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01/06/2009: "Delhi mulls flushout from Naga camps Big guns holed up in NSCN hideouts A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph"



Delhi mulls flushout from Naga camps Big guns holed up in NSCN hideouts A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph


NSCN-IM cadres stand guard at a designated camp in Dimapur. A file picture
Guwahati, Jan. 5: The Centre will launch an operation to smoke out leaders and activists of Assam militant outfits holed up in Naga rebel camps in Nagaland.
Highly placed sources in the state home department today said Dispur had pointed out to Delhi that these camps had become a major source of trouble for the state as militants belonging to several outfits like Ulfa, ANLA and DHD (J) were taking refuge there under the patronage of the Naga rebels.
While some senior Ulfa cadres were said to be carrying out their activities from camps of the NSCN (K), militants belonging to the other two outfits were being hosted by the NSCN (I-M) in their camps. “However, given that the government is in a ceasefire with the two Naga outfits, it is Delhi’s responsibility to ensure that their camps are not misused,” a source said, adding that the Centre has assured Dispur that it would take action in the wake of the recent blasts.
Sources said home minister P. Chidambaram was told about the development during his recent visit to the state. A senior police official said Uttam Bengra and John Toppno, the two dreaded ANLA militants involved in the recent Rajdhani blast, top DHD (J) commander Athen Hapila alias Daku, who escaped from a prison in Haflong recently, were holed up in Nagaland.
Recently, several ANLA cadres, including Samson Saha, were apprehended along the Assam-Nagaland border while they crossed over from Nagaland. A police official in Karbi Anglong said it was because of the fact that the ANLA cadres were finding a safe haven in Naga camps that it was becoming increasingly difficult to arrest them. “Operations against the ANLA militants have intensified in recent times, especially after they tried to trigger another blast on the Rajdhani Express. We apprehended a few but most of them are taking shelter across the border,” the official said.
He said though the police have specific information about the ANLA cadres taking shelter in designated Naga militant camps, the cops are helpless since it would be in violation of ceasefire ground rules with Naga militants if those camps were attacked. “We are in touch with our counterparts in Nagaland but they also seem helpless,” the official said.
In fact, the ANLA commander-in-chief, Nirmal Tirki, had revealed that the bomb the outfit used to trigger the blast under the Rajdhani Express in 2007 was bought from Naga militants. Tirki, who was arrested in Jharkhand, is now in the custody of Assam police.
Home department sources said a few cadres of the B company of Ulfa’s 28 battalion were also being sheltered by Naga militant outfits. “As long as Naga militant outfits continue to provide shelter to these Assam militants, it is impossible to apprehend them,” he said.
Army sources in Sivasagar said several hardcore Ulfa cadres of the B company of the 28 battalion were holed up in Mon district of Nagaland, bordering Sivasagar district. “These militants are being provided logistical support by the NSCN (K). These Ulfa cadres cross over the border, carry out strikes in Assam and hop right back,” the army official said.
Intelligence sources said the B company had set up a camp in Mon district recently with the help of the NSCN (K), after the A and C companies declared a unilateral ceasefire in June last year.
Secularism as a civic agenda Pradip Phanjoubam The Statesman
The recent sorry episode where a church at Chingmeirong Kabui village was destroyed by villagers was unfortunate but expected. This is not the first time such an incident has happened and there is no guarantee either that it will not be repeated if the government continues in its ridiculous policy of shutting the stable after the horses have bolted.
A large section of the Zeliangong Naga community, constituting Zemei, Liangmei and Rongmei tribes concentrated in Tamenglong, and the Imphal Valley districts in Manipur, as well as Peren and Kohima in Nagaland, have still resisted conversion to the Christian faith, and retain their indigenous faith to this day, although it does seem like a losing battle.
It is, however, not just amongst the non-Christian Zeliangrong community, but we have also witnessed similar attacks in predominantly Hindu Meitei villages on new Christian converts amongst them. After every one of these explosions of emotion, almost as a routine this author has raised the same alarm that secularism in a good many ways can be, and indeed should be, made a civic agenda as well.
In this sense, because of what it has not done in all these years that the problem began manifesting itself, the near crisis Manipur is witnessing today on this front is of the government’s own making.
This hypothesis will require a little more elaboration. The suggestion by someone who has an understanding of the situation out of intuition born of having lived and breathed the accumulating tensions over the years that led to the flare-up, is that it is not so much about hate for Christians or the Christian faith, but a civic failure on the part of the administration which has allowed this to happen through its insensitive approach.
Secularism as the Manipur government sees it, and indeed as the Indian state by and large sees it, is an ideal and achieving it involves reforming the consciousness of individual citizens so that they are able to tolerate differences. The strategy has also consequently been largely marked by political sermons and homilies, which, as we all know, are so drearily prone to be mere rhetorical lip services of politicians aimed more at electoral gains rather than problem-solving.
One has absolutely no argument with the ideal. Secularism must not be just about tolerating differences but about respecting them as well.
However, while the ideal must definitely be the guiding principle of policies, these policies cannot afford to ignore the reality on the ground. Religion is a very private affair, and those who chose to convert do so by an exercise of private decision. But the problem is, this does not mean one person’s private decision would not ever intrude into the privacy of others around him.
This is where one has been prodding the state administration to step in and do its bit. No, there cannot be a ban on conversion whichever way the conversion happens. The idea is simply ludicrous and goes against the very tenets of democratic ethos, for it would amount to what India-born British author George Orwell so provocatively called “thought policing” in his novel, 1984.
On the other hand, administrative measures in this regard should hinge around giving tangible policy articulation to the metaphors of “private” and “public” spaces, and the need to clearly demarcate them.
As already mentioned earlier in this article, the conversion issue in Manipur is not so much about detesting any religion but of mutual encroachments into privacies, hence success in preventing these encroachments would amount to half the problem solved.
The government, hence, must come up with legislation that demarcates private and public spaces physically, and proclaim that no “new” houses of worship can be allowed in private localities. These edifices, however, can come up in spaces designated as public by the administration, and with the permission of the government.
What often happens as part of the Christian proselytising process in Manipur is a neighbourhood house suddenly transforms into a church with its Sunday masses, hymn-singing and midnight congregation and all else. Even non-Christians who have all respect for Christianity would probably feel the obvious affront in this.
The same would be the case if temples were to spring up at random in Muslim or Christian localities, which is also why we feel the blaring morning bhajans on shrill public address systems that emanate from various camps of Central security forces in the state is distasteful.
Let the government come up with an appropriate and secular policy response, lest we get deeper into the mess and perhaps even land in the kind of induced insensitivity and intolerance the world witnessed in Kashmir in the Amarnath Temple Board land acquisition case earlier last year.
(The author is editor of Imphal Free Press.)
Opposition attacks governor’s speech A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph


Legislators at the opening session of the Assembly on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Guwahati, Jan. 5: Of his 46-page address, Assam Governor Shiv Charan Mathur barely managed to read three paragraphs in the Assembly today after the Opposition found that the speech did not articulate the true picture of the state.
Mathur had reached only the second para when members of the Opposition began raising uncomfortable questions about the two serial blasts and the Udalguri riots.
Some of the AGP and BJP members also displayed placards seeking resignation of the government amid attempts by the governor to complete his speech.
With the Opposition in no mood to relent, Mathur read out the last para, which allows it to be deemed as read by the Assembly.
Chandra Mohan Patowary, leader of the Opposition, said the speech was not a true reflection of the ground reality and was, instead, trying to glorify a failed government.
The governor’s address, which started with the law and order situation, apparently conveyed anguish over the blasts and the riots and spoke about a multi-pronged strategy to deal with militant groups.
Sustained operations against the recalcitrant groups and peace overtures to those willing for a negotiated settlement formed the core of the strategy.
“The unilateral ceasefire by the A and C companies of Ulfa’s 28 battalion in June is significant and indicative of a desire for peaceful settlement on part of large sections of the militants,” the governor said.
He said the strategy would also include improving the functioning of the police, constitution of a specialised body on the lines of the National Security Guards, setting up of a research and analysis wing and installation of CCTVs in Guwahati and other major towns. The Opposition found the arguments untrue.
“There is no semblance of law and order in the state. Tarun Gogoi should resign as the Centre has virtually taken over the law and order situation. Home minister P. Chidambaram himself has said that the chief minister should concentrate on development and that security forces should tackle law and order problems,” Patowary said.
The Gogoi government should now seek a fresh mandate, he said. The BJP said it would oppose the speech during the debate on the motion of thanks on the governor’s address.
ULFA splits; new faction favours autonomy Nagaland Page
GUWAHATI, JANUARY 4: Making the split in the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom official, the pro-talks faction of the outfit has given up the demand for sovereignty and announced its readiness to hold talks with the central government within the framework of the Constitution.
The faction said it favours autonomy over sovereignty.
After failing to convince the top leaders of the ULFA, who are suspected to be based in Bangladesh, to come forward for unconditional talks with the government in response to the popular opinion in the state, the pro-talks faction of the outfit has decided to breakaway from the ULFA led by fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Barua and chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.
The pro-talks faction comprising Alfa and Charlie companies of the 28th battalion of the ULFA had declared unilateral ceasefire on June 24 to launch a campaign to mount public pressure on the ULFA s top leaders to hold peace negotiation with the government. They resorted to massive campaign to mobilise public opinion for peace talks to find a solution to the vexed problem.
The members of the pro-talks faction are now lodged in designated camps run by the state government.
Leader of the pro-talks faction, Mrinal Hazarika said, "We are ready to sit for dialogue with the Government of India within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Instead of sovereignty, we will now fight for autonomy of the state. We have our charter of demands ready."
He said the pro-talks faction's appeal to ULFA leadership to hold dialogue with the government had failed to evoke any positive response and they were forced to snap all their connections with the banned outfit from now onwards. The group in ceasefire will be known as ULFA (pro-talks) groups from now on, he added. (Agencies)
ULFA, which was formed in April 1979, had expelled its pro-talks faction leaders including Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta from the primary membership of the outfit for resorting to unwarranted unilateral truce with Government of India. (Agencies)

Open letter to members of Legislative Assembly, Nagaland Nagaland page
Honorable Members,
It is a great pity there is not a single Women representative in the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland; this is not because Democracy prevents Woman; it is because of the wisdom of the political Parties not giving enough responsible Posts in the Organizations to Women and less of Party Tickets during Elections.
Democracy does not discriminate Woman from Election; it discriminates only Criminals. Democracy however does not provide preferential treatment to any; it does not grant privileges to any person or to any section of the Society: Democracy stands for EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO ALL. The problem of poor representation of woman in the echelons of Power Houses of the State lies in the treatment of woman in the Party Organizations and not in any lapses of Democracy.
The overwhelming majority of the Cultivators in Nagaland are not much concerned with the Issue of 33 % Seat Reservation for Woman in the Assembly, it does not excite them; it has no relevance to their lives in the cultivations, but when the question is put to them whether they would accept Woman Gambura in the Village Council Body, Villagers express no hesitation to say that in the present circumstances, they do not think it necessary. On the other hand, most of the educated women this Writer has solicited their opinion; from the most highly placed retired Bureaucrat through well known former Parliamentarian to simple housewives, seem to favor the possible legal privilege for them, -quite an understandable thing! We all are human beings!
As Legislators, you are sometimes expected to make decisions even against the popular wishes of the people: the Issue at hand is about EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL rather than temper well tested Democratic principles to favor certain section of the Society. I hope you would decide for Democracy rather than swayed by sentiments or by your immediate personal political gain. I hope I speak for many concerned Nagas from the simple Cultivator to the most learned. To Reserve Legislative Seat for certain section of the society is perhaps undemocratic if unethical.
The solution should be sought in the Political Party Organizations by sharing the Responsible Posts between the two Genders equally rather than temper Democracy. Rules and Regulations may be framed in the Party to share responsible Jobs equally between the Genders. If the Party President is a Male, then the Vice should be a woman; if the Secretary is a woman, the Vice should be a Man and the Election Commission of India may not recognize any Political Party that does not have the prescribed set up.
Reserving Seats for certain sections of the Society in Democracy would be like Church Leaders reserving for themselves the best donated Articles before the Stalls open for sale in a Church Fund raising event for great Missionary Work!
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely.
Thepulhouvi Solo
Now, ‘Naga chilli’ to tackle wild elephants Eastern Mirror
SHILLONG, JAN 5 (PTI): The world’s hottest chilli, ‘Naga chilli’, or ‘bhoot jolokia’ in Assamese dialect, could be the latest weapon against marauding wild elephants that have wrecked havoc in many parts of North East.
‘Bhoot jolokia’, a chilli pepper that grows mostly in Assam, has shot to limelight after the DRDO developed a non-lethal grenade from it that could be used in anti-terrorist operations.
The DRDO and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are now working on developing the ‘chilli’ into a powder that could be coated on fences and ropes to scare away wild pachyderms.
“Two months back, a WWF experiment observed that the chilli could be a good scaring material. Its’ powder when coated on fences and ropes that are erected on routes of the elephants can scare away the giants,” RP Srivastava, director of the Tezpur laboratory of DRDO told PTI. He said trials are being proposed on the experiment soon, and the DRDO and WWF are working to come up with an effective substance that can help in mitigating man-elephant conflict.
The ‘bhoot jolokia’ has been branded as the world’s hottest chilli with the pungency of 855000 scoville units, that is nearly double the scale of Mexican chilli. It is used as a cure for stomach ailments and as a remedy to summer heat, presumably by inducing perspiration.
The DRDO says that the chilli also has qualities that can give physiological impetus, especially to security forces deployed in high altitude areas.



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