Tag: Editorial

The Naga peace talk is approaching 18 years now. A Naga child born at the time would now be in her late teens and somebody who was in her teens then would be middle aged today. Presuming leaders of the community were in their middle age at the time, they would now be aged with a foot in the grave already, and probably a lot many are already dead and gone. It is always nostalgic to look back at what was once, and the radical changes time brings to what all once believed was reality. With the turn of generations, what invariably are also ushered in are new aspirations, desires, longings, hopes, ambitions… The trouble often begins when old guards remain after the eras have changed, a problem only democracy has been somewhat able to handle, with its mechanism of mandate renewal for its leaders. If a set of leaders feel they still deserve to remain as leaders after their democratic terms end, they would have to win the mandate of the people again, otherwise, new leaders take over. We talk of the Naga situation only because there is a peculiar sense of urgency here as the Naga underground leadership have chosen to seek a solution through talks, and not because what we have said applies only to the Naga situation. It would indeed apply to those groups who still refuse to seek a negotiated settlement just as well. In the Naga situation then, because a solution is sought on a tangible forum, there are expectations that it be found without further delay. Indications are, such a `solution`™ is in the pipeline, but as to whether this `solution`™ can actually solve is the intriguing question.

At this moment then, nothing presents the problem of a changed era than the possible `solution`™ to the Naga peace talks. It is unlikely the negotiators are not mindful of another `solution`™ the Nagas had in hand 40 years ago in the Shillong Accord 1975. The accord fell through because the present generation of leaders of the NSCN(IM) rejected it. The questions foremost in the minds of critics, neutral observers as well as supporters of Naga problem, today would be, would the present `solution`™ be any different from the `solution`™ of 40 years ago? If not, who must pay for the 40 more years of sufferings, loss of lives and tearing uncertainties amongst the Nagas? Let there be no doubt, these are questions which will definitely be asked by the Nagas themselves, and the NSCN(IM) leaders must have satisfactory answers for them. The trouble also is, there is the possibility only sections of the Nagas, probably most of them from the state of Nagaland, would be asking these, introducing the further possibility of fresh divisions amongst the Nagas, just as the opposition to the Shillong Accord had caused. At this moment, it is difficult to imagine a `solution`™ which is in any way radically different from what the the Shillong Accord offered, with sovereignty probably out of any reckoning and even its placebo of Greater Nagaland in all likelihood ruled out. In this light, it may also yet be discovered that in its essence, the Naga Problem is more a Manipur Problem.

Forty years ago, the objection to the Shillong Accord appealed to a whole generation of Nagas. Forty years later, the problem is how to accommodate a similar accord and explain the objections raised 40 years ago satisfactorily in today`™s changed context. It must again be said that this however is not a problem peculiar to the Nagas alone. It applies to all other continuing insurgencies for it is the reality of any prolonged violent and traumatic struggle. Conflict resolution is also very much about resolving this internal trauma of conflict survivors, often referred to as `survivor guilt` by scholars. Because these struggles remain fixated in the logic and ideology of a particular era, the longer a struggle continues, the dichotomy between ideology and changing spirits of new eras will become wider and felt all the more painfully when a `solution`™ is sought. The 40 year question is therefore every insurrection`™s problem.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/the-40-years-question/

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, which has always been a contentious issue in both the Northeast and Kashmir, it does seem is not about to go, despite so much protest against it in both the Northeast and Kashmir. In Manipur, a gutsy lady, Irom Sharmila, has been on a fast for more than 14 years to demand its repeal. In Kashmir, extended explosions of street violence have been common challenging it. Elsewhere in the Northeast, although protests have not been as pronounced, there are not many who do not resent it. This fact was more than adequately established by a commission of inquiry headed by retired justice, Jeevan Reddy, constituted by the then Manmohan Singh led UPA government in the wake of widespread protests in Manipur following the rape and murder in custody of Thangjam Manorama by a unit of the Assam Rifles. The committee was given the mandate of suggesting ways to humanise the AFSPA and it had submitted its report in 2005. In it, the committee had suggested scrapping the AFSPA after transferring some of its features to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, among others making those empowered by it accountable to the civil legal redressal mechanism. Because of strong objections to the suggestions by the military lobby, the recommendations by the committee were not only were not taken, but the report itself was shelved without even being tabled in Parliament. And now, according to a news report in a reputed financial daily from New Delhi, reproduced in the IFP today, it does seem the new BJP led NDA government has in no uncertain terms said the AFSPA will not be repealed. Not only this, the government has also, as if to underscore its resolve, made known its intent to dig out the Jeevan Reddy report from the government`™s archives, and officially and emphatically reject it.

So much for the state BJP`™s loud vaunts all this while that it would have the hated legislation repealed by the Central government. The new turn of events would indeed have taken the wind out of the sails of the state BJP, which does not currently have even a single MLA in this Assembly, but with undisguised show optimism has begun its election campaign aggressively for the next Assembly elections two years hence. But leave aside the fortunes of the state BJP, there are other serious concerns development should once again bring to the fore. What for instance would now be the fate of Irom Sharmila? Is she now destined to remain a prisoner of conscience for the rest of her life? Is her struggle coming to naught? One thing is certain. She is unlikely to back out just as it is unlikely others fighting the act would not either. In many ways what this development forebodes is, uncertainty and conflict will remain the destiny of the region for many more time, and that there is still no light visible at the end of the long and dark tunnel it has been trying to negotiate.

The Central government`™s decision is unlikely to find much opposition in the country or the rest of the world either. In the rest of the country outside of the Northeast and Kashmir, AFSPA, is too vague and remote, therefore seldom recalled amongst the ordinary citizenry, as the Act is not their daily experience and the fear of it more akin to fiction than reality. In the rest of the world, especially the West, AFSPA continuance will not move consciences as it ought to have, for their own societies are becoming radicalised beyond imagination in the wake of the violence and threats of Islamic fundamentalists. Draconian laws are becoming their realities too, and this would have to a great extent driven even the most conscientious amongst them into increasing insignificance. As it is, their own senses of outrage at that the compromises of democratic norms and values in their own countries are becoming weaker or else are beginning to be lulled into silence. The only verdict we can be courageous enough to give at this juncture then is, uncertain times are ahead.

Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/afspa-to-stay/

The one question which was expected to come up in media discussions of the Union Budget 2015-2016 in the Northeast was, what did the budget have for the Northeast? The question itself betrays a sense of deprivation, and consequently an all round expectation for special treatment. This expectation is not altogether unjustified. After all, the region has been in the blind spot of the nation for a long time, leaving it far behind in development. And, it is also only to be expected that the Union is also acutely aware, and indeed acknowledges this fact. Unfortunately however, when it comes to the Northeast, the Union`™s concern has always been a case of the shadow falling between policy intent and implementation. Thus, in the preamble to his budget speech, Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley did underscore the point that the need for `mainstreaming`™ Northeast is a priority area for his government. His budget however had little special to offer for the Northeast, except for a film institute in Arunachal Pradesh and an AIIMS in Assam, as part of the government`™s opening overture to have one such institute developed in every state. This is welcome, but far short of expectations.

The thing most talked about, and one which is a source of hope and motivation for a great section of the people of the region currently is India`™s much hyped, but little acted upon, `Look East Policy` which has now been re-christened `Act East Policy` under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is heartening that Jaitley`™s Budget speech yesterday does mention the government`™s serious intent to take this policy forward, unfortunately the mention was only very briefly. From what he said, it is doubtful if the government has at all gone beyond platitudes on the matter. He did say, as a step to make sure the Act East Policy is given wings, the government would be opening manufacturing hubs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This was all. The rest which should have followed with elaboration was left up to the people`™s imagination. It was, in the end, another statement of policy intent indeed, but one which tragically still lacked a definite road map. Quite obviously, there has been little mind applied to the question in the policy making circuit, and therefore the minister had little more to say or show than a nod of agreement that the matter is important. Among others, it also reflects there have been little tangible research or data input on the matter.

Probably, as the minister said, India will explore ways to set up manufacturing hubs in these three named countries falling in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. India probably has China in mind in coming up with this idea, for China has been doing precisely this for quite some time now. The idea is to set up factories in places where labour is cheap and the work force is disciplined and skilled so as to produce quality products at very competitive prices. The trouble is, these countries are no longer virgin territory. Chinese, American and Korean companies already have a strong presence there, doing what Jaitley declared India also intends to do. One does not even have to go far for evidence. At the Paona Market there are shops selling the popular SWAT combat boots, which have virtually become part of the uniform of Manipur Police Commando officers. Look closely and don`™t be surprised if these macho American footwear are branded as made in Cambodia or Laos. But beyond doubts of feasibility of new entrants making it big in these markets, the more pertinent question is, even if this overture meets with success, how would it benefit the Northeast? For all one knows, such an outreach programme would be a maritime affair, completely sidelining the Northeast. The Act East Policy is interesting to the Northeast only if the Northeast has a stake in it. Otherwise, to posture it as a Northeast mainstreaming policy would be nothing but dishonesty. One cannot also fight the temptation to ask Jaitley, why must India only think of aping China and not come up with something more imaginative?

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/ne-in-union-budget/

There is a saying that people get the kind of leaders they deserved. One is constantly reminded of this statement when the innumerable problems afflicting the State, caused invariably by poor governance from those who are at the helm of power, surfaces periodically. This has become something which has come to define the State.

Whenever a crisis hits the State, those governing the State pass the buck to Central government agencies thus washing their hands off any shortcomings of their own. Take the case of the slow internet connectivity in the State, the State government has stressed that it is beyond their control as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is responsible for monitoring such matters. Agreed that TRAI, the central regulating body is taking care of such matters but isn`™t the State government expected to impress upon the agency to fix the problem and provide high speed internet facilities to its citizens. It isn`™t worth asking as to what is the point of keeping a government that we elected in power if it can`™t act like one.

This one takes the cake. The government is, by its own admission, not aware that whether it was bound by any statute to spend the amount of money collected by deducting one percent from development projects and works, as cess, for the welfare of labours. Isn`™t the government expected to know the law if it wants to govern its citizens. It surely doesn`™t behove those occupying the topmost position to play possum when they are expected to, and must, know its own laws. It`™s no wonder that shirking from responsibility has become a sport in the State. Now, your real worth is determined by the felicity with which you escape your responsibilities. Those committed to performing their jobs are jeered as oafs not intelligent enough to shirk their call of duty. If bad leadership has become the bane for the State, what can you expect from those at the bottom?

Elsewhere, the careers of more than 2000 students are at stake after the CBSE refused to provide them their admit cards on the ground that their schools were not recognised by it. Here again, the government has found the same escape route. The government wasn`™t aware about such problems even if it had taken a stance to allow only two CBSE affiliated schools in all the districts of the State.

Hear it from the government, it has nothing to do with the private CBSE affiliated schools and what they do is none of their concern. Not exactly in these words but that`™s the gist of what it has to say.

Was the government in a deep torpor when these unrecognised Private CBSE affiliated schools were admitting the students? Shouldn`™t we expect the government to blacklist such schools well in advance so that the lives of thousands of students are not ruined so carelessly? The students have been left on their own devices and some in the government have stated that the students have to lose one precious academic year. One year is a long time in the life of a man. The precarious condition in which the students are in mirrors our conditions so well. But well, as the saying goes, `we get the kind of leaders we deserved`.

Leader Writer: Svoboda Kangleicha

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/citizens-without-leaders/

The news of water scarcity in Ukhrul district is shocking but not a surprise. In the years ahead things can only get worse, and if precautions are not taken, even disastrous. The fact is, it is unusual for ponds and other forms of water reservoirs, natural and artificial, to dry up by February, but this is happening. There probably are many reasons for this, but here as some which are obvious even to lay folks, but because of their everydayness, serious heed not paid to, apart from platitudes and homilies from politicians and activists alike. One of these is deforestation and the consequent loss of the soil to retain moisture, causing mountain streams and rivers to run dry faster. Let us face it, deforestation is a reality in the state. The second reason is related to the first. While people`™s lifestyle may not have changed much, practices which were not permanently damaging to the environment when the population was small, would and probably have become a big threats to the eco system now. The slash and burn agriculture for instance, when practised by a limited number of people, would have left time for the slashed and burned hillsides to regenerate when the agriculturists, in periodic rotational cycles, went to other sites to carry on their agriculture before returning to the same spot years later. Quite obviously, with a larger number of people doing it, the scenario would be altogether different, all for the worse.

Though bad, these causes can be rectified, for example, by the introduction of more scientific methods of agriculture, or prevention of commercial logging etc. But there are factors which are beyond easy human control. The drought reports from the hills hence are also a reminder that water resources are limited and cannot be augmented at all by artificial means. If more people are using it, there will be less volume per capita available. This is a problem throughout the world. China`™s three great rivers, Yangze, Hwang Ho, and Huai Rivers today are reportedly dry before they reach the sea because of overuse. Similarly, the Colorado River in the US virtually has no water today by the time it crosses into Mexico, causing tensions. It is for the same reason that the Indus Water Treaty 1960 between Indian and Pakistan is also becoming problematic today. Then there is also the issue of global warming, which is again beyond ordinary control of any particular community, and would have to be fought together by the whole world. But while the global climate battle is being fought, local communities have their private battles to fight. The current Ukhrul drought case is an indication of this. What must be kept in mind in this battle is, since the availability of water cannot increase, except in the event of a miracle, the strategy must be to use whatever water available prudently. What is also needed is to determine scientifically the exact volume of water available in the state and its various sub-regions each year from monsoon discharge, and then work out the optimum way to tap this available resource. The same problem came to the fore during another discussion on the problems and prospects of horticulture in Manipur organised by the Editors`™ Guild in collaboration with the Horticulture department recently. Of the many stumbling blocks before intensive off season cash crop cultivation raised by farmers is the question of water shortage.

While issues like food production can be augmented through human will, water availability is destiny, and nothing except divine intervention can make it change. The only recommendation therefore can only pertain to prudent and scientific use, as well as equitable distribution of available water. This should also be a thought for the Manipur government to begin thinking seriously on introducing a full-fledged independent environment management department under a cabinet minister. Or perhaps a department such as the Irrigation and Flood Control Department can be reoriented towards this mission. Let it be realised, in the years ahead, the greatest threat to the welfare of the people of the state will hinge on the environment question. If neglected, this can spell the doom of populations, and there are plenty of examples of exoduses of people from their homelands induced by environmental disasters.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/water-shortage-spectre/

That Manipur`™s institutions of higher education are not in good shape is today a truism. It is evident from the current turmoil in its colleges and universities. Sections of the college teachers are on cease work strike, paralysing classes. Students are restive and some have gone on rampage. It is likely, if the situation is allowed to go uncontrolled, the problem will reach crisis proportion. The government must therefore, on a priority basis, seriously begin negotiations with the agitators, and come to workable and amiable understandings with them. As in all negotiations, the approach from all parties must be defined by a spirit of accommodation, or the ability to see and understand the genuine needs as well as the limitations of the other. At the moment, this does not seem to be happening. The foreknowledge that in the end the only real victims will be the students is depressing. It is they who have everything to lose both in the tussle between teachers government, as well as by their own periodic explosions of anger at the way their education is being put to jeopardy by those who are supposed to be ensuring its health.

Stepping back a little to take a look at the broader canvas, there can be non gainsaying that in the entire education scenario of Manipur, it is only the higher education sector which has still not been able to find a firm footing. The school sector too would have been equally bad had it not been for a revolution of sort introduced by Catholic schools in the 1960s and the cascading demonstration effect it has had resulting literally in hundreds of excellent private schools blossoming to serve as alternatives, nay replacements, for government schools, most of which had become condemned beyond redemption to putridity by corruption. Today, it is a blessing that parents can have their children complete their schoolings at home without any worry their wards would miss quality education. And indeed, on an incremental basis, children of elite and commoners alike do prefer schools in the state to those outside it. It is also heartening to note, in the competitive exams for entrance to the most preferred professional trainings, namely, medical and engineering courses, home grown students are beginning to have the lion`™s share. The same cannot by any stretch of imagination be said of college and university studies. Parents who can afford the cost, still prefer to send their children away to colleges outside the state. What a pity indeed.

Something must be done to affect a change of course away from this dismal affair. Perhaps the current crisis is an opportune time to make such a beginning. In all negotiations towards this, what must remain in sharp focus is the raison detre for the grand mission of education at all. Ensuring good education for students is what is sacrosanct, and not the hegemony of the government in deciding what education should be, or the material welfare of the teachers. In the school sector, it has been more than adequately demonstrated that lowly paid teachers were outperforming government teachers with comparatively hefty monthly pay packets, underscoring the point that it is institutional administration and commitment to teaching which ensures quality in the end. Since the entry of private parties in the college sector is unthinkable given the present circumstance, perhaps one way of ensuring this commitment is to make everybody involved a direct stake holder, linking their own fortunes to the rise and fall of the fortunes of these institutions. This could be done for instance by making it mandatory, or at least normative, for government officials and college teachers to have their children study in colleges at home, unless they are pursuing subjects not offered here. This way, nobody who can make the difference can afford to be so casual about students losing out on their class hours, or facing the possibility of losing an academic year. When these officials and professionals send their children away to other states for studies, which a good majority of them would be doing, and then fight over their claimed stakes in their places of employment, it would amount to the exercise of power without responsibility, where each has everything to gain by posturing hard, and nothing to lose.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/introduce-collaterals-in-education/

Manipur is in the grip of multiple crises again. This time unfortunately the eye of the storm is on education, both at the school as well as at the college levels. On the one hand, is the serious matter of many students from Manipur studying in schools claiming affiliation to the Central Board of Secondary Education, CBSE, facing the prospect of being debarred from sitting in the upcoming crucial examination of the board on account of their schools`™ claimed affiliation to the board turning out to be dubious if not altogether bogus. The problem was expected and the government should have been prepared. With private schools proliferating and often becoming nothing more than lucrative businesses, all because of the almost complete quality collapse of the government`™s own schools ensured by decades of corrupt practices and maladministration, foul play by the unscrupulous businessmen should have been anticipated and precautionary measures taken. But for long, a good section of the officialdom itself was party to many of these money spinning fraudulent practices, wallowing in the unholy lucre from such collaborative robberies, so what else could have been expected. The casualties unfortunately will be students, and according to some, almost 2500 of them. Tragedy indeed! The government has two things to do on the matter. First try and save the students from losing a precious year, although it does seem chances for such a resolution are remote now. Second, and equally important, cleanse the system. It must weed out all fraudulent schools from the state within the next few months. Pyrrhic though it may be, the only consolation, if any, is that many of the students who sought admission in these schools would have done it knowingly in the hope of playing along in the fraudulence to score good grades without working.

The other crisis of gravity threatening the education sector is a strike by a section of the state college teachers. From news reports it is clear they are not only registering their dismay in a voluntary democratic way, but also prohibiting other teachers who have not joined the strike from taking classes. Here too, the ultimate casualties would be hapless students who are likely to find themselves utterly unprepared when their annual exams approach, for absolutely no faults of theirs. We have no issue with the striking teachers. Although we have not seen the entire list of their grievances with the government, we certainly do not approve their approach. Let them fight for their rights, sit and negotiate or else bargain with the government for their profession`™s uplift, boycott the government, stage hunger strikes Sharmila fashion, self immolate if they will outside the State Assembly, but even while this fight is on, at no cost they can be justified in allowing their students to suffer. They must realise, the very basis of their profession, is the welfare of students. Without the students, their profession has no meaning. They can win or lose their demands from the government, but they cannot at any cost forsake the students`™ future, for this would be like the doctor boasting an operation is successful, though the patient is dead. All religion will agree too that there can be no greater sin than this. Indeed, those who have read the Bhagavad-Gita will remember, this is exactly what Krishna tells Arjuna, reminding the warrior that doing his duty is what salvation is about. The government and the striking teachers in the meantime must urgently sit across the table and resolve this crisis.
Yet again, the campuses are literally on fire. At the premier DM College, students went on rampage yesterday to protest government apathy of their college campus, and the dilapidated condition of the roads within the campus. At the Manipur University too, students made bonfire of their hostel furnitures protesting neglect of their plight, and similarly, students at the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University are also restive protesting similar neglect. We join the protestors to call upon the government to pay urgent heed to these complaints. In the meantime, let the protesting students be cautioned too that whatever the grievances are, and how much so ever these are justified, let them not end up shooting themselves in the foot. Destroying properties of their own institutes can only deepen their miseries in the long run.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/education-under-threat/

The waste management problem in Manipur has become acute. While this problem is universal and has become the bane of practically every society on the globe, it is a fact that some eco systems are more fragile than others. It should not be difficult to imagine why Manipur with its central valley surrounded by several ranges of mountains, would fall in the latter category. Just as denuded hills would be unliveable the central valley silted and contaminated by toxic, non-degradable sediments would equally be non supportive of life. People tend to take the bounties of nature too much for granted, and nobody ever thinks how serious the threat to life would be if the forests, rivers and lakes the state is blessed with were one day to fade away. Indeed, despite being so poor monetarily, poverty is not so harsh nutritionally in the state precisely because of the state`™s bountiful natural resources. Income-less sections of the population who still constitute quite a big percentage are spared the humiliation of absolute poverty and starvation because of this fact. If the degradation of the region`™s ecology continues the way it is at the moment, the day this invaluable shield against poverty and misery vanishes cannot be too far off.

There are too many factors behind eco degradation worldwide, but as the adage goes, think global act local. Even within the state, the issue is diverse, but on a very local canvas, one of the most immediate threats is plastic. This threat is most urgently and visibly felt in Imphal city. It is painful therefore to see in the dry seasons when the water levels in our rivers are low, plastic sediments literally clogging and choking them. Since almost all our rivers flow into the Loktak Lake, it is imaginable Loktak also becoming similarly throttled by plastic, destroying its complex, life supporting eco system in the near future.

It is no point simply lamenting. The way to go as concerned citizens is to also act. The urgent question then is, how do we tackle the plastic menace we are faced with? While practically everything we use today has plastic components, starting from our mobile phones and computers to our ordinary everyday office and household conveniences, it must be said the biggest plastic pollutants today are cheap, disposable plastic shopping bags and plastic water bottles. This being the case, a good starting point in the campaign would be to discover ways to control the use of these two. As only to be expected, this campaign has to be carried forward by the ordinary citizens and government together. While the government must fight the problem at the structural level, ordinary citizens must make the effort to sensitize themselves on the issue and be ready to change lifestyles. For a start, as is done to discourage people from smoking, the government must tax plastic bags heavily so shopkeepers do not willingly give them away free as wrappers to customers. If these bags come at a cost, customers will also begin thinking in terms of using sturdy, reusable shopping bags, and thereby dispense these use-and-dispose plastic bags.

In the case of bottled water, the government role is bigger. First of all, it is its fundamental responsibility to make safe drinking water available free, or at a nominal cost. Once this is ensured, the problem will end automatically for it is because our tap water is not safe that people buy bottled water. This is however something the government cannot do overnight so until such a time it is able to do this, it should install heavy duty water purifiers at different locations where people can go refill their water bottles, thereby forego packed water. These filters can be in small booths similar to ATM booths, where people can go have a drink or fill bottles, but not where they can take their buckets or bathe. Philanthropic organisations and clubs, such as Lions Club and Rotary Club, can actually be made partners in such projects. In clean Indian cities such as Shimla, these water booths exist, and this is what Manipur`™s cities and towns can emulate.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/fighting-plastic-menace/

The controversies Catholic schools in Imphal routinely get into are unfortunate, but this is the price of success. The truth is, success is not merely admired, but more often than not envied as well, and this is exactly where the Catholic schools are today. The revolution in school education that Little Flower School and Don Bosco School launched in the 1960s is literally responsible for the cream of today`™s society, either directly or indirectly. Many of today`™s elite, many of them now on the verge of retirement, not surprisingly, not just in Manipur, but also neighbouring Nagaland and Mizoram are products of these two schools. The 1980s, saw a proliferation of more Catholic schools, Nirmalabas being one of the earliest, as the market worth of Catholic Mission brand was so much that just the original two schools became woefully short of capacity to absorb the lengthening beeline seeking admission to them. Helping the growth of reputation of Catholic schools was the incrementally dismal performances of government schools in that era. The latter during the course of the decades since the 1970s, lost all senses of mission that educators are called upon to possess, and invariably became the bazaar in which government authorities openly sold jobs for a price, leaving them burdened in the end with newer lot of unfit and uncommitted teachers, slowly but surely spelling their death knells. Today, government run schools are all but dead, with only their skeletons to show but absolutely no innards. If the past generations of leaders have a reason to commit hara-kiri, it is the shame of completely ruining government schools. It must however be acknowledged that the present initiative of starting some model government schools to match the performance of private schools is worth appreciation, but it is too early to say the government`™s commitment will sustain to keep these schools market worthy.

Much water has flowed down the many rivers of Manipur ever since the revolution ushered in by Catholic schools. Inspired by them, many enterprising private parties, almost all of them products of Little Flower School, Don Bosco and the later Catholic schools, have launched private schools, arguably many of them have since raised the bars of education standards several notches higher than where the Catholic schools fixed them. Although these later schools are competitors which the Catholic schools must not take lightly, at another level, they can still be proud that it was they who enabled this all round creativity in the school education sector today. Thanks to this revolution, if the results of entrance examinations to the top professional courses each year are any indications, at least in school education Manipur has lagged behind any other states. At the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, for instance, of the 18 seats left for open competition among candidates from all North Eastern states, almost on a routine basis, candidates from Manipur make almost a clean sweep of all these seats each year, leaving the other states to contend with only the seats allotted to them as their individual quotas. This is the blessing Catholic missionaries have brought to Manipur and the state ought to be grateful.

The state can only wish this revolution had also spread to the domain of higher education, as is the case in Meghalaya. Unfortunately in this sector there is nothing much to be proud of in Manipur. All promising students whose parents can afford the cost, therefore continue to rush out of the state after school. Our institutes of higher learning continue to fail the state miserably and shamefully. Here it is unlikely private initiatives can make inroads easily, for the salary structures modelled on Central government norms in these institutions have ensured the costs are prohibitive for entries by private enterprises. If a revolution happens in this sector, it will have to be from intrinsically born idealism amongst younger generation of educators who have already entered, or are set to enter the field. We can only hope and pray such a second coming is in the offing.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/aura-of-catholic-schools/

It is a strange feeling indeed when a respectable elderly family member asks you to get some Marijuana. Even stranger ,when everyone gets together to smoke it. The chillum or pipe being handed down from your uncle, you taking a pull and handing it over to the nubile niece. This scene on any other day would tantamount of being a scandalous family, but on Shivaratri and in the name of religion, the pot smoking is an accepted ritual of the Vaishnavite society.

This particular day, the Imphal market corners are seen selling the various ingredients needed for the ritual inclusive of the quintessential Ganja which is of course, banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Act, 1985. Yet, the Narcotics Control Bureau and other related Home Department personnel turn a blind eye as the persons selling and buying are treated as devotees of a religious affair, the Narcotics and Affairs of Border are busy with their own usual affairs. As the permit to get stoned, is God given.

Perhaps, this is why the State government has not been able to enforce the dry state status in Manipur. Legitimacy is given to the ethnic communities to brew alcohol as it is by- part tradition. Hence , the peripheral towns of Sekmai, Andro and Phayeng have been producing local hooch en masse and in the heart of the city, by the Zeliangrong community. And unlike Shivaratri, the booze ritual is a perennial affair and the devouts throng to the watering spots daily. Here, the license at Paona Bazar, Polo Ground etc. is not God given. Yet, the Excise Department, Police personnel turn the blind eye as for certain that many palms must be greased. The fact is that Manipur is the wettest dry state in the whole nation.

Word has it that the demand for local liquor is in such a high that the producers are not able to distill liquor as per the usual time consuming method but accelerates the process of fermentation by adding urea and further spiking it with chemicals. Well ! Such adulteration would obviously affect the lone liver and various other key organs of the dipsomaniac pilgrim and leading to the obvious latter of meeting the Maker.

The State government should take note of the facts and as factually cannot implement the dry status, other non-state actors and various other civil bodies have also tried their best but curbing the alcohol trade continue to be a Sisyphean effort. As similar to the adage, how many bottles are continually destroyed and confiscated, more bottles flow down from the hill. So, it is best that the State government mull over the matter and study the pros and cons. Take statistical data and calculate how much the State exchequer will benefit from sale taxes, provided also that there will be a curb in the production of spurious liquor.

In Indian mythology and globally, there are various mentions of drunken Gods, which include Shiva, who smokes and drinks. We are after all human and ignoring the cancer warning signs of the tobacco pouch comes as second nature. If the damage done to oneself is voluntary, at least the public who don`™t engage in addiction can benefit from development works which can be earned from taxes of liquor sales. Otherwise, what is the use of being the wettest dry State ?

Leader Writer: Paojel Chaoba

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/wettest-dry-state/

How unbroken can the notion of progress so steadfastly held by believers in dialectical materialism be? A little deconstruction can demonstrate how futile the notion can be especially in considering humanities and arts. While history cannot be simply `one damn thing after another`, how far can we be justified in saying it has followed a linear locus? In the world of art, the ridiculous nature of the query was pointed out quite eloquently by one of the greatest historians of ideas `“ Isaiah Berlin. He demolished the unquestioned presumption that art too has always `progressed` with one era dovetailing the other and because of the advantage of hindsight, the latest era coming out on top at the end of this continuous progression. Since art has to do with human aspirations and inner urges, it should follow from the progress theory that what a great master like Rembrandt aspired to be, would be to a great extent what Picasso represented centuries later. Or Homer`™s epics `Odyssey` and `Iliad` were incomplete expressions of the writer`™s aspiration to achieve what John Milton in `Paradise Lost` achieved two thousand years later. This presumption obviously is ridiculous. For all they are worth, a Rembrandt may be a greater work of art than a Picasso, or Homer`™s artistic talent may be way ahead of Milton`™s. There can be no perfect scales on which these expressions in art can be measured and compared. Epochal achievements in these fields are definitely related and certain elements are definitely passed down generation to generation, but it is absurd to even imagine there is a progress in the manner it is presumed to in the sciences. Human aspirations and creativity are inextricably linked to the contextual backgrounds they spawned in, and often they cannot cross the boundaries of these backgrounds. Hence, it is quite likely an epic such as the Mahabharata can never be written again, as the creativity and imagination that gave it birth belonged in that epoch only.

This thought of postmodern `deconstruction` is often evoked when confronted with the question, sometimes posed to provoke and sometimes as honest query, as to what the boundaries of the presumably ancient `imagining` called Manipur were like. There is a similar flawed presumption of historical progression in this question. Who says a nation has always to have hard boundaries with boundary pillars, fenced off by barbed wires, guarded zealously by professional soldiers etc. The pre-colonial world outside of Europe did not understand nation and territory this way, as Lord Curzon noted in his well known Romanes Lecture 1907. In the Hindu epic `Ramayana` there is a particular ceremony Rama performed to demarcate the domain of his kingdom, whereby he released a white stallion and let it run free. If anybody stood in the way of the free run of the horse, he would have to face the might of the king and if he managed to stop the king, that would be where extent of the former`™s kingdom was deemed to end. Such and similar alternate understandings would have been more applicable in say the contest for ownership of the Kabaw Valley between the kingdoms of Ava and Manipur in the pre-modern times. If a king stuck his flag on the bank of a river and nobody dared oppose him, that point would have become the extent of his kingdom. These boundaries too would have been in a flux depending on the rise and fall of the powers of rulers. These understandings cannot simply be forced into the modern paradigms of nationhood.

It is however interesting that even in the 21st Century, very modern nations still are not free of this ancient principle of establishing domains of control. The idea of `no fly zone` and the muscle flexing last year over the South China Sea between the US and Japan on one side and China on the other is a demonstration of this. The US was used to flying its planes and pushing its airspaces domain as it pleased till rising superpower China claimed it was encroaching into its territory and prohibited it from further provocation.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/history-and-context/

Just as in much of mainland India where the institution of arranged marriage ensures a steady stream of revenue for newspapers through matrimonial advertisements, it is often joked that making notification of births and deaths mandatory, as in most advanced countries whose populations are closely enumerated, would add another major perennial revenue source for newspapers. Regardless of whatever ups and downs the world goes through, births, deaths and marriages will continue to be the destiny of humankind. This is however not to canvas for the creation of revenue sources for the media in the state, although it would not have been altogether unreasonable to do so considering compulsory registration of deaths and births after their public notification, can make the decadal national census exercises much more accurate and easy to conduct. On the other hand, this editorial is to point out another very immediate consequence of deaths and births against the backdrop of an ever increasing congestion of Imphal city.

Greater Imphal`™s population is growing exponentially both by birth as well as migration, and today close to a third of the entire state`™s population live in this capital city. One of the inevitable consequences is constantly shrinking living space. The traditional drainage network of khongban have disappeared and in their places are tiny, so called modern, drains most of which are barely able to carry the city`™s daily liquid waste. Not surprisingly even a moderately heavy monsoon shower cause them to overflow and flood the city; playgrounds and community lai haraoba grounds too are progressively shrinking, and some have actually disappeared; family courtyards where family ceremonies were traditionally performed are becoming history. The most painful of these consequences however is the shrinking spaces for the disposal of the dead. Amongst the Meiteis, who form the majority of the population of Imphal, this is by cremation, and among them cremation is very territorial in nature, obviously reminiscent of a clannish past, and no family would want their dead cremated anywhere else than at their traditional community cremation site. Unfortunately, the expanding city, with its widening roads, rising new multi-storied buildings etc, has little respect for these grounds. The result is the indignity of cremations having to be performed on the roadsides or at the foot of high rise buildings. This indignity is both for those performing the last rites for their kin, as well as for onlookers who are left to stare at funeral pyres when they peep out of their windows or step out of their homes.

It is not easy for a community to leave behind their tradition, but sometimes the flux of time move ahead of the pace at which traditions change. Imphal`™s cremation problem is one such case. It is therefore time the government began considering introducing a few modern electric crematoriums in Imphal. It is unlikely everybody will take to them immediately, but a beginning must be made. When the people come to realise that with a little reorientation of their rituals, they can much more efficiently, cleanly and cost effectively complete their obligation to the dead, this can become the new tradition. They can then take their dead to these crematoriums and return with the ashes for the continuance of their religious rituals. It must also be kept in mind that even if it is not today, at some point in the near future, this will have to be Imphal`™s and the state`™s new reality, so why not begin taking steps towards this now. There are still some well placed traditional community crematoriums too. Perhaps some enterprising MLAs can think of their upgrade to modern electric crematoriums with their MLA local area funds, and thus be the beacon for the future shape of things.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/electric-crematoriums-needed/

The media in Manipur today is in a pitiable state. On the one hand there it constantly faces the danger of rubbing the establishment the wrong way and forsake their registration with the Registrar of Newspapers in India, RNI, for publishing underground propaganda literature without vetting them adequately. On the other hand, press establishments are also routinely under threats of being abruptly closed down, and pressmen of losing life and limbs, from various underground organisations who would have every single statement they make appear prominently in print, or broadcasted. Since life and limbs are dearer to most if not all than jobs or businesses, it is anybody`™s guess what the outcomes have been. The state media is once again under such a cloud, and those who have visited media offices or the residences of editors in the last two days will have seen the police cover given them currently. This is truly unfortunate. Making matters worse, mutually hostile splinters of underground organisations have been banning each other and the literature their rivals churn out, making it all the more difficult for the media.

But the issue does not end here. For the media losing its independence is also about losing its credibility, and this is exactly what has happened to a very great extent already. People have begun taking reportage of conflict from Manipur with a pinch of salt. Some dismiss them altogether. In the same vein, anything extra critical of the establishment that the media writes has also come to be seen as prompted, and not an independent assessment or judgment meriting serious attention. Many of us in the profession had once argued that although the media is a business, it is a different kind of business, for apart from being a business enterprise that must make profit, a media organisation also is an independent voice and conscience keeper of the society. Today, the media is coming to be by and large no different from any other businesses. Hence only those with an eye to business have remain as keen to carry on but those who were attracted to it by the promise of mission, are on an incremental basis, deflated spiritually. Being told what to do or what not to do must come across as humiliating for everybody, but for the media, for whom this freedom is virtual oxygen, developments in the past few decades have been nothing less than suffocating.

The media`™s cup of woe is deeper still. In small markets such as Manipur, the profession remains poorly paid. The fact that what media professional earn here is the standard that most in the nascent private sector job market earn can be no consolation or justification. It is unfortunate no media organisation has been able to implement any of the wageboard recommendations for journalists so far. In fact in the entire Northeast, only Assam Tribune has been religiously keeping by wageboard standards. In the case of most, this is because they were genuinely not in a position to afford the extra financial burden, their returns from the weak market being limited. But this notwithstanding, it is now time for something to be done to raise journalists`™ wage standard. The latest in this regard is the Mazithiya wageboard recommendations, which would require journalists and non-journalist employees of bottom rung media businesses to be paid a minimum of about Rs. 17,000 per month. This would again be out of range of most, if not all, media houses in the state, and the only way this can be accomplished is if their advertisement revenue increases in the same proportion the raise is sought. This should not be impossible if the government saw its own, and the state`™s interests, in making this happen. After all, it would be generating respectable jobs for much cheaper than if it were to absorb an equal number of professionals under its own direct umbrage. The proposed Rs. 17,000 per month is only a fraction of what government employees who handle similar responsibilities earn. It could for instance substantially increase the volume and tariff of the advertisements it releases to the media, and then enforce a wage standard. This will not amount to doles either for the government will also be earning its own dividends from imaginative advertisements it releases.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/rescuing-the-media/

The growing congestion in Imphal is a cause for worry. A flyover or two will hardly make a difference either. In fact, as many have already pointed out in the debate over the suitability of the BT Road Flyover when it was first being commissioned, unless any particular flyover is able to lift traffic out of a congested area and land them at a distant non-congested area, it will only become a matter of shifting one point of congestion to another. The BT Road Flyover, barely a few hundred meters long, is hardly the former. The benefit it has serve initially was at best in terms of separating pedestrians and shoppers from vehicular traffic to some extent `“ the ground for the latter and the flyover for motor vehicles `“ but even this is now no longer the case. The ground too is now in a perpetual traffic jam. From this point of view, the effort to widen the city roads has been more commendable, and if at all there are prices being paid by individual property owners along these roads, they must understand, it is for a greater common good, although this does not mean that they must not be awarded suitable compensations. The pattern has however been for property owners alone to get compensation, and not those who run small time businesses from rented spaces. Most of these businesses, such as PCOs, photocopy shops, tea stall etc follow a territorial logic, and even if they were to set up the same businesses in other locations, chances are they will never find a foothold. The government, if fairness is the game, should think about them too.

However, despite all these efforts, the maddening congestion that Imphal today is being suffocated by is unlikely to be eased to the extent desired. This is because the planners continue to ignore certain vital needs of a growing city. To name just two simple and the obvious ones: traffic disciplining and a total restructuring of the parking norms. We find it absolutely difficult to understand why heavy commercial and passenger vehicles are being allowed to park, not just enter the heart of Imphal during busy daylight hours. Only insane city planners would continue to give the nod to the Keishampat bus parking, or the one at Waheng Leikai junction. The bus depots must be pushed out, if not to the outermost fringes of the city, then at least away from the city core. It would hence do well for the government to think of building a few more bus terminus away from the innermost layer of the city. There are a few well-placed ones already, such as the one at North AOC and the Andro Parking adjacent to the AIR complex. In direct contrast, there are no proper parking spaces for small private vehicles anywhere near the Imphal city heart. Under the circumstance, people park their vehicles anywhere on the road. Visit the Paona and Thangal Bazar area to get a sense of this. Hence, even as the commercial vehicles are being pushed out, some officially designated parking areas must be built in and around the main Imphal shopping centers. Within the shopping areas, all engine vehicle should be forbidden. A bit of walking in these areas will do the shops as well as the shoppers plenty of good. New constructions, especially hotels and malls, which we are sure will spring up rapidly sooner than latter, must be compelled by law to have at least the ground floor or an underground one, as parking space.

In the longer term planning of course, the government must nudge Imphal to branch out. Satellite settlements and townships must be encouraged. The best suited places for such colonization will be the agriculture unworthy sections of the foothills nearby. It should not be difficult to imagine how the Langgol Housing Complex and the Games Village would have eased the population pressure on Imphal proper. The Nongmaijing and Ngariyan etc, can also be made to pitch in. If new legislations are necessary for this, they must be brought about. Imphal is on the point of imploding and the government must open its eyes to this reality too.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/imphal-must-fan-out/

Quite obviously Prime Minister Narendra Modi meant it when he said developing the Northeast is going to be one of his top priority areas. In what seems a translation of this informal statement of policy intent, in the past one week, almost on a daily basis, important Union cabinet ministers have been visiting the Northeast, many of them making Manipur a stop on their tours. These visits no doubt would put the state government on the alert, and nobody will disagree this is good. Democracy works best when checks and balances are built into the system at every level, from the very top right down to the bottom. No need for reminder again that this is precisely what has been lacking in Manipur for all this while. Those at the apex of the hierarchy of state power have come to think they are untouchables, not even by the law, and have been virtually doing whatever they fancy. This has also expectedly been having a cascading effect, and down the hierarchy too, this sense impunity has percolated. Today the entire officialdom has become a monolithic corruption structure where each class of employees scratch the back of the ranks above them and together reap their unholy harvest of public money. This will be more than evident even in a cursory scan of the wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income of these employees.

However, Like so many abnormal trends in governance, corruption too has become Manipur`™s new normal. But the trouble is, the government can give employment to barely 2 percent of the population, therefore even if this corruption monolith were to be accepted as a skewed form of wealth distribution system, it cannot reach the majority of the population. This being case, we are concerned because unless this monolith has been effectively checked, even if total dismantling of it is impossible, all talks of resolution to some of the most vexing social issues of Manipur, including insurgency, will remain in vain. This notwithstanding, though everybody knows corruption is a scourge affecting their individual lives directly or indirectly, their spirit of resistance has now been lulled effectively by the intimidating belief they are powerless to change anything. It is from this vantage that we are encouraged by the signs of new and sustained vigil the Union government seems intent on keeping on the state government. Hopefully, at the end of it, there will be some governance accountability introduced. Wasn`™t it the Prime Minister who had himself said government servants must remain as servants of the society and not its masters? We do hope this current rush of ministerial visits from Delhi is a way of the Prime Minister putting his money where his mouth is.

We must however say there are obvious cautions. Manipur is under a Congress government and the Union government is BJP. This must not result in any vendetta thereby topple democratic norms in Centre-State relations. We say this caution is essential for we also see the state unit of the BJP trying to take advantage, even encouraging the use of undemocratic means to unsettle the state government. This is especially repulsive because as yet the BJP does not have the people`™s mandate in the state, and the party is without a single seat in the state Assembly. The party still did not have this mandate in a bye election to a vacant Assembly seat held after the BJP government was installed at the Centre. If the BJP leadership in power at the Union were to facilitate in any way the undemocratic backdoor entry of the state BJP to the state Assembly through the undemocratic means of using the office of the state Governor, it may amount to some immediate gains for the party, but the longer term losses, in terms of a general depletion of faith of the people not just in any political party, but the Indian democratic polity itself, will far outweigh these immediate gains. Let the state BJP wait till the Assembly election next year to prove its credentials, and it would be to everybody appreciation if the Central BJP leaders rein in its state unit to ensure this is the case.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/union-looking-east/

In a chilling reminder of the fact that the citizens of the State are living under the whims and megrims of Central paramilitary forces, passengers, from the border town of Moreh and travelling to it, have been harassed under the pretext of frisking and security checks for quite some time. Things come to a boil after personnel of a paramilitary unit compelled both a hypertensive individual and a pregnant woman to walk by foot for about half a kilometre. The fact that the former was not in the pink of health was obvious to everyone but the security personnel perhaps were too keen to follow orders that this all too apparent fact was oblivious to them.
In the case of the pregnant woman too, let`™s give a benefit of doubt to those brave soldiers of the decorated `Sentinals of the North-East`™. Discretion is the better part of valour, as a saying goes. People who have the rights to bear arms are constantly asked to display valour, and chivalry is what differentiates armies with great traditions from rag-tag armies of uncouth, semi-literate thugs. It`™s safe to assume that the celebrated highly-disciplined personnel of the Assam Rifles acted with discretion by compelling the pregnant woman to walk, turning their back on any notions of chivalry which is an adjunct of valour.

We are now aware that such incidents were getting so commonplace that the stoical citizens of Tengnoupal, and Chandel, couldn`™t put up with it anymore and were forced to impose the eight-day road blockade in protest against the irrational imposition of restrictions on the Imphal-Moreh Road. Even if the restrictions were enforced and timed according to an order of a former DGP of the State, as some newspaper reports suggest, the manner in which such orders have been followed defy any logic. Such indiscreet adherence to orders have railed even the State government which finally showed, some semblance of a, spine aftermath the detaining of a Cabinet minister of the State. A similar incident in the past had rocked the State after the then State Health minister, Ph Parijat was detained and humiliated by a Major of the 7 Assam Rifles posted at Sagang in Bishnupur. The incident has occurred seven years after the former Health minister had to suffer humiliation after an Indian Army Major stopped his cavalcade and detained him. That incident anticipated the recent incident involving the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister Francis Ngajokpa.

The State including those in the government has the right to feel indignant as, in the words of the deputy Chief Minister, `disrespecting an elected member of the State is akin to disrespecting the State`™. Even if the State government has reacted strongly against the arbitrary exercise of power by an officer of the rank of a Major in the Indian Army who in violating a protocol has gone beyond his brief in discharging his duty, what remains to be seen is whether the State government has the will and the vision to stop such arbitrary exercise of power by security forces in the future once and for all.

Leader Writer: Svoboda Kangleicha

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/ar-as-in-arbitrary-restrictions/

It is less than a month since India celebrated the day it became a `sovereign socialist democratic republic` on January 26, 1950 when its Constitution, adopted on November 26, 1949, was finally and officially dedicated to its people. The adjective `socialist` was dropped a quarter of a century later from the preamble by an amendment of the Constitution, but that is another story. Sixty five years down the line, the moot questions on everybody`™s mind should be, how has the Republic translated for different sections of the Indian citizenry? More fundamentally, what is a republic beyond just the dictionary meaning of it? These questions are extremely relevant for the Northeast region, particularly in the event of numerous rebel populations challenging this Republic and promising alternative Republics? Hence, while the rest of the nation celebrates its sovereignty, many State capitals in the northeast merely completing an official formality, this too under tight security for fear of saboteurs. Fearful of getting caught in violent confrontations, most of the public too chose to remain indoors in front of their television sets or else enjoying the holiday as many do by doing nothing. A Republic Day without the public indeed, but this would hardly be any index of the minds of the public, for it can never be ascertained what their response would have been, given a free choice. At least on Republic Day, it has been made sure that the mood definitely is not of a Republic, the sense of individual freedom being what comes to be most conspicuously destroyed.

In recent years, the evolution of the concept of human development indexes have become an indispensable mechanism for evaluating the performance of a Republic, or for that matter any other form of governance. In its totality, it measures the various human conditions that guarantee or destroy hope and a general sense of wellbeing. It also seeks to establish a co-relation between these subjective values and material conditions of living. It is significant that these indexes have become a chief instrument of independent agencies like the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to calibrate the performances of nations, coming out as it does with an annual report, now popularly known as the HDR, (human development report). The most fundamental of these human development indexes are things like freedom from fear of diseases, hunger, lack of shelter, aggression, freedom to choose one`™s leaders etc. Then there are the guarantees of education, equal employment opportunities, livelihood, freedom of speech and expression, free media, fair trial and arbitration of justice by an independent judiciary etc. Despite its many terrible hiccups, by comparison, India has not been doing all that bad against this scale. Most of these parameters of measuring the HDR are also incidentally listed as non-negotiable fundamental rights in its Constitution, although as to how much it has been able to live up to these guarantees is where the cloud may be. But still, the inference is, even if in action there have been shortfalls, in intent at least there may be no mala fides.

Take the case of Thailand, one of the most robust and prosperous economies of the ASEAN. Despite the admirable growth of its economy, Thailand still sports some shameful scars. As for instance, it treats its non-mainstream populations like sub-humans. Only a decade ago, the country`™s cabinet met to consider whether many of its peripheral hill tribes should be given citizenship and allowed to vote on vital national issues. Despite the many regional inequalities in the human development indexes, the Indian republic has not been as bad. If one day it can guarantee the sovereignty of the individual citizen as enshrined in its Constitution in its letter and spirit, perhaps there would be no alternative sovereignty for anybody to fight for. In India, places like the Northeast have fallen behind in the developmental march, and it is also true much of this have been a result of neglect, deliberate or otherwise. But at least there is a visible intent to rectify wrongs. The policy of positive discrimination for Schedule Tribes and Schedule Castes, to level out the playing fields, in the form of various reservations in government institutions is just one of these. It goes without saying, a lot however still remains to be done.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/a-republics-hiccups/

How much is culture responsible for progress made by any given society? How much is culture responsible for the embrace or resistance to modernity? These are questions which keep returning because of their continued relevance. There have been so many books written on the subject, addressing and seeking the roots of so much disparity in development all over the world. The intriguing nature of the question has also assured many of these books are best-sellers. Jared M. Diamond`™s `Guns, Germs and Steel` and Professor David S. Landes`™ `Wealth and Poverty of Nations` would belong to this category. But another one which promises to satiate further this universal thirst is `The Central Liberal Truth` by foreign aid worker, Lawrence E Harrison, which says culture does make a world of difference in attitudes to modernity and development. The thought if pursued, developed, and applied earnestly and consensually, can also pay dividends for Manipur. How much have our own varying cultures been a catalyst or inhibitor of modernity and development? What has been the role of culture and tradition in our grappling with this issue? It would indeed be an interesting academic study to make an assessment of the correlation between development and the willingness of a community to accept scientific reforms.

Another study by American economists Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel and critiqued by an American journal, demonstrates the same interrelation between cultural grounding and development. The study takes into account records of illegal parking tickets earned by diplomatic vehicles from different countries outside the UN headquarters in New York. The figures seem hardly a coincidence. The two economists found out that diplomats from countries that rank high on the Transparency International corruption index pile up huge numbers of unpaid tickets, whereas diplomats from countries that rank low on the index get barely any at all. For instance, between 1997 and 2002, they found out, the UN Mission of Kuwait picked up 246 parking violations per diplomat. Diplomats from Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Mozambique, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Syria also committed huge numbers of violations. By contrast, not a single parking violation by a Swedish diplomat was recorded. Nor were there any by diplomats from Denmark, Japan, Israel, Norway or Canada. The reason for this as per their conclusion is, human beings are not merely products of economics, but are also shaped by cultural and moral norms. `If you are Swedish and you have a chance to pull up in front of a fire hydrant, you still don`™t do it. You are Swedish. That`™s who you are.` Getting at the crux of his argument, Brook quotes another politician thinker of the mid 20th Century, Walter Lippmann, who once said in a speech: `All cultures have value because they provide coherence, but some foster development while others retard it. Some cultures check corruption, while others permit it. Some cultures focus on the future, while others focus on the past. The question that is at the centre of politics today: Can we self-consciously change cultures so they encourage development and modernization?`

The question is profoundly relevant to our situation. How receptive has our own cultures been to a vision of a modernised future. Can we say the same thing that has been said of the Swedish diplomats who would not park in front of a fire hydrant even if no one was watching, in referring to our own elite? Do we see signs of any moral and social obligations that would stop someone from littering the streets with their kitchen garbage? Do our consciences come to play in checking personal urges for unfair and corrupt practices? Are there any unwritten norms that make people guilty at breaking traffic norms? There have also been debates about the infamous, lethargic work culture in official establishments, but has there ever been an inherent, cultural checking mechanism coming to play to end this? What relation do all these have with development or modernity? The evidences are overwhelming and they all show there is indeed a correlation between cultural attitudes and the march of modernity.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/progress-as-state-of-mind/

From all appearances, Arvind Kejriwal the maverick politician is set to return to power in the State of Delhi. In the just concluded elections to the 70-member legislative assembly, exit polls are unanimous that his Aam Admi Party, AAP, will return with a thumping majority, leaving behind the BJP which has since the Parliamentary elections 10 months ago has been riding on what has come to be described as the Modi Tsunami, and the Congress, currently battered politically and in a very low morale. As to whether the elections pundits are right will be known by the end of the day today (Tuesday) when the elections results are due to be announced. It may be recalled, if the AAP does come to power, it will be Kejriwal`™s second stint and Chief Minister of the State. The former civil servant was the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi from December 28, 2013 to February, 14, 2014 before he voluntarily and dramatically quit office after failing to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. He blamed the BJP and Congress for stalling the passage of this anti-corruption bill, implying they were protecting corrupt businessmen for their own benefits.

The Delhi elections this time was billed as a referendum for the BJP government at the Centre, led by towering charismatic leader Narendra Modi. The way the Modi wave was sweeping the country, nobody a few months ago would have believed he would face such a stiff challenge from a party which many had believed would never recover from the political suicide it committed almost exactly a year ago. Although the final word is yet to be said on the verdict of the Delhi electorate, the mood right now seems to suggest the BJP Goliath has met more than its match in the AAP David. If this does prove to be the scenario when the results are announced, for sure, the country can expect some very interesting drama in the coming months. The battle for Delhi would have then transition into another high pitched phase, as Kejriwal`™s Delhi government can be predicted safely to take on Modi`™s Union government. Kejriwal, as some political observers have so aptly described, is marked by an `insurgent`™ instinct, and although he too will be in political power, he will predictably remain suspicious of people in power. The country has seen how he even as a Chief Minister during his last stint, resorted to staging street protests and dharnas. He has also been alleging Prime Minister Modi, among others, is in league with corporate houses to plunder the country.

It is likely the battle between Kejriwal`™s Delhi and Modi`™s Delhi will get acrimonious and even ugly. However, not for any leanings towards the political ideologies of the parties the leaders belong to, but simply for the belief that a democracy without an effective opposition is no democracy, we would welcome AAP`™s re-entry into Delhi State`™s corridors of power. Till Kejriwal`™s opposition came about in the run up to the Delhi elections, it had seemed the Modi wave was sweeping away all political opposition to the ruling party into complete insignificance. Hence, even for somebody who has nothing particularly for or against the ruling party, this would have come across as dangerous for the democratic polity. From this vantage, it must be said, AAP`™s takeover of the Delhi darbar, if it at all happens, is good for the country and indeed the ruling BJP.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/delhi-versus-delhi/

Mere profession of goodwill by the state administration cannot be all that is needed to allay the widely held suspicion that government employment status in the state has been unscrupulously hijacked by the state`™s majority community. While it is true that the sizes of the pie before the administration at any given time are small, and that this fact itself would have been enough cause for general dissatisfaction, the government is obliged to establish beyond reasonable doubts that it has not been systematically unjust to any sections of the population, especially to those in the hills where visibly the most bile have accumulated on this count. Many of the allegations such as this one, over which the state gets to see periodic blockades on its lifeline highways, often seem justified considering the disparity in development of the two main region of the state. This in spite of the fact that such a disparity is as much a reality within the valley, and the poorer regions of the valley cannot be any better in terms of development than much of the hills. The government must however treat this perceived injustice seriously, for while those who honestly believe it has been institutionalized would be justified in their anger, those who think it is not would also be equally justified to be piqued at the constant allegations. Such an atmosphere cannot be a recipe for the much elusive social harmony that everyone is on a frantic hunt for these days. The charge for instance that the Manipur University does not any longer have any tribal academics in senior positions needs to be looked into and veracity of the charge established. If this is indeed the case, the reason for this must also be found out. Technically, an absence does not always have to mean deliberate exclusion. It can also be a case of lack of candidates. As for instance, Manipur has not had a cricketer in the Indian team does not necessarily mean exclusion.

We suggest the government to bring out a `white paper` on the decadal structure of the administration and the funds flow pattern. It can for instance take lateral headcounts of the employment structure at randomly selected decadal points. The ethnic constitution of the employees at these points, at the top, mid and bottom hierarchies, should be able to tell a more truthful story of how just or unjust the state has been to its ethnically divided population than all the sustained allegations or the equally persisting defences put up against them. If this story tells of no ulterior and discriminatory game-plan, let the obdurate critics step back, and on the other hand, if there indeed had been such a slant in the administration, let adequate steps be taken now to straighten out the wrongs as well as to introduce mechanisms to ensure this cannot happen again.

On the social plane, discrimination by the valley dwellers against their hill brethren have been obvious and indeed pronounced even a generation or two ago largely on account of the faith the former have adopted. Today this social apartheid has receded, and although its existence in pockets cannot be still ruled out, we are certain it would die its natural death by the turn of another generation. But the damage has already been done considerably, as evidenced in the gulf that has come between the two worlds. There can possibly be no quick fix to mend these deep social fissures, and the ultimate healing will have to come from the civil society. We do believe, given the public spirit here, this story will see a happy denouement. If the atmosphere that feeds the venom to the parties in conflict is removed, as optimist we believe no bitterness can be passed on beyond a generation or two at the maximum. It is with an eye to fostering such an atmosphere that we suggest to the government to come out with a `white paper` on the structure of its administration.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/02/employment-status/