Tag: Editorial

The reaction, not just of the Government of India, but also a large section of right wing politicians and intelligentsia to the recent damning report by Amnesty International on the excesses committed under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, AFSPA, in Jammu and Kashmir has been on expected lines. Why are international Human Rights watchdogs such as AI only interested in atrocities by the state forces and never of the equally heinous crimes perpetrated on ordinary citizens by the non-state fighters? This would have been a very legitimate question if it came from the lay citizenry, but certainly not so if it did from anybody who pretends to be acquainted with the definition and philosophy behind the international human rights movement. Call it a weakness or limitation of the movement, the fact is, human rights as defined by the UN`™s Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, is a statute listing 30 charters of rights to be guaranteed to the individual citizen by their respective states, therefore violation of these rights can only be by the state. The framers of this statute were well aware of this limitation which is why it is `universal declaration` of `human rights` and not declaration of `universal human rights`. The idea of universal human rights is too broad and nebulous, and can only exist on the vast plane of philosophy as guiding principles of actual laws.

Human rights which came out of this international movement hence are a set of international laws which evolved out of a specific context and not by any means to be equated with rectitude. The timing of the birth of this movement should already give an idea of this context and therefore the justification for its thrust area. It was a time the World War II had just concluded. Not only was the devastation caused by the war overwhelmingly depressing, but what shocked even more was the realisation that the state far from being a protector of individual citizens, can turn on them in monstrous manners and when this happens the citizens have absolutely no protection. The horror of the Holocaust, in which Hitler`™s Germany turned against a section of its own citizens belonging to the Jewish race was staring the world in the face. In lesser scales, the war also demonstrated that the state can turn rogue on its own citizens in practically every country. The felt need at the time was of an international institution to which the individuals can turn to if their own states turn against them. Human rights organisations like the Amnesty International carry this mandate. When non-state criminals commit atrocities against ordinary citizens, it is for the state and its laws to take care of them. But when a state turns against its own citizens, the human rights movement is the shield. Nobody brings up the human rights question when insurgent fighters are killed, that is if other norms of combats laws such as killing in custody or subjecting prisoners to tortures etc, are not violated. It is only when the state and its forces go on rampage amongst the civil population that human right question is invoked. Granted the nature of insurgency complicates matter, but it is a challenge before any nation which is left with the prospect of fighting itself, in the words of Assamese scholar Sanjib Baruah.

In the past two decades or so however, there have been attempts to make atrocities by the non-state combatants accountable to the universal understanding of human rights and their violations. This was especially so during the hey days of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, which was at one time virtually a state, with a definite territory and people under its control, running an administration, enacting laws etc, as any state would. The Geneva Conventions Protocol-II precisely sought to address this problem on the realisation that since the conclusion of WWII, 80 percent of the victims of conflicts were those of `non-international conflicts`. The catch here was, for any non-state organisation to be brought within the purview of the human rights legal system, they have to be treated somewhat as putative states violating what they too must guarantee their citizens. For the fear that the Protocol might affect state sovereignty, even after the Protocol was sliced down from its original 47 articles to 28, no state with potential internal conflicts ratified it. India ratified the Geneva Conventions of 1949, but to this day steadfastly refuses to give its assent to this Protocol. This precisely is what the present problem is about.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/state-and-nonstate/

The question is not an easy one by any standard. Just how is the issue of immigration, economic, political or otherwise, expected to be tackled by those who are at the receiving end? The answer would, to a very great extent depend on the perspective one takes. Against the context of the universal notion of human rights, as enshrined in the UN Charter of Human Rights, economic and political migration is deemed as a basic right. This humanitarian outlook is however premised upon the position that the host nation or region is far superior economically and demographically, and therefore is under no threat from such migrations. Sadly, this condition is not always a reality. The predicament of the Northeast is adequately the proof. Assam today for instance is virtually an extension of Bangladesh, and it is said indigenous Assamese today are no longer a majority in Assam. It is said if the various ethnic communities, like the Bodos, Cacharis, Misings etc were to be excluded as a separate tribal category within the broader Assamese identity, the percentage of Assamese Hindus and original Muslims, would be reduced to a significantly smaller minority, forming perhaps even less than 30 percent of the total population.

It is not as if migration is a new phenomenon in Assam and the rest of the Northeast. But in the olden feudal days, when the power structure was radically different, migrants sooner than later assimilated themselves to the identity of the host communities that their new feudal masters belonged. Hence, Bengali peasant migrants from East Bengal would in no time adopt the Assamese identity (Amalendu Guha: Planters Raj to Swaraj), so that along with the continuous immigration, would be a growth of the Assamese population. This was demonstrated in pre-independence census exercises. Guha also explains, that for the poor illiterate Bengali peasantry who migrated to Assam from the mufossil districts of the then East Bengal, to identify with the powers that be in Assam gave them a sense of greater identity and would readily indigenise. Had they known there was a much greater Bengal and Bengali identity were within their immediate reach, this might not have been. Indeed this was the case with the Hindu Bengali Bhadralok from East Bengal. They wanted to identify with what was then often referred to as the Bengali Renaissance in Bengal rather than rural and backward Assam of the time, creating another layer of ethnic tension. We need not go too far to appreciate this indigenization process Guha refers to, for this was also to a great extent the case in Manipur when it was still a monarchy. The Muslims, again from the then East Bengal, readily became the Pangals, and Brahmins from Kanauj in the modern day Uttar Pradesh and other places from subcontinental India too willingly became absorbed as the Bamons. As long as the indigenization process of immigrants remained a natural phenomenon, demographic frictions were either altogether absent or else within easily manageable limits.

Enter modern times and democracy, and the scenario altered radically. Identity consciousness and knowledge also expanded immensely. To take the Assam example again, in the modern era immigrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) are not willing to compromise their origin identity. Viewed against the compulsion of massive immigration on the eve of, and immediate wake of, the Partition of India, this became a huge issue, for then the indigenous Assamese began to see a threat to their own identity by a demographic takeover by Bengalis. Assam even refused to have the Hindu majority Sylhet become part of Assam when the Hindu Bengalis of the district desperately wanted it so in order to be included in India at the time of Partition, and as a result this populous district was forced to join East Pakistan. Sketching the scenario at the time, Sanjib Baruah, another well known Assamese scholar, quotes the memorable and bewildered remark by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru upon reading Gopinath Bordoloi`™s letter, that the way the Assam chief minister was reacting, he might as well treat Assam as an independent country, adding an ironic remark that Nehru`™s remark proved prophetic, that many youth in modern Assam would indeed come to want such a fate. Perhaps not an exact parallel, but the Assam story is generally also the undercurrent behind much of the xenophobia the northeast has now come to be afflicted by. In the democratised world, immigrants no longer are willing to indigenise, setting them apart from the populations of the host regions. Struggles for power and economic spaces between them are the inevitable consequences. Democracy being ultimately a system of deciding who gets to hold the reins of power by a headcount, xenophobic tensions are also only natural. This, in our opinion, is one of the most fundamental challenges in tackling and overcoming the xenophobia issue in the northeast.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/immigrants-then-and-now/

The catastrophe unfolding in Greece is painful to watch, but in the impending tragedy are plenty of lessons for all. On July 5, the beleaguered country will vote whether it is willing to accept the conditions set on it by three powerful institutions, referred to as the `troika`, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, for a bailout loan of 110 billion Euros to tide over its estimated debt total of 323 billion Euros. The terms set are extremely harsh. As knowledgeable analysts have noted, a `reform plan foisted on Greece five years ago has been abysmal, resulting in a 25% decline in the country`™s GDP.` They also note that the troika is still demanding Greece reach a budget surplus by 2018, and reserve 3.5 percent of its GDP for the repayment programme of their proposed loan. Without going into too much details of Greece`™s unenviable budgetary balance sheet, suffices it to say the situation is tragic for the country. On July 5, if the country says `yes` to the troika`™s plan, it would virtually be surrendering its financial sovereignty to these banks. If on the other hand it says `no` it would be courting chaos and impoverishment, for indeed Greece`™s economy is on the verge of total collapse. Besides its GDP declining at 25%, among other things unemployment has risen to 60% and pension funds having virtually disappeared. Understandably, there has been an upswing of suicides and during the last one year, and it is said over 3000 ended their lives.

The Greece situation has raised many interesting questions. These range from the philosophical, political, economic and administrative. It has also brought to the fore once again the antagonism between the socialist vision and the capitalist one. Left leaning Nobel Prize winning American economist, Joseph Stiglitz, for instance sees vendetta and claims that the Troika`™s bailout plan is not meant as assistance but punitive measures. Greece is ruled by a Leftist coalition known as Syriza and its Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras been quite irreverently pushing policies which is against the Capitalist ethos of creating wealth at any cost, including extreme social inequalities. This obviously did not go well with Capitalist Europe, therefore nobody is keen to rescue Greece in its time of crisis and instead endorse directly or indirectly, punishing and humiliating the country till it ultimately submits.

Another well known economist and columnist, Paul Krugman, agrees. Krugman, newspaper readers will recall has always been sceptical of the Euro Zone, saying it was unrealistic to presume different peoples with very different saving and spending habits can share purse. Much before the current Greece crisis he had predicted that it was unlikely for instance for the thrifty and financially prudent Germans, and the spendthrift, carefree Greeks to get along well sharing a single purse. If the EU was a single federal country, the problem would have been different. If one of its units landed in trouble, it would have become obligatory for the Union to come to its rescue. This would be something a situation in which an acute financial crisis befalls Manipur or any other states of India. Such a crisis would have made the Union of India obligatory to come to the rescue of the beleaguered state. But politically, EU is hardly near this arrangement.

Another observation is interesting. It says creditors cannot be made to solely define what justice should be, or the debtors bear all responsibilities of failure. German sociologist and philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, for instance stepped out into public space to ridicule how bankers are being allowed to define a nation and not the citizens. Creditors are not doing the debtors a favour out of charity, but earn handsome profits from loans they extend when the loan contracts succeed, so in situation where these contracts genuinely fail, they too, apart from the debtors, must be made to bear the cost. There are other more obvious lessons. Any economy, from the smallest unit of a family to that of a nation, runs on money they earn. For a nation, this revenue comes from taxes. Hence, an economy cannot afford not to earn, and equally important, it cannot afford to spend more than it earns. In the worries in the Northeast over the Centre`™s plan to end the special category status for Northeast states, is again this same equation. To be independent, an economy must be productive so that there will be a surplus for the government to build a tax coffer with which to run the economy. People in Manipur and the Northeast often forget this and think only in terms of what they are entitled to get and not also what they are obliged to give.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/debtors-and-creditors/

The news today that the centre is willing to have the 6th Schedule extended to the hill districts of Manipur quite obviously would become the new agenda in the coming days for Manipur`™s issue starved politics. The discussions are unlikely have new substance but it is certain to bring out the painful polarity in Manipur politics again, and in our opinion quite meaninglessly. The state has heard these debates on the schedule before and it is unlikely to have become any more enlightened now precisely because political debates in Manipur have become a matter of posturing, and blinding opposing dissenting voices, with the least interest in creating creative dialectics which can throw new light on the state`™s many entangled issues. Like so many other issues, the question of introduction of the 6th Schedule in the state too has come to be appropriated by the other hotter issue of the state`™s territorial integrity, therefore all the heat and dust that this debate always manages to kick up.

The fact is, the 6th Schedule is nothing new. It has been in existence since the time India`™s republican Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950. It was meant for territories within the former undivided Assam and is aimed at giving a level of autonomy to the areas inhabited by hill tribals, in particular the Naga Hills District, which was already showing signs of unrest. Quite ironically, Naga leadership at the time under the charismatic A.Z. Phizo rejected the proposal and opted instead to demand total sovereignty for the Nagas. So the 6th Schedule came to be applied in the Khasi Hills, Jantia Hills, Garo Hills, which together became Megalaya in later years; the Lushai Hills which later became Mizoram; the Mikir Hills (Karbi Anglong); and North Cachar Hills. After Meghalaya became a state in 1972 by clubbing Khasi, Jantia and Garo hills, the Autonomous District Councils which each of them formed was retained, and even today, the entire state of Meghalaya is still covered by these three ADCs, except in the capital Shillong district which had been de-scheduled and de-reserved. When the Lushai Hills (by then known as the Mizo Hills) was elevated to a Union territory in 1972, the Mizo ADC was abolished but the area then known as Pawi-Lakher was split into three ADCs of Pawi, Lakher and Chakma. To go a little further into history, the area which came under these ADCs initially, were what the British called `Backward Tracts` by the Government of India Act 1919, and were generally territories beyond the Inner Line. These tracts later came to constitute two different categories of administrative zones called `Excluded Area` and `Partially Excluded Area` by the Government of India Act 1935. The `Excluded Areas` were not given any representation in the elected provincial government and were instead administered directly by the Governor. The `Partially Excluded Areas` had some representations but not by popular election, but nomination by the Governor. At the time the Constituent Assembly was thrashing out the shape of the Indian Constitution, the government appointed a Sub-Committee of the Constituent Assembly called the North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas Committee, under the chairmanship of Gopinath Bardoloi, the then Chief Minister of Assam. It was this committee which came up with the 6th Schedule as an administrative mechanism for the formerly `Excluded` and `Partially Excluded` areas of Assam. As always happens, the 6th Schedule, as indeed the Inner Line, have been given totally different connotations and today Tripura too has adopted the schedule for its now greatly shrunken tribal areas and in Manipur there are demands for it in place of the state`™s own ADCs created by the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971.

History aside, the moot point is, has the 6th Schedule been a success? The answer generally is no, and this will be confirmed by voices from the states where this schedule is in vogue. There is another question, and very relevant to Manipur. Is the 6th Schedule a threat to Manipur`™s integrity? The answer again would be no, and again this will be confirmed by voices from these states. Meghalaya is almost entirely covered by three ADCs under the schedule, but this has not meant its disintegration. Mizoram and Tripura offer the same answer. The new proposal for introducing the 6th Schedule in Manipur probably is part of a compromise formula for the Nagas who have been holding peace talks with the Government of India for the last 18 years. This would probably in lieu of Naga sovereignty or integration. If a lasting settlement can be thus brought about with such a concession, it needs to be applauded and accepted.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/back-to-6th-schedule/

`Thank you for the tragedy, I need it for my art.` Music lovers of the1980s and 1990s generation will remember the disdain in this statement by Kurt Gobain the lead singer, guitarist and primary song writer of the popular music group Nirvana. The dark sarcasm hurts even now, for it remains a very poignant and yet vicious attack on fence sitters who watch the action from the sidelines, making clever remarks and analysis on how things should have been or should be. For many observers, it is a fashionable pastime, but completely hollow for they have no other interest than to remain as observers. The emptiness of the constant refrain in the socialite party `And in the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo` in T.S. Eliot`™s `The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrog` can almost be heard echoing in these situations too. There is a clear distinction between `observing` and `witnessing` as scholars of renown such as Saul Friedlander and Dominick La Capra have emphasised. They note how knowing this distinction is a necessary condition for bringing about a final resolution to situations of conflict and trauma. In `witnessing` as distinct from `observing` there is a moral commitment to the events under scrutiny, and conflict and trauma resolution absolutely needs this commitment. The fence sitters are on the other hand only interested in making a name for themselves, or else a living, and sometimes a fortune out of other people`™s misery.

The attitude can even get cynical. As for instance, there is so much vested interests embedded in the tragedy of insurgency that even those supposedly fighting it have been known to have ensured the continuance of the tragedy. Politicians, bureaucrats, police, army, conflict NGOs, and even sections of the academia and journalistic fraternity, especially those who parachute into these conflicts zones periodically when crisis flare up to make their observations, before returning to their safe bases and make sermons with air of the presumption they have seen it all. The latter are a pain to watch and tolerate. Often they do much harm by creating wrong understanding of the situations amongst others remotely watching these conflicts. For evidence, switch on the national TV channels during any major crisis in the Northeast and watch the talking heads of academics and journalists dissecting the situation from their vantage without the least humility that their understandings are limited by the physical and emotional distance they are from the scenes of action.

The harm this section causes however is nothing compared to those wreaked by unscrupulous agencies making profit out of the bad situation. The raging controversy of fake encounters in places like Manipur, in which the police and the Army allegedly routinely gun down people either known to have militant link or else are suspected of it, in staged encounters is just the most horrifying example of these. Even if there are few alive to testify to these inhuman crimes, circumstantial evidences pointing to their existence are overwhelming. The chilling correspondence between gallantry medals received by the police and the military each year, with the rise and fall of charges of fake encounter killings should be enough to convince those looking into this contentious issue that the matter is nothing to be trifled. Recall the much publicised story of the `Ketchup Colonel` who even went to the extent of making people fake death, poured tomato ketchup on them, took photographs and claimed them to be insurgents killed to show his bosses he has been at his job.

But vested interest in conflict can be more sophisticated and complex. Counterinsurgency has today become a money spinner for authorities of various hues. The Indian State`™s understandable need to fight and end all challenges to it has made the purse for counterinsurgency liberal and subject only to very loose controls. The opulent rise in wealth of police officers of practically every rank disproportionate to their known sources of incomes is evidence enough. Then there was the Tehelka Magazine expose last year of how at least 30 percent of the huge funds of about Rs. 3000 crores earmarked each year for military civic actions to be conducted by the Assam Rifles were going into the private pockets of officers during awards of contract jobs. Then there are also dishonest conflict NGOs in the sidelines making a living out of the bad situation, chasing ambulances, doing body counts and writing their reports to their bosses to ensure their fund pipelines do not trickle off.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/observing-and-witnessing/

The images of flood waters slowly but surely submerging Chadong village area in the Ukhrul district even as the shutters of the Mapithel multi-purpose dam were lowered to begin the process of commissioning the dam. Quite obviously, a vast area of this beautiful vale will ultimately be converted to an artificial lake taking in all villages and farmlands in the area at altitude lower than the dam height. Even for those of us watching this, it is a heart wrenching experience, and we can imagine what agony it must mean for those for whom this place was once home. The authorities must also keep in mind these are homes and not houses or apartments which modern urban dwellers buy for convenience and sell for profits when work locations change. This distinction is important but often taken for granted and given little attention. The notion of land and home amongst traditional communities is quite different from non-traditional modern societies for whom land and accommodation have come to be defined by the lexicon of the new market order, therefore little more than other forms of commodities. In Manipur for instance, both in the valley where modern land revenue administration mechanism have been embraced and more so in the hills where these new norms are resisted and not made applicable, traditional home grounds of communities and clans are sacred spaces. These have been the homes of these communities for generations, and where their ancestors rested. The example of the Meiteis is interesting for though many are now adapted to the pace of city life in Imphal, they generally do not move out from where their forefathers laid the foundations of their homes. Even where city congestions have forced many to relocate, at the time of their deaths, they would still prefer to be cremated in their ancestral cremation grounds so that their ashes can mingle with those of their forefathers. Quite obviously, the values of these lands are different from the commodified city apartments.

The idea of modern development has always been problematic, especially so in modern times which have the advantage of hindsight to enumerate failed projects. There cannot be many who think development must not happen. The important question is, what should the acceptable price the communities pay? The United Nations Declarations on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007, clearly states that land acquisition of indigenous land should be by Free, Prior, Informed Consent, FPIC. We do hope at least this rule was observed. Until an alternate and credible development model is available, and such prices have to be paid by ordinary citizens, compensation must be not just about rehabilitation at alternate sites or some monetary assistance to start life afresh. It must actually be enough to make those who are compelled to sacrifice for what are ostensibly pursued in the interest of the larger common good feel comfortably taken care of. Although the land they lose is priceless, they must at least not feel cheated.

After all these heartaches caused, we do hope the Maphithel Dam does not join the league of similar projects which have ended up as big failures or else with extremely short lives. The first major dam in Manipur, the Ithai Barrage which raised the water level of the Loktak and maintained it constantly at that level to drive the electric generating turbines inside the three tunnels through the Lamdan Hills to ultimately flow into the Barak river system at Leimatak valley, has met with a fair degree of success in terms of electric power generation, but it caused extensive damages to miles upon miles of fertile farmlands in the low lying areas of the Loktak hinterlands, inhabited by various indigenous communities such as Kom, Koireng, Chothe, Zeliangrongs besides Meiteis. These agricultural lands turned into marshlands, but human ingenuity is such that a strain of rice plants `Touthabi` which can grow and fructify in marshes reclaimed some of the lost lands. Fish culturing and duck farming reclaimed some more, but these were hardly enough. Forty years ago, rights awareness not being so acute in the state, those who lost land then to the Loktak Project received a raw deal and there are still some cases pending in the court of law for repackaging the compensations. We do hope the new projects the state takes up do not inflict such injustices again. There are some very successful dams too, at least so far. The Umiam Lake or Barapani in Meghalaya is one of these. The state is power surplus because of it, and the artificial lake has also become a major tourist attraction making it a livelihoods source for the people living in its vicinity. We do hope, the dams that Manipur build now and in the future turn out to be similar in nature.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/chadongs-agony/

By: Pradip Phanjoubam

The following is an account of the author`™s extended travel in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region nations, including Northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Yunan and Guangxi provinces of China in 2006, a trip for seven Indian journalists sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. The region today is flourishing and considered amongst some of the fastest growing economic regions of the world. This is how they entered the new chapter of development and economic development of their common regional homeland not so long ago. There are plenty of stories of tears too that accompanied this transition. But as they say, only the sweat the tears that went into the making of any project can make the laughters at the end of the journey all the more worth the while.

The days of `nation states` may not be over yet, but `region states` which Kineche Ohame predicted would replace them are taking birth, or are in the process of doing so. In any case, the understanding of `nation state` is in for a drastic alteration, so it seems.

Six former bitter rival nations along the basin of the mighty Mekong River, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand, Myanmar and the Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China are the latest to decide to sublimate past antagonism into mutually beneficial channels of economic cooperation and reap in the process what is in their common parlance, `peace dividends`.

The six together today form the Greater Mekong Sub-region, GMS, and the initiative to evolve them into one single economic unit is strongly backed by the Asian Development Bank, ADB, as well as Japan and China for their own economic and political benefits.

`The key is trust and respect of each other. Each of the nations has its own goals but the point is for all of them to know that all can gain and grow together by opening up to each other.` Liqun Jin, vice president of the ADB and a former vice minister in the Chinese government, said in an interview with this writer in New Delhi in the ADB India Resident Mission office.

Jin is optimistic that India too would come on the radar of GMS initiative sooner than later by coupling its own `Look East` policy with it.

During a brief but intensive tour of two of the major GMS nations, Thailand and Vietnam recently, it however became evident that India figures very little as yet on the consciousness of those working on the ground of this ambitious project.
eople do however fondly remember the Indo-ASEAN car rally that passed through September last year. The goodwill generated by such overtures is tangible, and it is only to be expected it will pay dividends in the long run.

The foundation of the GMS initiative rests on three visions, announced Rajat M Nag, Director General, Mekong Development, of the ADB, in a presentation he made during a two day summit on `Mekong Development Forum: Promoting India-Mekong Cooperation` in New Delhi on November 9 and 10, co-organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, CII, and ADB. They are: Connectivity, Competitiveness and Community.

The project`™s flagship programmes are: transport, trade facilitation, telecom, investment, energy, human resource development, environment, tourism and agriculture.

Since its inception in 1992, the project has done miles in infrastructure development as well as confidence building. The GMS countries have been recording strong growths, Vietnam topping with a steady 7 percent. In all 5.2 billion dollars have been sunk into 19 infrastructure projects, and another 115 million dollars in 110 technical assistance projects.

The results are visible, both in terms of physical infrastructure, notably world class roads, but also more subjectively in the sense of optimism all around among officials as well as the ordinary men and women on the streets.

The sense is also of a region on the move. One stop custom houses are being worked out at the borders so that trucks are not harangued by the need to complete tedious official formalities of two countries at every border crossing, driving licensing norms are being formalized so that they become recognized throughout the region etc.

`Thoughts are being applied to introduce a common visa regime too for the GMS region in the style of the Schengen visa of the European Union.` Rajat Nag said.

The underlying logic behind the push for the evolution of economic regions and corridors is that the forces that led to the formation of the political reality of `nation states` with their hard, precise, zealously defended political boundaries, are seldom in congruence with natural economic regions.

In fact, the case more often has been for the former to segmentize these natural regions, diminishing the economic strength and potential of each of the political units. The new outlook seeks too break these political barriers, at least in the economic spheres.

The idea of economic region forming a broader contour covering many nations is not new. The European Union had shown the way late in the last century, so have the ASEAN and to a much lesser extent the SAARC.

Within the country, the idea of the North Eastern Council, NEC, the apex development agency looking after the eight northeastern states including Sikkim, is an articulation of this spirit.

As a regional entity, the northeast is rich in resources and developmental potential, but as individual states, all of them remain incapacitated and condemned to a state of stagnancy and underdevelopment.

But the idea must be allowed to expand beyond the international border and ultimately couple up with the GMS. `In such an outcome, the entire corridor would become a land bridge between two growing economic super powers, India and China.` Rajat Nag said.

There are lessons to be learnt in the area of conflict resolution too from the GMS experience. It would be a welcome miracle if the actualization of economic regions can come to supersede the obsession with political boundaries and closed ethnic identity perimeters which have been the roots of many feuds in the northeast.

There is no reason why such a miracle cannot happen. But this will entail a development agenda that empowers the people by opening up opportunities, and building capacities that will enable them to reap the fruits of these opportunities. This coupled with administrative guarantees of identity safeguards should make a potent medicine. After all, what is freedom beyond the guarantees of these basic dignities?

Development policy initiatives must hence be able to see beyond the immediate. Insurgency as alibi for delaying or denying development, would amount to accepting defeat even before entering the ring.

The dreary official chant that it is a necessary condition for peace to precede development in northeast must be reversed. Development must not be allowed to be held at ransom at any cost.

Greater Mekong Sub-Region

The mud brown, rough waters of the mighty Mekong River have been tamed somewhat. It is today navigable for a greater part of its great length of over 4000 kms giving livelihood and hope to the population along it in six nations of the Greater Mekong Subregion, GMS, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China.

The river has also become a major route for commerce between the six nations. It can today take 300 tonne vessels during the monsoons, although on the average 150 tonne loads is normal. During the dry season 50 tonne vessel are safe. A loaded vessel takes one day to reach Thailand from Yunnan but upstream journey time is one and half day.

China took the trouble as well as footed the expenses of blowing up many of the dangerous rapids along its meandering course. Its reward is, no other nation knows the river bed grid better than it does.

While the grid map can be shared, the confidence that came along in the process of harnessing the river cannot be, overnight. It cannot be a coincidence that nearly all of the freight vessels on the Mekong and their crew today are Chinese.

The river is still dangerous for those who do not know it well and only Chinese vessels engineered with the river in mind, and their crews feel safe on it, said a Thai custom official at Chaing Rai, Thailand`™s northernmost city bordering China, Myanmar and Laos.

A river port with modern loading and unloading facilities is coming up at Chaing Saen in the vicinity of Chiang Rai and situated almost at the heart of the Golden Triangle, a name that conjures up images of opium fields and drugs mafia. All of the vessel docked here when a team of eight Indian journalists visited it on an Asian Development Bank sponsored tour, were Chinese.

A score kilometers drive from this port is a point where two tributaries of the Mekong picturesquely confluence, dividing between them three countries, Thailand, Laos and Thailand. The panoramic view of the three countries on the bank of the same river makes the nomenclature, Golden Triangle, supposedly given by an American officer, extremely appropriate, and hence has stuck.

Down the same road, on the Thailand bank of the river, a state-of-the-art museum, `Hall of Opium Golden Triangle Park`, has come up and expectedly it has become a major tourist destination.

A third bridge is coming up on the Mekong River at Chiang Khon about 80 km from Chiang Rai, making a slight detour along the 2000 km highway connecting Bangkok and Kunming, the capital of China`™s Yunnan province, at an estimated cost of 34 million dollars. The bridge will allow this rapidly developing land trade route to skirt trouble-torn Myanmar and instead pass through Laos for 230 kms before rejoining the main artery.

This highway, of course is just one of the main routes, and considered important for it connects two prosperous regions, Thailand and Yunnan, and one which is already in service via Myanmar. But there are other corridors identified, notably two north-south corridors including this one, and two east west corridors running from Thailand to Vietnam.

The ADB, China and Thailand have each pledged 30 million dollars each for the construction of this detour through Laos. These countries, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, JBIC, would also be footing most of the bills for the bridge too, while less well off Laos takes the easy ride. Japan`™s interest in the GMS is strong, and its second largest overseas chamber of commerce, after Shanghai, is located in Bangkok.

Is Myanmar then paying for its political uncertainty? It probably would have, if not for its extremely strategic location and the richness of its minerals, especially its reserve of natural gas and other fossil fuel.

The GMS nations, especially Thailand and China, have not banished the country from their minds and are continuing to extend infrastructure into it in the belief that the nation would sooner than later open up to its neighbours.

Thai officials expressed the wish that India would reciprocate too and the two countries would meet half way in Myanmar.

For the moment, India seems still remote from this perspective. First, because Myanmar remains a huge blackhole to be bridged in any scheme of linking up the GMS with India. Second, because the thrust from India to put into effect its own `Look East` policy is still not serious enough, partly because of the many insurrections in its Northeastern states.

Right now, the focus of all GMS countries seems to be Yunnan. All of them want an access to this growing market, and a little reflected halo from an increasingly prosperous province. According to figures made available, Yunnan`™s economy in the past few years have been recording a 9 plus growth rate.

China has also been preparing for such an outcome for years with its own `Kunming Initiative` whereby it sought to understand more comprehensively, not just the economy but also the inner spirit of the GMS region and the rest of South East Asia.

If China has used the geographical and ethnic similarities between the Yunnan and the rest of the GMS countries to reach out to them without inspiring any sense of unease or awe, India too can do it with a similar `Northeast Initiative`.

The Northeast can and would vibrate practically on the same wavelength as any of these nations. But this should be no cause for insecurity that the Northeast would prove disloyal to the nation. The Yunnan example should spell this out loud. Develop the place, unleash its natural potential by allowing it to follow the paths of least resistance, and a lot of the troubles should disappear.

India needs to be a little less obsessive with its western borders and neighbours, and shed a little of its unease at looking east. Even the SAARC strongly reflects this ethos. Most of all of its 13 summits so far in its 20 year life have been sparring forums for India and Pakistan. It thinks it is natural to induct Afghanistan as its eight member but Myanmar has hardly come on its radar.

It is not co-incidental that it was Nepal which threw in the spanner on the Afghanistan question in its recent Dhaka summit. How would Northeast India or East India, or for that matter Bangladesh or Bhutan, be excited about Afghanistan, as much as Pakistan or North India would be? The SAARC, so also India, must acknowledge the regional variations in interests and concerns.

Perhaps the need is to sub-regionalise the SAARC and identify subregional natural economic threads rather than seek to identify homogenous interests for such a large region. If Myanmar fails to excite Rajasthan, Afghanistan would not excite the Northeast either.

The need to prepare for an Asian integration is dictated by yet another related development. The plan for a web of trans-Asian highways is simmering in the office of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP, United Nations, in Bangkok.

India is among the 27 nations to have put its signature on the agreement to develop this highway system, although it is still not among the 13 to ratify the decision. Unfortunately, Bangladesh still has not signed.

According to information from the ESCAP office, a total of 256 million dollars have been committed by member nations and another 186 is still required for the project to get going. The project will have four categories of roads and a design committee is ready to be set up.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/mekong-lesson-for-northeast-india/

Is there anything as a fundamental, given, purpose of life? The answer to this question must have to be at the foundation of all philosophies and religions. Without life, no doubt the world would still exist, but there obviously would be no philosophy. A very interesting debate on the notion of development between two well known Indian intellectuals, Ashish Nandi and the late Gautam Adhikari more than 20 years ago on the opinion page of The Times of India, when many of us late mid-career folks were still in college, comes to mind. One only vaguely remembers the entire arguments, but just one point made by Adhikari to counter Nandi`™s rather esoteric model of development, stood out to grab attention so convincingly that it continues to remain registered in one`™s mind prominently even after so many years. Adhikari cited an incident in which Albert Einstein, during his anti-nuclear campaign in the 1970s was confronted by an irreverent American student during a lecture in one of the American universities. The student posed the question as to what objection the renowned scientist had to non-existence. In other words, what exactly did Einstein have against life being wiped off from the face of the earth, a prospect that was thought to be a genuine possibility at the time in the heat of the Cold War. According to Adhikari, Einstein was caught off the wrong foot and was unable to give a convincing or a coherent answer at that moment, but apparently the question troubled him so much that a week later he tried to answer the overwhelming question again in a newspaper article.

In the article, Einstein proposed that a fundamental presumption must have to be accepted by one and all without questioning. That presumption simply says `life is good`. The corollary of this axiom is, anything and everything that supports life is good and anything and everything that opposes life is bad. If this premise is not agreed upon, no rational discourse would be possible at all. All philosophies and religions would crumble too. So to the student`™s unsettling question about non-existence, Einstein`™s belated answer was, life must not be allowed to go extinct because it is good. That life is the essential and adequate meaning of life. To ask for a purpose of life beyond this would be meaningless as a rational proposition. Conceded that for believers in religion, the answer would probably be a little different. For them this meaning would be about a total surrender to the will of a higher supernatural order without questioning.

The inference from Einstein`™s argument is, all life wants to live. This is also empirically evident everywhere, both in the plant as well as in the animal kingdoms `“ life has a passion and lust for life. Even simple organisms as insects would run away if its life were to be threatened or else resort to defenses it is capable of. Plants seek out the sun and water, and find ingenuous ways to preserve and propagate its kind so as to ensure the survival of its species. Life has been found in the most unlikely places too, adopting itself to survive even in the middle of scalding hot natural hot water springs. But the answer is not so straightforward. For if this passion for living is evident, in so many cases, there are also life forms which exhibit none of these. Bill Bryson in `A Short History of Nearly Everything,` points this out with a touch of humour how it is confounding to imagine what ambitions in life sea creatures like the sponge or the garden moss could be having in life. All that the sponge for instance wants is seemingly to hang on the sides of rocks on the ocean floor without motion for thousands of years. Can there be anything as a `purpose` in life for them as humans understand the term? Bryson`™s conclusion is, often life just wants to be. This sense of life`™s vitality is a little more complicated for humans, blessed or cursed as they are with higher consciousness. Gregor Mallory, the man who is thought could have reached Mt. Everest summit three decades ahead of Edmund Hilllary in 1924, (it will never be known for he died near the summit either on the way to it or on the way back, along with his co-climber Andrew Irvine) summarized the need to stimulate and feel life`™s vitality in a spontaneous answer before his tragic but heroic expedition when he was asked why he wanted to go through the risk and torture of climbing Mt. Everest. In those days, such an expedition was indeed a great life risk. His answer: `Because it is there.`

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/life-is-good/

In Manipur, people go to the psychiatrist only when patients have lost their minds completely and have become insane. Many of the dysfunctional behaviours for which people in the West seek the help of psychiatrists are not given much attention here. As for instance, adolescents not getting along well with their parents, sudden drops in school performances, substance abuse, delinquency, inordinate anxiety, stress, depression and even rising incidents of hypertension, migraine, stomach ulcers, etc, all would have been matters that called for professional counselling in Western societies and not just sought to be remedied with pain killer pills or vitamin tablets. Not so here. This is partly because in traditional societies like ours, the community has its own internal mechanisms to provide counsels. Every elder is an uncle, aunt, brother, sister, grandmother etc, who in their own ways can exercise moderating influences on the wayward. Increasingly, this traditional world is transitioning to the modern with rapid urbanisation, yet the culture of seeking professional help to deal with these dysfunctions has still not caught up. In other words, though official records may not show it, Manipur could be sitting on a disguised time bomb of mental issues. This is not to say the psychiatry wards in the hospitals in Manipur are not showing a general upswing of patients. Surely amidst the prolonged state of spiralling lawlessness this is only to be expected. The matter is serious and should deserve meaningful pursuits by scholars and academic oriented NGOs. In all likelihood, the perennial state of mayhem, overbearing decrees and threats of physical injury and elimination have already cumulatively become a cause for chronic and extremely alarming health hazards.

Come to think of it, what would a day in the life of an average man, woman or even child in the state be like? From dawn to dusk, information which get registered in their consciousness are those of violence, aggressions, threats and diktats or else varied visages of laments and protests. They literally go to sleep with news and images of kidnaps, abductions and bloody encounters on the local cable TV channel, and then wake up the next morning to be greeted by pictures and news of more blood and gore staring back at them from the pages of morning newspapers. Average parents of school-going children for instance have not only to fight the clock to pack off their children to school in time and in order each morning, but also to desperately scan the pages of the local newspapers to find out whether the day is clear of bandh or blockade calls, lest their children get caught in senseless troubles and dangers.

Thirty years ago, such crimes would have elicited the bewildered response from everybody as unthinkable and impossible in Manipur. Today even the most naive and trusting grandmothers would accept these as Manipur`™s beastly new reality. Once upon a time, the moderating influences of religions and together with it a belief in a benign divine order were deeply institutionalised in the society. Back then, it did not always take the law to convince people the basics of what are wrong and right, or what are acceptable behaviours and what are not. Law keeping then was not so impossibly arduous or complex. The venerated space in society that elders once enjoyed, the respect reserved for women and the universal protective instinct for children, have all waned. It is not just the law which has been turned on its head, but the intuitive values built over aeons as well. Something went wrong somewhere down the line and there was nobody to arrest the trend. A lot of it probably had to do with the wayward ways of those in charge of the establishment. Official corruption must have been the first blow to shake up faith in social values painstakingly nurtured over generations. The law was the next casualty, and its moral authority and hold over the people loosened, leading them to take it into their own hands. There was also, in certain quarters, a sinister and cynical intellectual eagerness to destroy established institutions on the pretext that they were degenerate, before new credible ones could be built. The fact sheet at this moment would show values of traditional and instinctual jurisprudence, as well as the moral hold of legal institutions of the establishment, effectively decimated, but their replacements still not born. This destructive mindset is also notoriously blind to reason, unthinking of consequences, overbearing, authoritarian, undemocratic, hate-driven and obdurately hegemonic. Before it becomes too late, Manipur must address these issues in earnest.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/unheeded-social-dementia/

It is nearing a month since the elections to the Autonomous District Council, ADC, the local self governance bodies in the six ADC districts of the Manipur hills were held and nearly two weeks since the results were declared. Yet, there are no signs that the six councils will be formed immediately. It is true that the verdict was hung in some of the districts, but even in such a circumstance, it is unlikely the system will not have a way of resolving the situations. After all, hung verdicts of the electorate in a multi-party electoral democracy, is nothing to be surprised about. Moreover, in recent times, reflecting the multi fissured society that India is, this has become a routine experience. The question then is, why are the ADCs still not formed? The explanation given by the deputy chief minister, Gaikhangam yesterday to the media that this is on account of threats from underground militants is hardly convincing, though possible. It is not convincing because the government is supposed to have the power to overcome such pressures, and to say it does not would virtually amount to admission of governance failure. However, it is possible there are indeed such pressures from underground elements, for it is everybody`™s knowledge that they were involved in the election process all along, intimidating rival candidates to withdraw nomination, or else even physically assaulting them. If this was not so, it is absolutely unlikely that the ruling party Congress would not have fielded candidates in all the seats of the six ADCs, the previous avatars of which were the party`™s monopoly.

The inner frictions aside, what is also real is, the longer the formation of the ADCs are delayed, the more likely there would be the murky politics of horse-trading in which councillors are bought and sold by the parties in fray, just as it was the case in the state Assemblies and Parliament before the introduction of the Anti Defection Law. Let the government then assert its authority now, and have the matter resolved strictly abiding by the principles of democracy and fair play as it should be. Sadly, not many ordinary men and women are aware of the rules of conduct in the matter, but let the rules be applied and enforced now so that the ADCs can be formed.

This obscurity of what the rules of conduct are should bring up some more serious questions for the government to answer. Why is there such an obscurity in the first place? It is not just laymen, but even the state intelligentsia are in the dark as to what the exact rules are. Journalists who look for information on the matter too most often end up frustrated because the information are available in bits and pieces and spread over many different government departments. It is difficult not to believe this lack of official transparency is not motivated to protect vested interests. Only a few days ago, the government`™s Department of Information and Public Relations, DIPR, had made a bid to have all government advertisements routed through it. Why did it forget its primary job is not distribution of advertisements but of disseminating institutional information? If the department had been doing its duty as it should, why would there be such a knowledge vacuum on institutions like the ADCs. This did not have to be through advertisements, but also articles by its officers or else workshops for the media etc. Unlike the prospect of handling advertisements, nobody it seems is interested in handling these incentive-devoid responsibilities.

This lack of information is dangerous. For one, it would lead to uninformed guessworks and speculations by the public and indeed the media. It needs no elaboration what mischiefs, sometimes inadvertent and sometimes deliberate, can result from half truths of these speculations. Let the government immediately come out with a blueprint of the ADCs explaining its structure, functions, powers, limits, who administers the oath of office to councillors, impeachment and disqualification processes etc. If the people know or else can easily find out how the Indian Parliament and the state Assemblies work, why should the ADCs be allowed to remain under a cloud? And yes, let the councils be formed without further delay.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/adc-white-paper/

The recent press release by the Department of Information and Public Relations, DIPR, that all government advertisements should be released only through the department as per the state government`™s established advertising rules, is a point worth pondering. Under ideal situation, this would have been indeed a fair proposal for all that is asked is for the different government departments to follow the norms set by the government, and for good reasons. However, the ideal situation which must be the precondition for this practice to be meaningful is what is precisely missing.

The biggest anomaly is that the DIPR has not struck off newspapers and journals which are no longer in publication from its recognized list of publications from the state, so that the total number of publications in the DIPR list must be at least three times as much as those still in actual publication. For very obvious reasons, this is a very deceptive and potentially scandalous situation. This is especially so in the case of government tenders for various contract works. In the past there have been so much charges of what came to be known as `black tenders`, a practice in which tender notices for government contract jobs are released to journals and newspapers no longer in actual circulation so that there are no bidders except the ones in league with concerned officials. For one, this would ensure that certain contract jobs land only in the hands of the intended contractors. For another, it will ensure that the capping of the bids are kept low, generating unwarranted profits. All this is done for a share of the booty between all in this unholy alliance of contractors and government officials.

The equivalent of the DIPR in the Union government is the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, DAVP, New Delhi. Needless to say this organisation is multiple times bigger and with a budget several thousand times that of the DIPR. Most Central government advertisements for print as well as electronic media are routed through this directorate. Although `black tenders` cannot be feasible here as the same advertisements are released to several thousand publications at a time, it is anybody`™s guess that this organisation too has also become a money spinning den for officials and middlemen. In fact the joke is that the incentives are such that this is the only government in which employees work willingly and enthusiastically even on holidays. The list of DAVP-empanelled newspapers and journals from all over India is close to half a million however a great number of them are nonexistent in the market. The DAVP has a way of weeding out these publications, but they have never been comprehensive. These journals only print few copies by outsourcing the print orders to commercial job-work printers every time there are government advertisements to be printed, therefore they earn with virtually no spending on the usual media overheads of staff salaries, raw materials, office maintenance and news gathering expenses. These leakages are no doubt substantial from the point of view of those operating these shady businesses, but they cannot mean much to the huge advertisement purse of the Government of India, therefore probably considered not worth the effort to plug. They are just minor leakages from the point of view of the government, and not any dark deeds or tools for sinister players to manipulate government projects, as indeed `black tenders`™ are.

This being what it is, we would say the DIPR proposal is very fine for it will standardise the official advertisement market, but it must first ensure the loopholes we pointed out are plugged conclusively. For given the background just sketched, it would remain natural for anybody to presume the proposal is loaded with many shades of vested interests.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/govt-advertisement-route/

The trouble with the notion of legitimacy in Manipur is, it has in the past few decades come to be seen as something quite different from the due processes of the law. This has been on account of two parallel developments, each contributing equally to a dangerous distortion of what is generally understood as public space. On the one hand the established order has through its brand of political leadership, steeped in corruption and indifference to the larger public welfare as it were, surrendered all moral legitimacy to be the custodians of the law. On the other are self-mandated contenders to the levers of state power, seeking and indeed successfully to a great extent, to fill up the vacuum the former left. Even students`™ bodies are now beginning to stake claim to this legitimacy vacuum. The recent controversy over a students`™ body beating up a school teacher after summoning him to their office for the unwarranted corporal punishment the latter awarded a boy of class six is just one example. The parents of the boy, rather than complain to the police, preferred do so to the students organization, clearly demonstrating the acute shortage of public faith in the established order. The parents are at no fault. The establishment is. The same can be said of the current resort to blockade of the highways by another students`™ body.

The danger of the mix is obvious, and the logic on which it rests so monstrously mutated that the very understanding of the rule of law is in a process of a frightening metamorphosis. The phenomenon is today beginning to erode the soul of the society, even as everybody watches the decaying process helplessly, transfixed by a disdainful awe that borders the absurd. Hence, it has become a reality that an agreement amongst so called civil society bodies or even a group of individuals, to bypass the law or any established norm of any institution of democracy, is considered a legitimate exercise of the power of the people. These resorts and pacts amongst civil bodies to redefine democratic norms to their likings have also come to be pushed as `public interest`. Under the circumstance, the very notion of `public sphere` has come to be reduced to an `illusion` with the precise purpose of sanctifying decisions of those claiming a stake in the state`™s power structure without going through democracy`™s designated means.

What end up challenged are no longer breaches of democratic norms and consensuses, but the very legitimacy of the democratic institutions themselves, hence the profound nature of the danger this phenomenon poses. The understanding of `democratic consensus` won through the ballot has been divorced from the understanding of `public sphere` rendering both the understandings hollow. An agreement amongst `civil bodies` to breach the law seems now no longer illegitimate. Numerous arbitrary street laws, innumerable disruptive activities, and a general collapse of the various instruments of governance mechanism are the physical manifestations that have together added up to a despairing and oppressive state of affairs in Manipur. Things are heading towards a point of no return. Open disregard of law, or else assumption of responsibility of keeping it by any self-appointed guardians of the society are the hallmarks of today`™s Manipur. The government, rather than seeing these as infringements on its legitimate spheres of governance, seems to be treating them as a welcome partnership in the upkeep of social responsibilities. But today it is coming to pass that its partners are poised to rubbish its claim to any legitimate stake to power.

The chaos in the valley districts is replicated in equal measures in the hills where, especially among the Nagas, as again demonstrated by the recent ADC election, it seems elected leaders no longer hold sway. Candidates wanting to contest elections queue up to seek permission of other leaders who claim monopoly of the `public sphere`. Judging by the way things are being allowed to drift, can it be too far when the leadership equation transforms, and `public sphere` come to rest solely in the ambiguous territory of what has so loosely come to be referred to by everybody as `civil society`? The question urgently beggars an answer.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/defining-public-interest/

The elections to the Autonomous District Councils for the five hill districts and Sadar Hills are long over, and the results for them declared. In the next week or so, the six ADCs will be formed. It does however seem, as in most elections under the dispensation of Indian democracy, the verdicts the electorate delivered on the day of the polling will not be altogether honoured by those elected, and there are already signs of the familiar scenario of defections and horse trading. Although the 10th Schedule does not take cognizance of grassroots governance bodies and is restricted to the affairs of the Parliament and state Assemblies, we do hope better senses prevail and unwritten principles of honouring electorate`™s wishes as expressed through the ballot is not violated. It would be such a shame if litigations and counter litigations stall the working of the ADCs and ultimately a legislation to take care of such situation becomes necessary. From the look of it, it does seem this can ultimately be the outcome. However, even if the Anti-Defection law is not applicable in this situation, arbitrators must ensure the parameters set by this law remain the guidelines of their arbitrations.

Since India follows the Anglo Saxon model of first-by-the-post electoral democracy, and voters vote for individual candidates and not the parties in fray on the polling day, the fact that Congress came out with the largest number of elected councillors overall would not be the prime deciding factor of which party gets to form the ADCs in the six individual ADC districts. Each ADC will be decided on which party won the majority in that particular ADC district. So be it. But let the decision now on who is allowed to form the ADC in each of these ADC districts, be decided on the tally of votes polled by each party and not individual councillors`™ whims that go against the people`™s verdict. Roughly, it was the Congress which had the biggest share of the pie, followed by the NPC and BJP. There were also a sizeable number of Independents. As we see it, there should be no post-poll defections allowed and the Independents should also only be allowed outside support to whichever party forms the ADC in their ADC district, or else remain in the opposition.

We also hope the ADCs once formed do not jump the mandate of the ADCs and enter into politics that can stir up bigger problems for all in the state. We hope none of the parties end up as proxies of any other groups or organisations other than their immediate voters. The wide allegations of involvement of militant groups cannot but introduce the fear that some of the ADCs won by parties supported by these militants will not be functioning independently. The nature of the violence witnessed during the campaign runs of different parties also adds to the basis for this apprehension. In particular, it is the NPF, Manipur unit, which is set to form the ADCs in at least two ADC districts and what is anticipated to be their plans ahead, which is the cause of worries amongst a great section of the people. Much of these apprehensions probably are unfounded for there are NPF candidates in the Manipur Legislative Assembly too and this has made little difference to the body polity of the state. Nonetheless it is also a harsh reality that this apprehension is fed by a history of mutual suspicion between those demanding an exclusive Naga homeland and those who would not compromise Manipur integrity at any cost. The resultant frictions have been and can again become too hot for anybody`™s comfort.

On an optimistic note, let it be remembered that sometimes what is seen as an adverse situation can actually turn into an opportunity for problem resolutions given the constructive outlooks of all the stakeholders. Maybe the presence of a party affiliated to the ruling party of Nagaland in the political arena of Manipur will provide this opportunity to thrash out issues and in a spirit of accommodation, together realise the inextricable nature of the shared destinies of the different peoples of the region as a whole.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/adc-election-and-after/

By the turn of the next generation, the Manipur society probably will be further segmented along a new class system, all this thanks to the government’s management of its education responsibilities. We must add here that in the school sector, the government is making some valiant and imaginative interventions, and we wish it all success. We hope it is able to make similar interventions in the college sector too soon. Till such a time, we can foresee at least three new classes emerging. Purportedly standing on the top of the hierarchy would be by and large young job seekers whose parents have accumulated enough wealth by whatever means for their children to inherit. In the second tier would be those who have had education in schools outside the state or else private schools in the state, therefore at an advantage in competitions for professional courses such as medicine, engineering etc. Three, will constitute those who have been unfortunate to be condemned to study in the state’s many non-functional government schools and colleges. The third understandably will be in the majority. It is everybody’s knowledge today that there is something very rotten in the government schools and colleges of the state. Yet there is so much vested interests in the status quo, that no radical reform has been possible ever. It is sad but true that there cannot be a bigger testimony of the abject failure of social engineering in the state than in its inability to salvage the collapse of its school and college education systems.

The fallouts are obvious. In what may be described as a domino effect, the fall of the school system has also meant a cloud over higher education as well. Many of the state’s colleges have potential, and a few of them actually used to command awesome academic reputations in the entire Northeast in the past. Many among the men and women of the 1960s generations, who have earned themselves social respect and station not just in Manipur, but also in neighbouring Nagaland and Mizoram, it is not a surprise, have had their higher education in DM College. However, there has been a steady decline, partly because of bad management of the institutions themselves, together with corrupt government recruitment processes which have seldom kept merit the criterion. If an enquiry were to be done today, it will not at all be a surprise at all to find even fake Ph.Ds have been allowed in the competition for lecturers’ posts. But the reason also has been overwhelmingly because the feeder institutions to these colleges – our government schools – have not groomed students fit enough to pursue quality higher studies meaningfully. Thanks to this, today, the number of degree holders who are not capable even of grasping the fundamentals behind the working of the judiciary, legislature, executive etc, would amaze anybody. These degree holders have no option but to look for government jobs for it is here the degree and not the skill of the man holding it matters. In the private sector, they will have to fend for themselves and prove their competitive worth always, and unlike in the government cocoon their degrees are no guarantee for either success or job security. What we want today are young men and women who can with confidence stand up to be tested by the fire of open competition, and for whom job avenues are open both in the government and the private sectors, as well as the unexplored territories of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, this goal still seems illusory.

These are serious issues, much more serious than the worry over which minister gets which portfolio, or who bags which government contract job etc. In the long run, the ability to tackle these issues will surely be the answer to many of our larger, vexing issues. The familiar tactics of those in power when faced with these uneasy questions is to shift the blame to insurgency. We would even go to the extent of reversing this logic to say the failure of governance on these fronts have been a strong factor, although not the only factor, behind the endemic bad law and order situation. The time has come for a serious rethink. Let all realize that even in war, it is the bounden duty of all, but especially the government, to ensure that at the end of the war there will be some things of quality left in the devastated landscape to rebuild the society from.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/peacetime-wars-2/

By the turn of the next generation, the Manipur society probably will be further segmented along a new class system, all this thanks to the government`™s management of its education responsibilities. We must add here that in the school sector, the government is making some valiant and imaginative interventions, and we wish it all success. We hope it is able to make similar interventions in the college sector too soon. Till such a time, we can foresee at least three new classes emerging. Purportedly standing on the top of the hierarchy would be by and large young job seekers whose parents have accumulated enough wealth by whatever means for their children to inherit. In the second tier would be those who have had education in schools outside the state or else private schools in the state, therefore at an advantage in competitions for professional courses such as medicine, engineering etc. Three, will constitute those who have been unfortunate to be condemned to study in the state`™s many non-functional government schools and colleges. The third understandably will be in the majority. It is everybody`™s knowledge today that there is something very rotten in the government schools and colleges of the state. Yet there is so much vested interests in the status quo, that no radical reform has been possible ever. It is sad but true that there cannot be a bigger testimony of the abject failure of social engineering in the state than in its inability to salvage the collapse of its school and college education systems.

The fallouts are obvious. In what may be described as a domino effect, the fall of the school system has also meant a cloud over higher education as well. Many of the state`™s colleges have potential, and a few of them actually used to command awesome academic reputations in the entire Northeast in the past. Many among the men and women of the 1960s generations, who have earned themselves social respect and station not just in Manipur, but also in neighbouring Nagaland and Mizoram, it is not a surprise, have had their higher education in DM College. However, there has been a steady decline, partly because of bad management of the institutions themselves, together with corrupt government recruitment processes which have seldom kept merit the criterion. If an enquiry were to be done today, it will not at all be a surprise at all to find even fake Ph.Ds have been allowed in the competition for lecturers`™ posts. But the reason also has been overwhelmingly because the feeder institutions to these colleges `“ our government schools `“ have not groomed students fit enough to pursue quality higher studies meaningfully. Thanks to this, today, the number of degree holders who are not capable even of grasping the fundamentals behind the working of the judiciary, legislature, executive etc, would amaze anybody. These degree holders have no option but to look for government jobs for it is here the degree and not the skill of the man holding it matters. In the private sector, they will have to fend for themselves and prove their competitive worth always, and unlike in the government cocoon their degrees are no guarantee for either success or job security. What we want today are young men and women who can with confidence stand up to be tested by the fire of open competition, and for whom job avenues are open both in the government and the private sectors, as well as the unexplored territories of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, this goal still seems illusory.

These are serious issues, much more serious than the worry over which minister gets which portfolio, or who bags which government contract job etc. In the long run, the ability to tackle these issues will surely be the answer to many of our larger, vexing issues. The familiar tactics of those in power when faced with these uneasy questions is to shift the blame to insurgency. We would even go to the extent of reversing this logic to say the failure of governance on these fronts have been a strong factor, although not the only factor, behind the endemic bad law and order situation. The time has come for a serious rethink. Let all realize that even in war, it is the bounden duty of all, but especially the government, to ensure that at the end of the war there will be some things of quality left in the devastated landscape to rebuild the society from.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/peacetime-wars/

Wars, it has been so rightly pointed out, have many domestic uses. There is nothing like the spectre of external aggression and a threat to the integrity of nations and communities which can sink internal differences, even the most bitter ones, so much so that often these threat perceptions are deliberately manufactured by those in the hot seats of political power to divert attention away from the causes of their immediate headaches. This is also particularly the case if the leaders concerned are weak and at a loss at facing their problems head on. History is witness, and historians tell us today, that the medieval crusade of Christian Europe against the Muslim world, was not so much religious but political in nature, and often had less to do with saving Christianity than saving civil wars and coups at home. Once upon a time, sabre rattling of the nature was also very common in India, blaming Pakistan, and to some extent China, for its every ill. Remember the famous but never seen `foreign hand` that was supposed to be responsible for any trouble that flared up in the Northeast. Wasn`™t it quite a surprise that all the paranoiac din, almost all of a sudden died down? A second look will also reveal that the mellowing of the official hysteria almost nearly coincided with India`™s growing confidence in itself and its ability to handle its domestic problems. Now it seems a bit of it is returning once again.

In similar manner, one is often left wondering if there is no element of a `crusade masquerade` every time somebody rakes up the issue of Manipur integrity or Naga integration. One often is also left with the feeling that this integrity-integration binary benefits both sides of the Manipur-Nagaland divide, each with its brand of `hate sessions` against each other. True there are elements of it which are real, needing real and tangible responses, but it is equally true that more often than not, these have become diversionary tactics of politicians to get the heat off themselves. Especially in the context of what seems like a stalemated peace negotiations between the Government of India and the NSCN(IM), this new `crusade` also has all the feel of a desperate groping for an alternate route out of the mess. But if on the one hand the `crusade` has been about softening the fall from sovereign Nagalim to Naga integration, there is nothing very flattering to say about the periodic mock fury and political cabal about Manipur integrity either. The people`™s verdict on the issue has been etched indelibly already and there is no further need for grandiose reactions on the part of the government, to every provocative memorandum and every maverick claim. There are much more urgent issues at hand, and the government must instead take these on in earnest.

But the last point may precisely be the problem. The government has too many urgent and overwhelming issues at hand and perhaps these may be getting a wee bit too hot and hence the need often to deflect focus to something more ethereal and intangible. The rising lawlessness; all round insecurity of citizens; the deplorable state of roads; acute power shortage which is stunting enterprises; sinking standard of education; escalating corruption; multiplying unemployment; depleting hope etc, which all need not only intense focus and dedication, but equally importantly, imaginative remedial measures for immediate as well as long term problems. This is where neither the government, or for that matter anybody, is willing to apply their minds seriously. Come to think of it, everybody continues to be in their narcissistic shells, seeing no further than themselves and their private welfares, with little or no thought whatsoever of the greater common good. Corruption for instance has become standardised, therefore the guilt that should come with it totally missing, and practically everybody is out to use whatever little levers of power in their hands to self aggrandise and feather their own nests. To be in service, government especially, is no longer about providing services, but of using whatever means to siphon off government exchequer and get rich. The harm this does to the society at large, and therefore ultimately to everybody in the society, has been totally pushed out of sight. Nobody in position of power wants to engage their minds on these thoughts anymore. This deafening silence contrasts so glaringly with the eagerness to raise emotional war cries of Manipur integrity even when the issue is sleeping. Isn`™t this then a case of an imaginary holy war, invoked periodically as a bail for an administration at sea in dealing with real governmental responsibilities?

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/crusade-as-escape/

Wars, it has been so rightly pointed out, have many domestic uses. There is nothing like the spectre of external aggression and a threat to the integrity of nations and communities which can sink internal differences, even the most bitter ones, so much so that often these threat perceptions are deliberately manufactured by those in the hot seats of political power to divert attention away from the causes of their immediate headaches. This is also particularly the case if the leaders concerned are weak and at a loss at facing their problems head on. History is witness, and historians tell us today, that the medieval crusade of Christian Europe against the Muslim world, was not so much religious but political in nature, and often had less to do with saving Christianity than saving civil wars and coups at home. Once upon a time, sabre rattling of the nature was also very common in India, blaming Pakistan, and to some extent China, for its every ill. Remember the famous but never seen `foreign hand` that was supposed to be responsible for any trouble that flared up in the Northeast. Wasn`™t it quite a surprise that all the paranoiac din, almost all of a sudden died down? A second look will also reveal that the mellowing of the official hysteria almost nearly coincided with India`™s growing confidence in itself and its ability to handle its domestic problems. Now it seems a bit of it is returning once again.

In similar manner, one is often left wondering if there is no element of a `crusade masquerade` every time somebody rakes up the issue of Manipur integrity or Naga integration. One often is also left with the feeling that this integrity-integration binary benefits both sides of the Manipur-Nagaland divide, each with its brand of `hate sessions` against each other. True there are elements of it which are real, needing real and tangible responses, but it is equally true that more often than not, these have become diversionary tactics of politicians to get the heat off themselves. Especially in the context of what seems like a stalemated peace negotiations between the Government of India and the NSCN(IM), this new `crusade` also has all the feel of a desperate groping for an alternate route out of the mess. But if on the one hand the `crusade` has been about softening the fall from sovereign Nagalim to Naga integration, there is nothing very flattering to say about the periodic mock fury and political cabal about Manipur integrity either. The people`™s verdict on the issue has been etched indelibly already and there is no further need for grandiose reactions on the part of the government, to every provocative memorandum and every maverick claim. There are much more urgent issues at hand, and the government must instead take these on in earnest.

But the last point may precisely be the problem. The government has too many urgent and overwhelming issues at hand and perhaps these may be getting a wee bit too hot and hence the need often to deflect focus to something more ethereal and intangible. The rising lawlessness; all round insecurity of citizens; the deplorable state of roads; acute power shortage which is stunting enterprises; sinking standard of education; escalating corruption; multiplying unemployment; depleting hope etc, which all need not only intense focus and dedication, but equally importantly, imaginative remedial measures for immediate as well as long term problems. This is where neither the government, or for that matter anybody, is willing to apply their minds seriously. Come to think of it, everybody continues to be in their narcissistic shells, seeing no further than themselves and their private welfares, with little or no thought whatsoever of the greater common good. Corruption for instance has become standardised, therefore the guilt that should come with it totally missing, and practically everybody is out to use whatever little levers of power in their hands to self aggrandise and feather their own nests. To be in service, government especially, is no longer about providing services, but of using whatever means to siphon off government exchequer and get rich. The harm this does to the society at large, and therefore ultimately to everybody in the society, has been totally pushed out of sight. Nobody in position of power wants to engage their minds on these thoughts anymore. This deafening silence contrasts so glaringly with the eagerness to raise emotional war cries of Manipur integrity even when the issue is sleeping. Isn`™t this then a case of an imaginary holy war, invoked periodically as a bail for an administration at sea in dealing with real governmental responsibilities?

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/crusade-as-escape/

One of the reasons observers speculate why the Government of India chose to so loudly publicise what it called surgical operations into Myanmar in hot chase of Indian insurgents on June 9 is that probably the government thought this was a good opportunity to send a message to Pakistan. That is, it was not so much Myanmar but Pakistan that India had in mind in making those claims of strikes within Myanmar territory, and then publicising them further claiming clinical and 100 percent successes. As to how far these claims are supported by facts on the ground is a different question altogether. The purpose of those publicity stunts, it does seem now, was not about clarifying facts but of sending out messages of India`™s policy intent, in particular to its arch rivals, Pakistan. It is also not surprising at all that Pakistan was provoked as intended and took no time to responded, saying it is not Myanmar and that it would give befitting responses to such intrusions. Myanmar on its part had shown signs of pique that it was being used thus in the war of attrition between India and Pakistan. Myanmar cannot have been happy with the manner numerous so called expert commentators were also writing it off as a harmless, innocent and defenceless country. There is more hidden in its short denials that its territory was intruded upon by Indian troops, and that it would never allow any such intrusion anytime in the future.

India`™s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, has flown to Nay Pyi Taw, the new spanking clean but rather empty capital city somewhere between Mandalay, the old pre-colonial capital of the Kingdom of Burma, and Yangon the newer colonial period capital so often compared to British Calcutta. Although nothing is revealed of the agenda of the visit, it is anybody`™s guess that it would have to do with these recent developments. It is our guess, the most important of these is to mend fences damaged by New Delhi unwarranted publicity blitzkrieg on its claimed hot chases that put Myanmar in poor light before the world. The other matters to be pursued, as we had noted in an earlier editorial should have to do with a comprehensive joint plan to fight cross border militancy so prevalent along the Indo-Myanmar border. We had also outlined in the same editorial why Myanmar is unlikely to agree to this proposal, and it would not be prudent for India to insist. After all, Myanmar is not a province of India and has its own outlook to what its foreign and domestic policy architectures should look like. India often makes this mistake of treating its smaller neighbours as such, which probably is why there is always a degree of hostility to India amongst all its immediate neighbours, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sir Lanka and Myanmar. There isn`™t even a necessity to mention Pakistan, and China of course is a different ball game altogether.

The Nepal example is most intriguing. How is it this neighbour, which was till recently a theocratic Hindu Kingdom and is still predominantly a Hindu nation, whose national language Nepali is Sanskrit based like most Indian languages, which has a shared history with India dating back eons, which has an open border with India, which is bound securely to India among others by the Gurkha recruits enlisted in the armies of both countries. The answer will only become apparent if India earnestly began addressing these questions to itself and to no one else. No country, however small, wants to be taken for granted, but India has been so often insensitive on these matters, and has been wont to projecting itself as the big brother, seemingly treating Nepal as if it was a district of Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. In the recent publicity blitzkrieg launched from New Delhi, using the New Delhi media, in particular the noisy 24-hour new channels, it was being similarly insensitive to Myanmar.

If any lesson can be drawn from literature, then going by what Amitav Ghosh`™s portrayal of the Burmese psyche in `The Glass Palace`, Ajit Doval is going to return disappointed, and without much to announce to the media. We do hope we are wrong and no damages have been caused, and if there have been damages to sensibilities, it will not result in any permanent shifts in diplomatic outlooks of this newly opened country in a tryst with destiny to transition to democracy. To think a little exercise of discretion on India`™s part could have saved complications in diplomatic relations is indeed tragicomic, and would inspire farcical laughter and tears of remorse amongst all keen observers, but hopefully in the New Delhi`™s corridors of power as well.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/spurning-big-brother/

National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval will begin his visit of Myanmar on June 17 (today). One of the agendas before him during his meetings with his counterparts in the country, obviously will be the question of tackling cross-border insurgency jointly. This probably will have two related but different points to pursue. One, it may be recalled, immediately after the June 4 ambush, newspapers in Imphal reported that the National Investigation Agency, NIA, had filed a case against SS Khaplang for his crimes on Indian soil. With this case as the basis, India could be seeking Khaplang`™s extradition to India to face the case. The other point would probably be to have Myanmar agree to a Bhutan style operation in Khaplang stronghold on the eastern side of the Patkai watershed in Myanmar`™s Sagaing Division to flush out Indian militants taking shelter there.

Though India`™s concern is understandable, it is not difficult to see why Myanmar may find it not as easy to agree. For one, Myanmar is itself plagued by numerous ethnic insurgencies, and is at the moment trying to have all of them come to a ceasefire with its central government. Its objective is to bring these ethnic rebel armies to come to another joint declaration of upholding a federal Myanmar in the manner the Panglong Agreement envisaged in 1947 on the eve of Myanmar`™s independence. Khaplang is just one among these ethnic leaders Myanmar government is wooing. To isolate Khaplang for a different treatment to suit Indian needs may upset the pattern of peace plan of the Myanmar government amongst all its own ethnic states. India may be willing to help Myanmar tackle Khaplang, but Khaplang is not Myanmar`™s only problem, and in fact may even not be the most important. Our guess is, Myanmar is unlikely to agree to either request, but if does concede to one, it will be on the question of extraditing Khaplang to India.

Moreover, the recent devastating June 4 ambush on a convoy of the 6-Dogra Regiment by a combined team of militants now working together under Khaplang, and June 9 loudly declared surgical operations by Indian troops within Myanmar territory may have queered the diplomatic pitch with Myanmar. Though nobody is stating it, it is reasonable to believe that Doval`™s visit at this juncture could also be to control whatever damages caused by the publicity blitzkrieg of the Government of India, using the New Delhi media. Myanmar has since denied Indian troops entered its territory. The truth of whether Indian troops entered Myanmar or not could be either way, as media reports now suggest. In any case, even if Indian troops did enter Myanmar, and even if there were prior unpublicised agreements between the two countries to allow such hot chases into each other`™s territories, it was absolutely unbecoming of India to have made such a din over it. This was bound to embarrass Myanmar, and the latter rather than explaining it to its people, would have been forced to go on a denial mode even if the raids did happen.
Whichever way the truth was, India should have kept the mission a secret. Maybe India was trying to mimic the US navy SEAL Abbottabad raid to kill Osama Bin Laden in 2011, and the unabashed proclamation of the raid to the world. The difference is, while Pakistan is a US surrogate and cannot do much to severe its relations with the US, Myanmar relation with India is hardly of this nature. Though the Myanmar government at this moment seems a little estranged from China, considering the Chinese leaders`™ bid to woo opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the country can easily drift away from India and into Chinese embrace again. Doval`™s visit could therefore be in anticipation of harms of this nature, and to work out ways to mend fences. It goes without saying that Myanmar is important to India geo-strategically more than even commerce. This is in the wake of China`™s rise as a global superpower and the country`™s ambition to become a two ocean power by having a dominating presence in the India Ocean. Myanmar could be the pivot for China to achieve this ambition, just as it would be the key to India and the West`™s bid to keep China from achieving this goal.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/myanmar-pivot/

Things are settling back to normal after the June 4 devastating Chandel ambush which broke what everybody thought with relief was the return of peace in the state. Villagers who fled their villages for fear the Army would go on a rampage to avenge the death of 18 soldiers of the 6-Dogra Regiment in the ambush, would have already begun returning home. All concerned about their wellbeing are now heaving a sigh of relief that no great damage resulted in the aftermath of the ambush, except for the obvious consequence of the villagers having neglected their meagre subsistent farms for the past fortnight. Since the cultivation season is still not over, we do hope there would be no losses beyond salvage. Although the area of the Army`™s combing operation had been sealed off and the press, as anybody else had been shut off from visiting these villages, it is now apparent that unlike in so many such incidents in the past, the Army did not take it out on the local population. It may be recalled, while the operations were going on, some families feared for four hunters who were out in the jungle when the ambush happened. Even they returned safely after two days, indicating the Army was not out for blind vengeance this time. Although the full picture is not out as yet, it does seem this is one of those stories which ended without collateral damage, despite fears for the worst.

The All Manipur Working Journalist Union, AMWJU, it is learnt is taking a team of media persons to the area which were covered by the Army operation and has since two days back been opened again to the public. This is good news. Not only would the visit bring confidence to the affected people, for even the mere act of communicating one`™s plight to all who care has a therapeutic quality, but also the people of the state would be able to know what exactly they went through during their trying hours in the last fortnight. But the sense already is, they did not go though the agony that many others went through in similar situations in the past. Although the last is still not heard yet on the matter, indications are a lot of lessons have been learnt in the decades that have gone by, among these being that targeting the villagers have never paid dividends in the long run. In all cases, the villagers are helpless in resisting armed men, be they of the establishment or those fighting the establishment.

During the days of the combing operations, there have also been some snide allegations levelled at the local media for failing to be on the spot of the ongoing operations. This was to say the least unfair. How exactly were press persons to enter these areas when they were sealed off? Newspaper readers will recall even the local MLA was prohibited from entering the area. Under the circumstance, were these critics asking the press men to sneak in covertly into these areas of operation? What if there they become casualties themselves, a prospect not at all impossible, given the tension? Would these critics then come to their rescue or else hurry to write reports of the bad situation in the state to their bosses for whatever the benefits? If there had been wide scale human rights violation known, then okay, not just the media, but also every concerned civil body must come forward to do whatever is called for. Pending this, it would be selfish to simply wish others to put themselves in the lines of fire for the pleasure of these critics, who probably have their own interests for doing so. In any case, it was not as if the media was sitting idle in their armchairs. They were monitoring the situation the best they could using whatever newsgathering resources in their command. These include contacting police stations in the area, getting accounts from villagers and civil bodies who were close to the area of operation etc.

It was also confounding why the Union government began leaking information about the operations, which apparently included an elite Army commando action, in New Delhi. Many of these information unfortunately did not exactly tally with what observers with their ears close to the ground here sensed, or else were in the know of. For some reasons, the Union government decided to take publicity mileage from what was meant to be a covert operation, but backfired. What was even more distasteful was the manner in which the media in New Delhi, especially the 24-hour news channels, began swallowing these publicity materials without even screening them, even when it meant unfair portrayal of Manipur and Nagaland before the rest of the country, as well as posing the danger of queering the pitch of India`™s diplomatic relations with Myanmar.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/after-the-operation/