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07/05/2008: "‘Forgive one another & reunite’ morungexpress"

‘Forgive one another & reunite’ morungexpress

Dimapur, July 5 (MExN): The State Bharatiya Janata Party, lamenting on the incidents of violence in the state among Naga brothers, has appealed to all Naga National leaders and workers to “uphold the principle of the Naga national movement and work accordingly.”
A press note issued by Vedayi Nyekha, State General Secretary BJP, stated that actions and infighting among national workers today are “quite contrary to the mandatory principle of Nagas because they have gradually forgotten the goal for which the struggle started,” adding that the Nagas had unanimously started the national movement with a strong principle to protect their land, safeguard its people and live in harmony and line as one as a sovereign nation.
The note mentioned that the party is demoralized to see the present Naga national workers; and that after 1975, “the genuine principle of the national cause has elapsed” and the right that was claimed in the past is silent and fighting among brothers, killing, hatred and declaring supremacy has begun.
The BJP has further appealed to all underground groups to “forgive one another and reunite for the common cause as the generations’ mandate lies in legitimate national workers.”
Resolve NU issues, NSF tells FFC By NPN | Dimapur04/07/2008 Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has urged the central Fact Finding Committee (FFC) of Nagaland University (NU), to seriously look into the varied issues and allegations of corruption and malpractices in the University and to resolve them once and for all.
NSF president Imchatoba Imchen and general secretary Hetoi Chishi in a representation submitted to the chairman, FFC, said the continuous confrontations and resulting impasse between the Nagaland University Teachers Association (NUTA) and the vice chancellor, had severely hampered the academic environment of the university and careers of the students.
The Federation urged the FFC to resolve all issues immediately so that the university could start functioning smoothly.
Appealing that the entire administrative set up of the university be “purged of incompetence” and initiatives taken to bring NU at par with leading universities in the country, the Federation also said university recruitment policy should be strictly adhered to.
NSF also said development of infrastructure in all campuses must be carried out with all transparency including allotment of works to duly registered contractors with proven track record and cancellation of contract works allotted to university employees.
Further, the federation demanded immediate shifting of the administrative headquarters of the university to Lumami Campus, as per the Nagaland University Act.
It reminded that even after fourteen years of establishment of Nagaland University, the administration of the NU was being carried out in a “make shift office” away from the administrative headquarters.
NSF also demanded that the findings of the FFC be made public, “so as to ease all misconceptions about the university functioning.”
The representation alleged that ever since Nagaland University came into being in 1994, NSF and general public had been witnessing unrest among the student community and teaching staff over “blatant corruption, maladministration and mismanagement of funds” taking place throughout the tenure of successive vice chancellors.
“The academic welfare of the student community has been neglected between the politics of favoritism and the maladministration and incompetence within the set-up,” NSF said.
The Federation also alleged that the growth of NU had been stunted by numerous controversies following the appointment and performance of successive vice chancellors.
Mathematical formula for reconciliation & unity needed Nagaland Page
As we hear from the past history of our forefathers, Nagas are bold compassion, truthful and hospitable, but when we look at these it seems like something missing with the present generation and the good of ours becomes like the past history no doubt, there was a time where either for their livelihood or as a part of games the invaded both near and far villages, and far villages, and there was war and hatred among villages and even amongst tribes, but, those trying days are gone and a time of change have come where there was more hatred and war those villages and tribes become more closer, friendship and understanding become more easier with them. For there was nothing hidden everything they do is positive in their heart and mind. Then a great change comes to Nagas for good, we were ask to gave up the old believes and practices and accept Christianity as Nagas were bold in taking decision so also confident in their believe and the time for forgive and forget was at hand, this was not so hard with them for the truth in oneself was so high and trustworthy and there was not denied for that, for if you forgive me today and even if I come to your house for shelter tomorrow you will never harm me or do wrong against me for Nagas have and knew God even before Christianity comes to our land. At point of time while accepting Christianity from indigenous believe before our faith was deeply rooted, education become more important than any other else and many got educated from neighboring states and even in other countries as well. This transitional period as we see have given much change to the Nagas. Today, we have produced many educationists, philosophers, technocrats and theologians but if I am not wrong I think we lack to produce the wisdom or the Wiseman amongst us. This may be the reason we have less compassion, quickly get annoy or react without listening to oneself or our conscious the inner person and even before hearing others most of the time our hearts are left empty and our heads are full of confusion and correction and correction less and there is suspicion. Mindless, scarcity and doubtfulness over the other, and we are like living under a shadow or an artificial lives. Today we all speak and long for peace, but as we know peace will not come down from above it is within oneself or within us. We are in a state of turmoil where politically people have differences socially divided, morally degraded and even spiritually and religiously apart with God and one another. Here let us not play the blame games. But here allow me write and say that we need to apply some mathematical formula, where minus, plus, addition, multiplication and divide are all necessary and if we can apply all this together I think the answer to the call for reconciliation and unity is not far.
V Victor
Officer's Hill, Kohima

Tamenglong hit by severe food scarcity Daniel Kameih

TAMENGLONG, Jul 3: With the outbreak of bamboo flowering and rodent menace in the whole of Tamenglong district the area is now facing acute food scarcity. There are no rice supplies in store at the private shops and also with the food and civil supplies authorities in the district.

The shop owners while interacting with this correspondent said that they had been searching for rice stocks at the state capital Imphal since the last two weeks, but to their great disappointment they could find only 40 bags and that too at high costs.

The shop owners went on to say that prices of all goods and commodities had gone up due to the recent price rise at Imphal. Besides, bringing in supplies through Silchar or Jiribam was not possible as the bridges between Kaiphundai and Jiribam were carried away by the recent flood waters. "Our loaded trucks are stranded along the NH-53 due to incomplete construction of the new bridges over the river," said one shopkeeper.

Upon further enquiry regarding the scarcity of food grains at the shops, the shop owners maintained that this could be due to heavy taxation from the underground groups based in the valley areas. However, they did not know the reason behind the scarcity of rice in Imphal.

It is a fact that the poor cultivators in the villages suffer during the monsoon months of June, July and the first part of August. The poor farmers had some reason to smile with the arrival of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, NREGS, in the district. However, the district administration had not been able to pay the wages of job card holders for the remaining 14 days of 2007. Also, no work has been taken up under the scheme for 2008.

Meanwhile, the arrival of locust threat has hit the poor cultivators in the whole district of Tamenglong. While talking to this correspondent, Pou Samuel, secretary, Namkaoluang Village Authority and Longmai village said that the locusts had started attacking paddy and maize plants. "They also perch on the standing crops in their thousands and hop from one plant to the other causing destruction of the crops in the process. Their number has been increasing tremendously over the last one month," he said.

The entire population of the district subsists on jhum cultivation and the phenomenal rise of insect population means a famine is underway. The district administration, on the other hand, has not taken any preventive measures against the invasion of insects. However, an official source said that upon receiving complaints from four villages in Nungba, Tousem and Tamei block, the district agriculture officers along with their staff had gone to Imphal to submit the findings.
FANTASIES AND FACTS ramguha@vsnl.com The Telegraph
- Peace in the Northeast may lie beyond ideological purity politics and play : Ramachandra Guha


My last column, reflecting on a recent journey through north-eastern India, provoked an interesting exchange with a young reader. I had written that “the Indian government has a responsibility to understand and respect the people who live on its peripheries; so do the citizens who live in states more keen to count themselves as part of India”. The reader felt that this was “delusional and condescending”. “We live in the present,” he said, “and at present the people in A[ssam] M[anipur] [and] N[agaland] don’t want to be part of India. They have a right to decide their own future. Let’s start from there.”
The abbreviation “AMN” referred to Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, three states the reader had clubbed together as — in his view — united by a common desire for independence from India. I answered the email by noting that I was a Tamil, and that, through the Fifties and Sixties, many Tamils did not want to be part of India, either. In fact, it was only as late as 1963 that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had dropped its demand for a separate nation, and chosen to struggle instead for greater autonomy within the Indian Union. My own view was that while “we [Tamils] were wise to have dropped the secessionist demand, the government was wiser to stop imposing Hindi on us”. Then I added, “Fighting for independence for the Assamese or the Nagas will lead to decades more of bloodshed — all will be losers. The dream will become a bloody fantasy.”
The correspondent was unmoved. As he replied, “Seems like you (I don’t mean you personally) are threatening the people of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland with violence unless they accept foreign dominion. The people of AMN have a right to demand their own future. The blood is on the Indians’ hands. Not just on the hands of the Indians that are doing the killing, but the Indian politicians that are making it happen and most importantly on the hands of the Indians that elect those politicians and allow them to continue killing. As I understand, your position is: If the people of AMN aspire to decide their own future, Indians are going to respond by bloodshed. So, the people of AMN should just accept their fate and live under foreign rule the best they can. This response from the Indians does not seem very civilized, and we are supposed to just get along with them?”
To this I answered, “In this sorry story no one’s hands are clean — there is blood on the hands of the Indian State, and on the hands of the Naga and Manipuri and Assamese insurgents. Unless we start from this admission, that no one’s hands are clean (and don’t tell me the Ulfa and NSCN only engage in ‘reactive’ violence), we will only, in our self-righteousness, condemn our own people to more years of violence and misery.” I asked my correspondent to “also consider again what I said about the Tamils — they once wanted independence too. Assam and Nagaland, with its highly educated people and less inegalitarian society, will HUGELY benefit if peace comes to their states. The primary responsibility for bringing this about rests with the Indian State, of course; but the young men of the region must also play their part, which means, think of the future of their own people, rather than of ideological purity.”
The young man complained, “You are avoiding a simple question I asked. We live in the present, and if the people of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland want to decide their own future, then do you think India indulging in bloodletting is justified?” He saw “no reason why we the people in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland would not be better off if we are to control our own destiny. The only problem that needs to be solved is that the Indians are squatting on our land, and threatening to cause bloodshed when we ask them to leave us and let us be.” He believed that the “only relevant question for us from Assam, Manipur and Nagaland is what do we do about a violent squatter threatening to kill us now or maybe slowly in the not too distant future….”
My reply, this time, was to focus on some very relevant facts that seemed to have escaped the young man’s attention. These were:
1. No new nation has been created by armed struggle for the past several decades.
2. The Indian Constitution allows for full autonomy to its member states, whose inhabitants can speak their own language, practise their own faith, and in some cases even frame their own laws.
3. The Indian economy is growing, and the people of these states can benefit from this. A single company in Bangalore had recently recruited 1,500 individuals from the Northeast because of their facility with English and their general intelligence. This was good for that company, good for those particular individuals, and good for Bangalore. At the same time, it was a tragic commentary on the situation in the Northeast. Would it not be much better, I asked, if these very gifted people could live and work in their own states, and nurture their own economies thereby? If they are forced to migrate hundreds of miles south, it is because the Indian government and the insurgents both have a vested interest in continuing the civil conflicts in the region. But if peace were to come, these states too could flourish like Tamil Nadu, which had once fantasized about independence, but in the end done quite well by remaining within the Indian Union.
4. The young man presumed to speak for the people of three states (hence his composite abbreviation, “AMN”). But it was well known that the Bodos were unhappy with the Ahoms, the Meiteis with the Thangkuls, the Ao Nagas with the Angamis. The Bodos much preferred the Government of India to Ulfa. The Thangkuls hate the Meiteis far more than they hate the government of India. The Nagas, on the whole, have long spoken with feeling of “Assamese domination”. These cleavages were intensified in times of armed conflict and naturally exploited by the ruling powers. Why not then lay down arms, work within the democratic process, reconcile the contending groups, and bring prosperity to the states and the region?
5. By the terms of the Indian Independence Act of 1947, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur are wholly part of India. By the canons of international law, they have no claims to ‘independence’ from India. (Kashmir is more complicated — here Pakistan’s claim is as strong as India’s.) The only way that dream can be achieved is through a successful armed struggle. But while Ulfa, NSCN, etc. can harass and trouble the Indian army, they can never defeat it. The battle between the two sides had resulted in an enormous amount of suffering. Was it not time to find a way out of this bloody mess?
Rather than address these questions, the young man replied briefly that he saw no point in any further discussion with an Indian bent on domination and suppression. That he had no answers distressed me, for it suggested that perhaps ideological purity did matter more to him than the future of his own people. One must hope that this is not a more general condition among separatist radicals in the Northeast. For “AMN” is not Kashmir. These states have no legal case for separation from India.
For the troubles in Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur to end, the government of India needs to be more empathetic and less corrupt, while the citizens of the Indian heartland need to be more engaged and less supercilious. But even if that were to happen, peace will not come if the angry young men persist with the fantasy of independence. To believe that the current insurgencies will lead to new nation-states is to condemn the region to many more years of bloodshed and violence.
NE should shed its insurgency-prone area tag: Assam Guv Nagaland Page
GUWAHATI, JULY 4: The Northeastern region, particularly Assam, should soon shed its tag of being unsafe and insurgency-prone are and march on the path of development, the state's new Governor, Shiv Charan Mathur, said today.
Addressing his first press conference after being sworn in as Assam's 20th Governor, Mathur said there is a solution of all problems including that of insurgency.
"The Northeast and Assam have vast potential for development but the tag of being unsafe have adversely affected its image which should be changed", he said.
Stating that all problems can be solved through negotiation, Mathur said the "doors of Raj Bhavan will be open for anyone who wants to discuss and sort out issues".
"My top priority will be to make the state developed and usher in peace and development", the new Governor asserted.
"If Punjab where insurgency was at its peak can be peaceful why not Assam?" he said.
Mathur said the dispute between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam regarding construction of dams on the Brahmaputra can be sorted out through negotiations.
On the issue of infiltration, the Governor said it was a "national problem" but discussions can be held with neighbouring Bangladesh on how to tackle the matter. (PTI)
Journalists up in arms against ban on media
From our Staff Reporter Sentinel
DIBRUGARH, July 4: Media persons in Dibrugarh have unanimously condemned the ban on the entry of journalists into the premises of Assam Medical College (AMC).
In a meeting jointly convened by the Dibrugarh Press Club (DPC) and the Greater Dibrugarh Press Club (GDPC) at Dibrugarh yesterday evening, members of both organizations voiced their protest against the order issued by the Principal of AMC, Dr TR Borbora.
They also demanded action against the head of the medical institution. Terming the act of prohibiting entry of media into AMC as ‘undemocratic’, the meeting decided to submit a memorandum stating its demand to the Chief Minister and the Health Minister of the state. It also took the resolution to call a citizens’ meet to discuss the issue.
The ban on media is the latest in the series of development following the death of a child. The agitated parents had blamed the death on the negligence of attending doctors.
The secretary of Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) was assaulted allegedly by a camera person of a television channel, TV 100, when he tried to prevent the former from entering into the paediatric department. The JDA lodged a case against media persons while the Principal demanded their arrest.
The meeting held yesterday was chaired by the secretary of DPC, Nilim Choudhury, while the Joint Secretary of GDPC, Manjit Bora, stated the objective. Among others, the presidents of GDPC and DPC, Rajib Borgohain and Lakhikanta Majindar Barua respectively, secretary of DPC and GDPC, Prabir Kumar Chakraborty and Paim Thi Gohain respectively, were also present.
Members of both the clubs submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Dibrugarh today, stating their various demands.