das` horrifying walk through the streets, warranted the death penalty.

Last month, President Pratibha Patil agreed, refusing a plea for clemency, and condemning Das to be the first person to be executed in Assam since a prisoner convicted of three murders was hanged in 1990.

Though there are no legal options left, his family continues to appeal for mercy.

“My son has already spent 15 years in jail, why kill him now,” Mahendra Das` 75-year-old mother, Kusum Bala, told a local newspaper.

The victim`s family is impatient for the execution.

“There is no point showing sympathy to a killer like him,” Hara Kanta`s daughter-in-law Sarada Das said.

If no professional hangman can be found, prison rules would allow a convict to volunteer to carry out the execution, said Brojen Das, the jailer. No one has yet come forward, he said.

For now, Mahendra Das, 45, spends his days in a 6 foot by 12 foot (1.8 meter by 3.7 meter) prison cell, where he will stay until an executioner can be located, Brojen Das said.

“He is hoping against hope that somehow he can be saved,” he said.

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IMPHAL, June 4: The Centre for Organization Research and Education (CORE) in a statement has expressed its serious concern regarding the environment of the state today stating that despite many years of efforts exerted through the many government departments, and much expenditure, the natural environment and natural heritage of Manipur’s hills and valleys and the rural and urban areas have deteriorated continuously and rapidly.Noting the theme of the World Environment day “Forest-Nature at your service”, the statement said that humans are committed to safeguard this natural heritage for the well being of the future generation. The environment does not consist of only the forest but it consists of the wetlands and nonliving beings and entities, the hills and valleys, rivers and water ways and all of them should be equally preserved, the statement added.It maintained that the newly drafted Manipur State Policy for climate change will be an empty exercise without a holistic approach that thoroughly examines the issues of rural and urban development strategies, energy and water, communication and transport infrastructure, human habitat, agricultural lands, wetlands and forests.It points out the necessity for the Manipur government and all its implementing agencies to undertake urgent comprehensive assessment of Manipur’s environment and the pertaining ecological issues with the full and meaningful participation of civil society, to ensure every development project and programme is planned and implemented carefully.

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