Category: News

by Bibhu Prasad RoutrayProviding the best of rms and equipment to paramilitary personnel is crucial to the success of India`s anti-Naxal strategyA Few days ago, some newspapers in India ran two separate reports. One hogging the front page was a stub on India’s flourishing economy and the other relegated to the inside pages underlined the challenges faced by the security forces battling the Left-wing extremists (Naxalites) in the remotest corners of the country. The first item pointed to the soaring number of choppers and private jets jostling for space in Indian skies and the demands they make on the Air Traffic Controllers. The second report, on the other hand, quoted the Border Security Force (BSF) authorities asking the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to replace the Dhruv helicopters since these do not meet the force’s operational requirements. This report went on to detail the drastic shortage of choppers for the security forces deployed on anti-Naxal duty and its impact on the morale of the forces. These two narratives posed a familiar paradox, from Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, when there are “choppers choppers everywhere, but not many for the security forces”.On May 19, a chopper employed by Gadchiroli district police in Maharashtra returned with injured and dead police personnel from the encounter site at Nalgonda. However, security forces battling the Naxals in Beijjur phata in the same district could not avail themselves of the service of the chopper since it had already completed the stipulated 500 hours of flying and had to proceed for the mandatory maintenance service. The Gadchiroli police requested that the services of another chopper from neighbouring Chhattisgarh be provided. But by the time it arrived, the encounter had ended. It could fly only to recover three dead bodies of police personnel from the area.A similar incident took place in Jharkhand’s Lohardaga district on May 3 in which 11 security force personnel were killed. The Naxals ambushed a 150- member team of state police and paramilitary personnel returning from a combing operation. While four personnel were killed on the spot, seven others succumbed to their injuries since the chopper at the disposal of the state police was unavailable, being on a sortie to neighbouring West Bengal for poll-related duties. It could reach the incident site only after four hours. The Jharkhand Director General of Police admitted that the personnel died owing to lack of timely medical aid. One of the injured personnel who ultimately survived bemoaned the fact that he had to suffer the excruciating pain for over four hours before being evacuated and admitted into a hospital.The MHA, since mid-2010, has deployed a fleet of seven choppers for carrying out troop deployment, casualty evacuation and sending reinforcements in the Naxal-affected states. These choppers are based in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand) and are available to any of the Naxal-affected states on demand. However, on most occasions, this fleet has been found to be highly inadequate to meet the forces’ ground-level requirements. Complains have been made about the frequent servicing requirements of these Advanced Light Dhruv Helicopters and their inability to fly beyond a certain height. They are frequently grounded by the unavailability of spare parts, which makes them almost an unreliable element in the anti-Naxal operations.In addition to these incidents of shortage, because of unavoidable technical and logistical reasons, choppers have also been diverted on occasions for use by politicians and bureaucrats. Media reports in early May indicated that out of the fleet of seven, only one chopper was functional and was catering to the requirements of the nearly 70 battalions of paramilitary forces deployed against the Naxals throughout the country.The MHA is planning to wet-lease six new Russian Mi-17 helicopters from private companies for deployment in the anti-Naxal operations. At a purchase price of Rs 45 crore apiece, wet-leasing the Mi-17 helicopters, under which the company lending it provides for the pilot, maintenance and fuel, is a far more affordable option. According to reports, the sorties by these leased machines to the Naxal strongholds could start as early as August 2011. The MHA hopes to reduce its dependence on the ministry of defence, which currently flies the paramilitary troops in the Naxal zones. In any event, the Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers’ “80 flying hours a month” rule is a handicap in terms of using them excessively. On the other hand, the Mi-17 choppers proposed to be taken on lease are fuel guzzlers, but the MHA has no alternative other than accounting for such expense.In various forums the Union home minister has spoken of the cumbersome procurement procedure coming in the way of providing the best of arms and equipment to the paramilitary personnel. One does not know whether the process of acquiring choppers also faces similar challenges. The proposal to wet-lease 13 Mi-17 choppers is at least an eight-month-old idea, first floated in October 2010. The number of choppers had then been decided on after taking the requirements of the forces operating in a vast territory into cognisance. But for reasons best known to the MHA, the number has now been reduced to six, which is highly insufficient. Meanwhile, the MHA has negotiated in vain with the IAF, which itself gets choppers on lease. Many of the IAF helicopters are deployed in the United Nations’ Congo mission and the move to recall them has not been successful.For operational purposes, choppers are as basic a requirement for the forces battling the Naxals as any other sophisticated arms and equipment. India’s anti-Naxal policy needs to improve upon the prevailing conditions, on an urgent basis. The author is a former deputy director in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), a visiting fellow at CLAWS (New Delhi) and a fellow at the Takshashila Institution.

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At its crux, there are only two known ways of resolving a conflict of interest. One is to crush the weaker of the two with brute force and the other to reach a democratic consensus. The civilized norm of the modern world being the latter option, the need is to explore its possibilities, wherever conflict has come to stay, at least until a more perfected mechanism is evolved. For the moment, we can only foresee all putative future conflict resolution mechanisms as derivatives of the democratic system, the latter being known for its resilience and almost infinite accommodative capacity. But it must be acknowledged that often the most vocal advocates of democracy have regressed into the logic of an atavistic past where only force mattered. The objectionable interventions in the Middle East and West Asian have said this eloquently. It is a matter of pessimism that war still seems unavoidable even in the days of democracy. A qualification needs however to be added here. In the UNDP Human Development Report, HDR, 2002 with the theme “deepening democracy in a fragmented world”, one of the many interesting patterns of national behaviors that evolved from empirical data on wars in the second half of the 20th Century is, no two democracies have ever gone to war with each other. Quite obviously, these nations have discovered an alternative ground on which to thrash out vexed issues. The indication is also, democracy is a versatile medium for this meeting of minds and resolution of conflicts.Even in our situation, there have been very strong tendencies on very many occasions to return to the former method of conflict resolution, which basically has a one-line philosophy made famous by Joseph Conrad’s fictional character, Kurtz in Heart of Darkness – exterminate the brute. But, as in this story, the scale to decide which is the “civilized” and which the “brute” between the exterminator and exterminated, becomes extremely blurred. But the values of democracy, with its insistence on giving each and every one a say, regardless of numerical or physical strength, have generally managed to keep this tendency in check. There have been occasions when this inner moderation snapped, as in the case of the Naga-Kuki feud, Meitei-Meitei Pangal mayhem, and Kuki-Paite fratricide, but it would be reasonable to presume that many more would have been prevented by this inner cord. For indeed although our society seemed at certain junctures to have reached points of explosive of ethnic violence, nothing so catastrophic have happened so far. This however does not mean the dark forces of violence have been successfully subdued for all times. We still continue to sit on a dormant volcano which can with provocation come alive again. And provocations there have been and there will be by those who either do not understand or believe in the healing power of accommodation and mutual respect that democracy recommends.There have also been plenty of talks of a dialogue between the civil societies of the different communities that are at loggerheads. This is welcome, but a dialogue devoid of a willingness to accommodate can possibly lead nowhere. A dialogue or a discourse is not simply about convincing the opposing party to surrender to the will of the other party, but of discovering, or rediscovering as the case may be, of common grounds on which to build the foundation of the future together. This spirit has never been conspicuous in all the vociferous claims for the need for understanding and good neighbourliness. By democracy we do not necessarily mean only the number game. This is a necessary ingredient, but it is far from being a sufficient condition. Equally important, it is also about justice, and in evolving this understanding of justice, the premium must be on reason and creative insights into what is common good. Here concept of freedom is also important. Without individual freedom, the aggregate of which is what constitutes freedom of larger social grouping, including the nation, there can be no democracy. But again, as philosopher Isaiah Berlin said, freedom cannot be without any conditions. Absolute freedom for the wolves translates into death for the lambs. Freedom then can make meaning only if it is moderated by reason and a commonly legislated rational law.

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In the wake of the growing chant for more liberalization of economies around the globe and the unabashed worship of the market, there are many extremely well informed voices calling for caution against dropping all economic regulatory mechanisms. It is true market worship has led to a path of growth generally, but critics are now calling attention to the fact that growth alone cannot be development. Development, they say is not about the size of GDPs and GNPs alone, but also of a number of other conditions, some subjective and others objective. One of these is environment. Among the others are: gender empowerment, equitable distribution of income, public health etc. The most economically and militarily powerful nation, the United States of America, has often been the subject of case studies in probing these issues. Some of the questions asked by Nobel Prize winning economists like Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz should be able to rhetorically present the nature of the problem. Why is this most developed nation also dotted with the most number of prisons in the world? According to Stiglitz, (“Roaring Nineties”) some of the American states spend more money on prison maintenance than on primary education. It is true that these rich societies have enough to spend on both prison and education, but the picture narrates of something extremely dysfunctional? Again according to a study by Amartya Sen and John Dreze (“Development as Freedom”), Black Americans although on the average they command incomes many times higher than people in the Third World countries even after taking into account the differences in the cost of living, have a lower life expectancy than many of the latter societies. Markets also have seldom shown respect for the environment, and hence the world’s most well endowed market, the USA’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on world environment. These are facts and figures that point out how incomplete the traditional notions of development are. The issues are many, but on the morrow of the World Environment Day on June 5, it would be a profitable exercise to reflect on the many awesome aspects of the environment question.The question is large and can even go beyond easy comprehension. Viewed with an evolutionary sense of time, there seems nothing that anybody can do about the changes that happen to the earth’s environment. As for instance, who can prevent the next Ice Age from happening, for science today has determined that the Ice Epochs are a cyclic event, just as the earth’s seasons are, although on a much longer cyclic path. Seasons happen because of the earth revolves around the sun and also because of the inclination of its axis at 23.5 degrees against the plane of its revolution. It is now also established that the earth’s axis is not just inclined but also wobbles by about 4 degrees and this wobbling is thought to be the cause behind Ice Ages. In evolutionary terms this cycle may take millions of years to complete, but all the same it is inevitable. The last Ice Age, a minor one according to scientists, ended about 12,000 years ago, and it is only after this event that the race for modern civilizations was flagged off. Life forms also go extinct. This is again a fact about life on earth. Millions and millions of species of life have died out while million others have come out of oblivious existence to take centre stage in the earth’s 4.5 billion years. If a comet hit had not wiped off the predatory dinosaurs about 64 million years ago, scientists believe the species of life that evolved into modern man could have remained an insignificant creature perhaps the size of a house lizard, out of its own survival instinct. Evolutionary scientists like the late Stephen Jay Gould (author of best-selling “Wonderful Life”) and Simon Conway Morris (author of the authoritative “The Crucible of Creation”) have demonstrated through the study of fossils that on the one hand life just wants to be (the sole purpose of the creature called sponge seems just to hang around at one spot throughout its life until it comes to an end), and on the other, that life forms almost with an uncanny certainty, go extinct from time to time. They have also argued quite convincingly that evolution is not centred around humans and its sole purpose is to preserve life, not necessarily human life. The awesomeness of the mysteries of life is in a pristine sense, religious. If we reflect on it with earnest, it should humble even our greatest problems. On Environment Day then, let us learn to be humble.

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IMPHAL, June 12: A community hall cum bazaar shed at Waikhong bazaar, which was constructed under the Manipur Development Society (MDS) with a total cost of Rs. 9 lakhs was inaugurated by the works minister K Ranjit Singh. 

The inaugural function was also attended by Heiyanglam assembly constituency MLA E. Dwijamani who is also the chairman of Manipur state pollution control board, and Dy. Speaker Th Lokeshore and MLA E. Suraj Singh.

Speaking at the function, works minister K Ranjit Singh said that the Congress led government will bring only peace and development in the state and the country.

He maintained that regular payment of state employees’ salaries is one of the main achievements of the Congress led government during its last nine years of rule.

Taking up where the Chief Minister left yesterday during a reception ceremony, the works minister further added that in order to bring an equal development in both the hill and the valley districts of the state, the SPF government is taking up a series of developmental works in the state.

Further speaking at the function, he declared that a congressman will not follow nepotism regarding developmental works in the state.

Citing the recent ban of Th Muivah from entering the state as an example he stated that the congress is not interested only in power but in the general welfare of the state and its people.

With the general elections stated to be held early next year in the state, the works minister also stated that he hoped that the general public will bring back the party which has brought development and peace in the state.

The inauguration ceremony was also attended by PWD engineers, block congress committee officials and pradhans of the area.

In the meantime works minister K. Ranjit further started the 3rd Tampha Lairembi State Level Mukna Tournament 2011 organized by the Wangoo Tampha Lairembi Mukna Association under the supervision of All Manipur Mukna Association at Wangoo this evening.

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IMPHAL, June 15: Weeks have past since the blast occurred at the ADC office Khuman Lampak leaving three women of a family injured however the ill-fated family has been left on their own without a single financial or physical help from the government.

The victims, Neichin Singson along with her mother, Holdim alias Boinu Singson and elder sister Lucy were rushed to the JNIMS after bomb splinters inflicted injuries when a powerful bomb ripped through the campus of the ADC office at Khuman Lampak on May 28.

Even as the condition of Boinu (mother) and Lucy are stated to be stable, Neichin’s condition is far from improving.

The blast left Neichin’s abdomen open exposing her intestine. Doctors had to operate on her for about 7 hours. Her mother sustained splinter injury on her head and Lucy on her right shoulder.

Talking to IFP Lalboi Singson, a fourth grade employee of the PWD, said that a team of cabinet ministers which included DD. Thaisii, K. Ranjit, L. Jayenta Kumar and MPCC president Gaikhangam visited the family on the ill fated day. During their visit they assured the family not to worry as the government will give necessary assistance without any failure.

But no help of any form from the government has been received by the family, he said.

“My youngest daughter Neishi has been complaining of pain and wanting to have solid food, on the other hand the doctors said that my wife should be operated again for a metal piece is still embedded inside her head”.

“I don’t know what to say, I feel so lost since the incident occurred”, said Lalboi Singson with a sigh.

Our family has been victimized between a war of the government and anti-government elements but we are left to handle this like our personal problem, lamented Lalboi drawing the attention of the government to look into the grievances of the family.

Lalboi is the sole bread earner of the family of eight members including 6 children.

The family have so far received monetary help of rupees 19,000 from the pocket money of the minister who visited them, 10,800 rupees from the St. John School, New Lambulane, where Neiching and Lucy is studying and a sum of Rs 20, 000 each from four ADC members.

The family has spent around 70,000 rupees in the treatment of the three injured members with what ever is with them. Besides human casualty a Kawashaki bike was also damage beyond redemption, said Lalboi.

It may be recalled that a powerful bomb exploded in the campus of the temporary office of ADC located at Khuman Lampak on June 28 morning around 9:45 am. Police claimed that the bomb was fitted in car. However the motive behind the attack is yet to be ascertained as no individual or organization has so far claim responsibility for the attack.

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IMPHAL June 17: The week long observance of the 13th foundation day of the Nationalist Congress Party observed by the Manipur Pradesh NCP concluded today at Ima Khunthoknganbi Sanglen today.

The anniversary observance was attended by state NCP president MLA Radhabinod Kiojam,MLAs Th Nandakishore, Salam Joy and Doukhomang Khonsai among other party officials.

Taking digs at the Congress led SPF government, opposition leader Radhabinod Koijam said that the Congress has become unscrupulous and is leading the people on a wrong path. Stating that the insurgent issue needs to be addressed at the foremost and that necessary initiatives has to be taken to bring the misguided youths back to the mainstream. He said that talks must be held between the state and non state actors so as to bring about a congenial atmosphere in the State as there can be no development without peace.

He further said that the NCP believes in upholding the territorial integrity of the State and will never compromise on the issue, he also reminded the fact that Irom Sharmila has been fasting for more than a decade for removal of AFSPA from the State, yet her endeavor has been largely ignored by the state government. He added that if she expires then the State will burn in protest.

MLA Doukhomang in his speech stated that NCP will contest for 25 assembly constituencies in the upcoming elections and will win at least 15 seats. He also said that the next government will have a coalition with the NCP.

MLA Salam Joy also stated that the State is going backwards in development as the Congress believes in doing politics by using money, muscle power and sheer gundaism. Such attitude of the Congress will never be successful in bringing development to the State. He added that the NCP believes in bringing communal harmony and acts with a sacrificing and sincere outlook.

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By Robin S Ngangom
“The yellow mustard’s in bloom
Krishna’s got a wife
Radha has given birth to a child
Krishna is starving.”

Once again it is the season that smells of Yaosang.

The yellow mustard departs, peas ripen, and
Boys revisiting the year, steal from vegetable patches at night
For Yaosang’s neighbourhood feast.

We cursed the Brahmin priest when he refused to bring the god
To our reed and straw hut on the river bank
Ready to be razed to mark the new season.

As the months warmed up to her
My grandmother pulled out, one by one,
From the caches in her sunny room
Dry sweetmeat she brought from her endless pilgrimages.
In winter, she could only give me wizened fruits
That looked like her fingers.

And then the courtyard plays, the touring cinemas,
The khongjom parba phaibok, arrived in droves,
Growing in clamour as a boy’s nights grew very late
And he didn’t know that his father had gone looking for him.

For the boy, though, in the twinkling festive nights
Every girl was a fairy or a goddess
Smelling of lotuses and dreams.

And having abandoned his grandmother
While chasing his kite he felt guilty
And went to her now “dark and mouldy” room.

He found her tied with a rope to her bedpost and
Hobbling around her bed. She said,
“I’m mad now, don’t come near me.”

The boy ran onto the street behind his house.
But while running on the street he did not realise that
He was growing taller with patches of hair under his arms and belly
As the life of the streets claimed him.

It could be his blooming heart
Or his wet dreams, he mustered up courage to ask a girl out
After writing fifteen perfumed letters
And they went cycling past the returning mustard fields on river banks,
Past his almost happy boyhood.

So many years he waited in vain for them to return
The pena shakpa,the laiharaoba, the chalees of kang,
Thehalf-remembered pass khelas.

But they’ve disappeared in the folds of his reveries
Like the fairies and the goddesses.

One day in his middle years
They all returned suddenly as spectacle
Watched eagerly by wives and boys
Before they became victims
Of the killers who have stepped out
Of the courtyard plays and created widows
And made boys disappear into endlessly waiting days.

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IMPHAL, June 20: The villagers of Nungba has strongly urged the government to remove former secretary of Nungba Village Authority, Dimthaorei Gangmei from the government gazette alleging that the former secretary has misappropriated huge amount of funds under MNREGS.

A press meet was held in this connection at Nungba area jointly organised by the Nungba Village Authority, Nungba Bazaar Board and customary court Nungba Sub-division Head Quarter.

Speaking at the meet Bandai Kamei, secretary of the customary court alleged that a huge amount of fund was misappropriated by Dimathaorei Gangmei, for works taken up under MGNREGS, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Bandai Kamei also informed that the former secretary had withdrawn an amount of Rs. 15.80 lakhs for construction of five sub-standard culvert along the Burma Road (inter village circular road) without the knowledge of the concerned organization within the area. He said that the incident happened during the tension surrounding the appointment of the Nungba Village Authority chairman.

Bandai maintained that under the construction scheme 40 percent of the fund was meant for material components which also includes skilled labours but the Dimathaorei manipulated it by entrusting job card holders to do the construction work instead of the skilled labours.

He further alleged that even though the funds allotted include construction of tanks and for water pipes, the tanks were never constructed.

On May 16 Dimthaorei was expelled by a general body meeting of the various Nungba unit organisations for his failure to give his statement on the alleged misappropriation and lack of transparency. A social audit public hearing was also conducted before his expulsion, said Bandai.

Alung Kamei was elected by the people of Nungba as the secretary of the village authority however the government did not removed Dimthaorei from the gazette of the government, further revealed Bandai Kamei. He urged the government to remove the fraud immediately in the interest of people which has created a sense of confusion between the people and may result in unwanted disturbances in the area.

Ngankeilak Kamei, member of Bazaar board stated that usually the culvert constructed by Dimthaorei cost below Rs one lakh.

He said the work was implemented without maintaining any transparency and knowledge of the people or the various social bodies of Nungba. The people here including the social bodies have no idea how the culvert should be build per the work provision as no one has been informed of it, Ngankeilak maintained.

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