Assam: A temple & a sinking island

Local papers report that the campaign to get Majuli, one of the world's largest river islands and the seat of Vaishanvite culture, listed as a World Heritage site could face stiff competition from the Harmandir Sahib temple in Amritsar. The ASI had recently forwarded dossiers on 20 probable sites that could be included in the list to the Paris-based World Heritage Centre, which is authorized by the UNESCO to evaluate the viability of includsion in the World Heritage List¹. As per official sources both Majuli and Harmandir Sahib temple (Amritsar) falling under the cultural heritage list have impressive dossiers with almost all the norms required to get in the list. But since only one site per category is allowed one of them will miss the cut. The evaluation will take place after a visit by a team from World Heritage Centre in June/July this year. The Assam Government recently stated that it has nearly completed a legislation to protect Majuli's unique cultural heritage. This legislation is a prime requisite since UNESCO asks for a sound management plan backed by legal powers in place prior to granting heritage status to a place.

For the people of Majuli and the many Satara's(see pic) in the island time is fast running out. As per official records, the island presently has an area of about 875 sq km which is a far cry from the 1,246 sq km area it occupied in 1950. Large-scale erosion from the mighty Brahmaputra started soon after the 1950 earthquake and succesive govt.'s despite making tall promises have all failed to prevent the annual loss of land. So in many ways the recognition as a World Heritage Site is seen by local people as the only hope for the preservation of our ancient culture at Majuli. Hopefully our prayers will come true...
[Note: 1. India currently has 19 cultural and five natural heritage sites on the World Heritage Sites list.
2. I stayed very near Majuli for many years during my stay in Assam and have written about the fond memories of my visits there. For more details on Majuli related issues you should visit majuli.org]

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Assam: On the verge of a Polio epidemic

Last year there were grave warnings issued by the WHO about the state's poor implementation of the Pulse Polio campaign. Now browsing through various reports on this years campaign it seems that little has changed. Unlike the remarkable progress in erradicating polio in the rest of India, Assam today is in imminient danger of a deadly epidemic. So much so that neighbouring countries like Burma and Bangladesh, which have achieved complete polio eradication, are now voicing concern. A recent report in The Sentinal has some of the grim numbers underlying those concerns.

Year	% of children immunized
1999	58%
2002	77%
2003	63%

The current figures¹ place 37% of the children below 5 years with every possibility of contracting the wild polio virus, thereby increasing multifold the chances of transmitting the disease to other victims. Dr. Pankaj Mehta, Project Officer, UNICEF who is overseeing the Pulse Polio campaign states that "it's only God who is saving Assam from Polio". As per him even if 1-2 % children are left out of the campaign, the programme will fail to be effective. This is illustrated by the state of Karnataka which was Polio-free in 2001, but is now reporting fresh polio cases as routine immunization levels have fallen due to negligence. Dr. Dhruba Hojai, Director of Health Services(Family Wefare) is now undertaking the current round of the Polio campaign in Assam which targets 46,59,521 children below 5 years. He indicated that the State Health Dept. is reaching out for support from grassroots leaders including panchayat members and NGO's to ensure greater coverage. The effectiveness of this exercise will likely decide whether God's will(& the children's durability) would still hold sway.
[Note: The decline is partly due to fears arising from a tragic incident in late 2001 when a similar campaign had cost the lives of 23 children & left thousands ill. No one - not Unicef nor The Assam govt. - accepted the responsibility of the mishap which was likely caused by faulty vaccines. You can read related reports of the controversy here]

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Politics just kids stuff!

Amidst all the seriousness(or silly obsession in the case of pundit blogs) that has gripped our media I found this report on the recent Spanish elections kind of refreshing. Juan Ignacio Callejo, who teaches administration and finance at Parque Aluche college says that he'll be giving his whole class top marks this year. This after a political party the class formed as a project to explore how democracy works won nearly 70,000 votes in the recent general election. In terms of numbers this translates into more support than long established parties like the Social Democratic Center (CDS), which headed Spain's first democratic government after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco. Callejo (modestly) concedes the new party's success might be down to voters' inaccuracy with a pen.

The students' "Accion Yuntar" party was the 5th most popular in the race for Madrid's four senate seats, despite having only 19 members, almost no campaign funds and a classroom as its headquarters. All the students who mostly work during the day and study in the evenings, were too busy to run a campaign. Now if only Sonia Gandhi (& indeed L.K Advani), who are going nuts running around, can learn a lesson and spare us the Shining  & Whining nonsense.

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N-E: Symbolic sycophancy & not so shining promises

The state BJP president Jayanta Kumar Das called the act of presenting a sword to the Congress executive, whose party has historically sheltered Bangladeshis, an insult to the Assamese nation. The Hengdang he reminded was a symbol of Assamese pride and was used in the past by our great warriors to repulse alien (should be read as Indian!) invaders. He also talked about Lachit Barphukan who had in a famous act in our past used it to behead his uncle who had betrayed Assam by selling out to the Mughals.

Well I'll have to agree with Mr. Das on both points. Traditionally political leaders visiting our part of the world (especially the hill states) are often dressed up in battle-gear as a sign of welcome. But this incident as Mr. Das rightly points out is different. Tarun Gogoi, a fellow Ahom (and ummm... actually a not so distant relative), should amidst his traditional weak-kneed Congress sycophancy know better than to engage in such warlike symbolism. Such acts don't have any place in a democratic exercise of electing political representatives. Moreover people haven't quite forgiven the Congress for dilly-dallying with the repeal process of the IM (DT) act which protects the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh³. This after they had foisted this flawed act on us in 1985 by misleading a bunch of naive student leaders at the signing of The Assam Accord. Actually come to think of it the BJP role in the process to repeal the IM(DT) isn't exactly shining. Blaming Pranab Mukherjee, Chairmen of the parliamentary committee reviewing the repeal, of deliberately slowing the process is convinient. But the fact remains that B.J.P was late in submitting the Bill and wasn't motivated enough to call a joint session once the review got delayed. Since they could do it for a flawed POTA there is no reason for not being able to do so for what is a just cause. Such inaction will only strengthen the belief that largely all their promises about the N-E are political gimmicks aimed at spreading their presence.

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The Great Wall comes tumbling down !

China's first astronaut Yang Liwei has demolished one of his country's most cherished boasts by saying the Great Wall of China is not visible from space. Liwei who orbited the earth for almost a full day last year says he could not see any part of the 6,350-kilometre wall, parts of which are 2,200 years old. Despite its length, the wall is only a few metres wide, so scientists outside China have long said that the claim was implausible. But in China it has been repeated in books, magazines, and even on public broadcasters' websites. Now education officials have finally relented by ordering school textbooks rewritten to remove the decades-old claim that the wall is the only man-made structure that an orbiting astronaut can view with the naked eye.

[via CBC News]

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Hornbill: Alert, grand and spreading goodwill

The 3rd Hornbill Festival was celebrated last week at Naga Heritage complex, Kisama Plateau which provides a panoramic view of Kohima District, Nagaland. The complex, which hosted the event for the 1st time, is a symbol of unity & solidarity among Naga tribes and will from now on be the permenant venue. This 5 day mega tourism extravaganza showcased the traditional as well as modern Naga life of various tribes. It is held annually to promote ethnic & eco-tourism besides providing a platform for the tribes to exchange and display their rich traditional & cultural heritage. Now that the prevailing atmosphere is of peace, it also is a great attempt to reach out and spread awareness about the state & its people.

In his speech CM S.C. Jamir reminded the people that unless peace was established in the insurgency-affected State, Nagaland would fail to progress and prosper. The local press also reported the U.S Consul General George Sibley who had came for the Hornbill Festival, as claiming there was no proof of the ISI’s involvement in the growth of insurgency in the Northeast. It should be interesting to see the Centre's reaction to that if national papers do manage to pick up that statement.

Anyway the name of the festival is a tribute to the Hornbill bird which is revered by the Nagas for its qualities of alertness & grandeur. The awe and admiration for the bird is symbolically displayed on almost all traditional tribal headgears worn during festivities. This majestic bird is closely linked with the social and cultural life of the Nagas and is depicted in various tribal folklore, dances and songs. So it is very apt that its name be associated with a festival designed to help preserve and protect the natural heritage and indigenous tradition & culture of the Naga people.

Traditional dances, music, art, ethnic Naga food Stalls, exhibition of flowers, handloom & handicrafts and knowledge about the lifestyles of various tribes were all part of the festivities. Even a fashion show displaying traditional designs & dresses and various events of indigenous sports were conducted. Each Tribal Hoho(the apex body of each tribe) constructed their Morung (the Boys Dormitory) where the values of life are imparted. In these dormitories, each tribe depicted their original lifestyles displaying artefacts and handicrafts. All tribes exhibited their own distinct architectures with the 80 ft long hut of the Phom tribe being the largest constructed structure this time.

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N-E: Why is Assam Burning?

It has been a familiar pattern for me following the coverage of the recent Assam-Bihar conflict. After absorbing all the labels¹ handed out, I've predictably got worked up to the point of indifference. Then later I did post my views on the only reasonable report I came across on the sequence of events and their possible causes. But the above titled article in The Hindu today comes as a pleasant surprise since it tries to go deeper into the real causes of discontent. Over the past month my parents & I have often talked at length about a lot of the issues that this article raises. And some of the points may even seem familiar if you've been a long-term reader of my blog. Walter Fernandes, Director, North Eastern Social Science Centre, writes that the unrest in the region needs to be looked at more closely rather than just blaming unemployment or the ULFA. His main points can be surmised as:

While these are the major causes behind the discontent there are other factors at work too. The Centre has been reluctant to negotiate with insurgents - it has only held talks once with ULFA in 1991 when Narashima Rao's refusal to consider the release of ULFA activists held in custody resulted in the talks breaking down. This reluctance to talk is strange since Mizoram stands out in the N-E as an example of how negotiations and subsequent integration of insurgents in the mainstream can lead to long term peace. Instead to combat insurgency, the Centre has kept most of the region under various Acts which give security forces the right to use excessive force². But the resulting abuse of human rights has alienated the armed forces, denying them sufficient local cooperation.

And unlike what the media would have you believe, the insurgent movements have proved resilient, thriving on a large base of local help - be it in the form of active participation or moral support. A simple illustration to that is a cursory look at the history of the ULFA. In the 2 decades of its existence a total of more than 14,500 activists have been killed in encounters fake & real. Probably more than twice that number have surrendered and returned to the mainstream. Since the outfit has retained strength of around 2500-3500 at all times, this continued regeneration is an apt pointer to its relevance. Any long term solution has to first eliminate that relevance and economic development rather then bullets will likely be more effective.
[Note:1. India Today & Indian Express first call our agitations against foreign infiltrators in the 1980's chauvinistic. They then try to extend that analogy to the current situation. TOI says we are not patriotic enough while Prakash Jha says we are sub-patriotic. Other value judgements like intolerance, parochialism and being stuck with the son-of-the-soil argument abound in both Indian media and blogs.
2. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1972 under which Assam, Manipur and parts of Tripura have been placed for decades, violates several constitutional rights & human rights treaties India ratifies. I'll cover AFSPA issues in a separate post.]

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Rumsfeld aces the gobbledegook award !

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld got the Plain English campaign's "Foot In Mouth" award for a statement on the problem of "unknown unknowns"(via Ananova). Examples of both the best and worst communication are to be given at the organisation's annual awards ceremony in London. Here's the winning quote:

Other notable nominations that narrowly missed out include Arnold Schwarzenegger for his reported comments that gay marriage was "something that should be between a man and a woman". And EU Commissioner Chris Patten who was nominated for his reported comment that the Conservative Party was "living to regret" having committed "political suicide". A similar effort in our political scene ought to uncover some real gems too, though I guess such an irreverent exercise will never be allowed to take place.

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Assam: Death by Administrative Failure ?

[caveat: This is long and mostly for my records. Unless you're keen on speculating over the details of the Assam-Bihar conflict you should skip this post.]

I came across the above titled article by Kishalay Bhattacharya on the current Assam-Bihar crisis in the South Asia Intelligence Review, a newsletter from the South Asian Terrorism Portal. It does provide several valid insights but somehow ends up drawing conclusions I don't agree with. Here's a closer look at the main arguments:

After these fairly reasonable arguments he concludes by stating that a dramatic army crackdown is now the only answer to the wave of violence unleashed by the ULFA. Having seen and lived through a few dramatic crackdowns in my stay in Assam that is but wishful thinking. Military solutions don't work in the N-E unless it's a joint operation with the neighboring govt.'s of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Burma. Insurgents will simply slip into the jungles and after lying low for a while start over again. As long as their cause is seen to be alive, they will continue to exist. As shown elsewhere when there is an element of support amongst the public, only talks & negotiations work.

Postscript: Since the reporter, a correspondent of NDTV in Guwahati, is presenting his arguments in a fairly authoritative publication, the dubious value judgements that slip in are strange. A sample:Communal ~ racial, religious antagonism
Since he uses it with ethnic it's clear that he refers to religious conflicts. In the N-E, I infer that he's referring to either 1) The border area clashes between Bodo's and Bangladeshi infiltrators(Muslim) in Assam. 2) The attacks on Bengali settlers(Hindu) by Tribal outfits(indigenous) in Tripura. Both of these conflicts are against foreigners who have grabbed land and are getting citizenship by proxy as they form vote-banks for politicians. Neither are religious conflicts though religious places have been targeted at times.Sure, I feel terrible too. And there have been stories in the local press of civilians coming forward to shelter their Bihari neighbours and contribute in relief efforts. But calling the reactions in 70's & 80's immature is quite ridiculous. That agitation began largely as a peaceful grassroots movement for a just cause and turned violent only when the ruling Congress govt. in the State & Centre sought to suppress it with brutal force. Some of my relatives went to jail and did bear the brunt of that very force. Also if we are at peace now it is mostly due to the outcome of that agitation - The Assam Accord.

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Legal Laughs!

Here's a collection of strange laws that are still in the legal books in Kentucky(via Yahoo News):

And I thought it was just Delhi, where one can marry, procreate and vote but not drink alcohol till 25, which had aniquated laws !

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N-E: 4,000 Khasis flee to Jaintia Hills !

Away from the media focus on ethnic clashes¹ taking place between native and Bihari people in Assam, another grim but familiar² story has been unfolding this week. Under threat from armed militants belonging to the Karbi National Volunteers (KNV) and the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), nearly 4,000 Khasi-Pnar people residing in Block I & II of Karbi Anglong in Assam have fled to Meghalaya. They are now sheltered at Sahsniang village in Jaintia Hills district, about 115 km from Shillong. The facilities provided in the week-old refugee camp are still inadequate in terms of food, proper shelter and sanitation. Though 2 khasi people were gunned down earlier this month by KNV & UPDS millitants, the administration clearly weren't anticipating such a sudden & massive exodus. The refugees belong to more than 22 villages in Blocks I & II, an area of dispute between Assam and Meghalaya for the last 30 years. These blocks were put under the present Karbi Anglong district in 1951 after removing them from the erstwhile Khasi and Jaintia Hills district. Successive governments in the two states failed to resolve the dispute making this tragedy almost enevitable.

Reacting to these threats the Khasi students Union(KSU) served a quit notice to the Karbi students staying in Meghalaya. And in an act of vengeance, a Karbi student of the Sacred Heart Theological College set on fire by an angry group of youths at Mawlai on Monday. Another group of 3 Karbi and 1 bodo students were abducted and severely beaten up by unidentified local assailants. Fearing widespread riots the state govt. was forced to immediately evacuate the remaining Karbi students in buses. Local social leaders and senior members of the Church have tried to diffuse the conflict by issuing appeals for peace but the ground situation still remains tense.

The events of the last fortnight has been a chilling reminder to the ethnic conflicts that lie simmering just below the surface in the N-E. And of the rampant millitancy that exploits any provocation to seek attention to itself. Harping on central negligence has become an excuse for our political leaders to escape indictment on their failure to provide proper governance. We may still be caught up in age-old conflicts borne out of central negligence but these surely are fostered now by our own spineless political class...
[note: 1. Local reports suggest that in the worst hit Tinsukia district trouble rose initially when people in a Bihari community attacked & seriously wounded 2 AASU activists putting up posters in Margherita for the Assam bandh. Subsequently AASU lost control of it's cadres and other elements including extremists took over. In other areas like Dhubri and Nalbari it's mostly the ULFA which is carrying out the attacks.
2. As per this report there is now a total of 150,000 to 200,000 internally displaced refugees in the N-E.]

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No more...

ULFA has failed to represent our aspirations a while back... and killing innocent people will only alienate it further nothing else.

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N-E: Echoes of a lone voice...

Wasbir Hussain had a interesting column recently in The Sentinel about Irom Chanu Sharmila, a 31 yr. old woman in Manipur, who earlier this month completed three years of a personal fast-unto-death movement. Here are some excerpts, quotes and related info :

On November 2, 2000 a paramilitary squad from Assam Rifles opened fire with automatic weapons in Malom, Imphal killing 10 civilian bystanders. Despite a big outcry by human rights activists in the state no action was taken on the guilty men. The security forces were protected by the Armed Forces (special powers) Act, 1958 which gives them sweeping powers, including shooting to kill based on suspicion of facing a rebel enemy at that point of time. To voice her protest and demand the withdrawal of the Act, Sharmila decided to go on an indefinite fast. On November 6, 2000 she was arrested by the police for refusing to eat and end her fast.

Now after 3 long years in judicial custody this frail arts graduate's still holding on with steely determination to her fast-till-death. She spends time by turns at the Central Jail, Imphal and at a special cabin in the local Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital depending on the state of her health. At the hospital she's fed intravenously to keep her alive. Her cause is supported by the various human rights organisations in the state including the Manipur Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Alert. Last year they had even forwarded a petition signed by several Human rights organisations worldwide, to the President A P J Abdul Kalam. Nothing much came out of that move though. The Police authorities do maintain that the act is needed to combat militancy.

But as the article argues this assertion is not really borne out by Manipur's current volatile situation. The heavy-handed methods of the security forces have made little headway, though Manipur has also been put under the state controlled Disturbed Areas Act. The recent events involving the daylight kidnapping & subsequent murder of Manipur Minister Francis Ngajokpa's 8-yr. old daughter are a pointer to the general lack of control. Also the terror incidents have actually not changed much in recent years. The article rightly concludes that the solution lies with removing these stringent acts and on trying to improve the morale & effectiveness of the local police instead. Also like in Mizoram more efforts should be made by the political setup to bring the militants to the mainstream. In the N-E negotiations & overtures to peace have always worked far better than the use of extraordinary force/legislation. That this simple lesson for the politicians is lost amidst battlelines drawn on ethnicity, affiliation with militants, corruption and vote-bank policies is the real tragedy. Both for the normal people and the brave voices that stand up for their rights like Irom Chanu Sharmila...

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N-E: A spark to the embers...

The recent incidents of violence targeting N-E people in Bihar(picture is of injured students) has received a fair bit of coverage in the media. Most national papers carried small reports while The Hindustan Times concentrated on passing several sweeping value judgements. They simply dismiss the incidents as sectarian and parochial without mentioning anything about past discontent about recruitment policies of the Railway ministry in the region. Terming Assam as a state with a history of parochial agitation's against Bengalis, it goes on to compare the events with Shiv Sena's son of the soil agenda. I could rant an entire post on that contention(& maybe will later!) but I think that's too myopic to be the mainstream view of the Assam Agitation and it's still unresolved issues. The silliest statement was their surprise that ULFA(a rebel group demanding independence) has not tried to calm tempers and added fuel to the fire. Anyway this post is an attempt to present a local perspective of the incidents:
1. Outstation candidates were forcibly restricted by local Assamese people from giving exams for the Group D exams of the NF Railway posts. The resentment of local people is a fallout of the non-implementation of a a tripartite agreement between AASU, Assam government and N F railway signed on 22 December 1988. In that agreement the then general manager of NFR had clearly mentioned that in Group D posts there was an provision of 100% appointment of local youths and 80% local reservation in Group C posts.
2. Subsequent to that incident 50 people from the N-E were injured when mobs stopped trains and beat up people from the N-E in railway stations throughout Bihar. The most horrific of those incidents when a 22 yr. old Naga girl was repeatedly raped and then paraded naked in Ratnapur, Bihar while travelling to Pune. In another similar incident a mizo girl was stripped and molested inside the compartment in Jamalpur, Bihar.
3. AASU(All Assam Students Union) has called a 24 hr bandh on the 17th November and called for the resignation of Railway Minister, Nitesh Kumar after reports that he had reportedly chided his people for keeping quiet after they were allegedly forced to leave their Railway recruitment examinations before completion. They have also sought clarifications why the Railways are not implementing past agreements on recruitment policy.
4. ULFA has announced severe punishment to culprits responsible for brutal attacks on NE passengers in Bihar. They have threatened the 'Hindi speaking Bihari' community of punitive punishment in their own land."They should not forget that ULFA is capable of creating trouble in Bihar too". In a separate message they have asked all outsiders to leave immediately.
5. Later seven regional insurgent outfits issued a joint statement condemning the incidents and warned of severe consequences if there were any more attacks on N-E people.

Now already reports of violence have started coming from Assam. Yesterday a group of huts were set ablaze in a Bihari locality in Jalukbari, Guwahati and the people living there warned to leave the state before dawn. ULFA insurgents have gunned down two Marwari businessmen and hurled a grenade at a Bihari tailor's shop seriously injuring 1 person. Some candidates from other states for the exam have been manhandled by local youths at the railway station. There are also reports of arson and rioting everywhere between students, AASU activists, CRPF and local Bihari communities. In a region permanently fraught with simmering ethnic tensions any provocation on ethnic lines can be quite catastrophic. And the last few days are an example of how quickly things can get out of hand here. The large no. of migrants from Bihar have now become the soft targets of the ire of militants and local youths both. Though the AASU has called for a non-violent protest and asked the people to not target any particular community the situation remains very tense. And going by past experience of ethnic conflicts things are unlikely to be the same for Bihari migrants anytime soon...
update:(18/11/03) The NF Railway clarified today that the 1988 agreement was void after a Supreme Court notice in 1998 which barred employment through local exchanges.]

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N-E: Zoramthanga's charm still working !

As per the latest reports out of Tripura, the Bru National Liberation Front(BNLF) is all set to give up arms and sign a peace accord with Pu Zoramthanga's MNF led Mizoram govt. Zoramthanga acknowledged across all partylines in the Northeast as an important man of peace for the region, has in recent months been carrying out several rounds of talks with the outfit. Now Surya Mani Reang, leader of BNLF revealed to a local paper that they are ready to sign the accord at the 10th & final round of talks to be held in mid-December at Aizawl. BNLF has also reduced their initial demands for an autonomous district council(ADC) and agreed upon a special development project in the Bru(also called Reangs) dominated areas west of Aizawl district.

BNLF have also agreed that the basis for deciding repatriation from Tripura would be the electrol rolls of 1993, rolls of village councils and other relevant documents issued by Mizoram govt. In 1997 amidst ethnic violence in Mizoram an exodus of more than 35,000 Brus to neighbouring Tripura had taken place. Soon the Bru's formed the BNLF in 1998 protesting the persecution by the mizo majority. The mizos claimed that Bru's mostly left on their own to try get a seperate district in Tripura which has a large population of Bru population. Now that the other minority groups in Mizoram like Chakmas, Lakhers, Pawis and Hmars(the most recent in 1994) have already been granted ADC's, with this accord most of the ethnic disputes would have been resolved in Mizoram. Burmese refugees of course still remain a problem in what is Northeast's most peaceful state.

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Is remorse overvalued? (update)

I seem to have got some of the answers sought in my post related to the "Green River killer," Gary Ridgway. And by all accounts remorse wasn't even remotely a factor that made the prosecution accept the plea bargain ! Seattle Times reports that the county by foregoing the death penalty and accepting a guilty plea to a life sentence without parole may have saved almost $16 million. In the same paper a judge has some insights on why the prosecution in the end yielded to the plea bargain.

In the U.S, support for capital punishment(c.p) currently stands at 71% of the population but shrinks to 41% when life without parole is an available option. So maybe that's another reason why the family of the victims could take up that bait offered by the defence attorney. The judge uses this case as an excuse to argue that death penalty as a response to any criminal behavior no longer has validity and should be repealed, because it is impossible to administer with justice and fairness. His position is similar to those against c.p and can be surmised under the following points:

Most of these factors can be present in nearly every criminal case but as c.p is a final, irreversible punishment they assume greater significance. Surely the legal factors(e.g. arbitariness, multiplicity of law) can be removed to a large extent by proper ammendments. Of the remaining points raised the most potent is the possibility of wrong conviction/aquittal. Now what is worse - the possibility of an innocent man being put up for execution ? Or that a proven threat to society may be released and still cause harm ? There are no easy answers and grim examples of both exist. What is certain is that before C.P can be a part of a judicial system some requisites¹ need to be present - comprehensive legal laws, rights of appeal, adherence to internationally agreed norms of fairness. In fact even humane methods of administration and the use of proper forensic methodology should be there.

Personally for serial killers/repeat offenders of crimes considered worthy of C.P, I would rather support execution than a lifeterm(even if it's without parole). I think that it can serve as deterence and that as a society we do have a right to decide if a mass-murderer should live. Now does that makes me bit of an extremist or simply just?
[note: 1. Internationally there has been a move to abolish C.P since many nations do not have these standards in place and the penalty often is imposed on the lines of race, religion or tribe. Here is a summary of recent steps agreed by the U.N.
2. A good summary of moral & legal arguments about C.P is here.
3. Here are some arguments against C.P by Indian judges. Some more philosophical arguments by Albert Camus against C.P are here.]

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N-E: When Bamboo blooms...

Bamboo plants are regarded as a sacred tree by rural people in Assam and it's neighboring states. This reverence is mostly derived from the various roles bamboo plays in these nature loving & tribal cultures. A bamboo tree provides food(i.e. bamboo shoots), construction material, agricultural implements, fishing equipment(called Jakoi in Assamese), baskets, as well as furniture. Another important reason is that bamboo-flowering(see picture), a rare one-time event in the plants lifecycle after which it inevitably dies, is held to foretell impending natural disasters such as untimely floods, earthquakes, and famines. So people follow superstitions around the Bamboo tree and it is seldom cut during certain periods e.g. on a full moon day or on Saturdays & Tuesdays.

The news of bamboo-flowering often causes widespread panic and a rush to store food-grains for the bad days ahead. This is based on experience as much as superstitious belief. In Mizoram especially bamboo flowering has often been linked with a large increase in the rodent population. Bamboo seeds, which the rodents relish, are said to increase fertility levels of the vermin manifold. Some recent statements by the scientific community about famines associated with bamboo flowering:

The state of Mizoram in particular has kept detailed records of this phenomenon dating as far back as 1880. Bamboo-flowering there is divided into two phases, known as "Mautam" and "Thingtam" in local parlance. Both have been found to occur at regular intervals of roughly 50 years with a Thingtam, Mautam, Thingtam cycle following a (30,18,30) yr. pattern. As per the state Agricultural Department records in 1976, when the bamboo flowered in a big way in the state, volunteers and departmental workers killed some 4.92,926 rats. Similarly, in 1978, the number of rats killed by the govt. was around 26 lakh. Even in Arunachal Pradesh, an increase in rats was registered when the plant flowered. Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of Assam, located in the lower reaches of several Arunachal rivers, then had to deal with large number of dead rats flowing down the rivers.

Over the years bamboo flowering has had some dramatic influence in the Northeast, none more so than at Lushai¹ Hills, Assam in 1959. The great Mautam Famine followed and created much devastation. Things became grim after the Assam administration refused to respond quickly to emergency calls for relief aid made by local authorities. But this inspired a cashier in the local district council office, named Laldenga, to do something on his own. And what followed is a part of Mizo folklore now. Eventually after a turbulent armed rebellion of over two decades the Lushai Hills district was to finally become the state of Mizoram.

Scientists at the RFRI, Jorhat, believe the impending flowering expected between 2004-2007 in the states of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya, is likely to damage about 18,000 hectares of forest area. It would leave over 25 million tonnes of bamboos dead and dry within the next few years, bearing serious economic and ecological implications. The pulp and paper industry, construction, cottage industry and handloom, food, fuel, fodder and medicine annually consume about 22 million tons of bamboo. And if the entire affected bamboo stock was left to rot, it would imply a loss of Rs. 1,200 crore worth of resources.(report). A recent report indicates that a massive drive to harvest the bamboo before the flowering will soon take place. Hopefully this plan materializes soon as sporadic flowering has already started in some places...
[note: 1. The British called the Mizo people Lushei, a mispronunciation of Lu Se, which means "Ten Tribes" in the language of neighboring Burma. Mizo people believe that they are originally Bnei Menashe one of the 10 missing tribes of Israel. I'll write more about them soon.
2. Some theories on the rodent increase and bamboo flowering in general are found in this National Geographic report.]

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Saraideo: Tales of desecration...

I just came across this report that suggests that museums and universities in UK could soon have to return many of the human remains in their collections to indigenous people around the world. Though scientists claim they want to study old bones to discern patterns of migration in ancient times, the indigenous groups believe(IMO rightly) that the collections are an affront to their customs and were stolen by colonial explorers.

This story immediately reminded me of the Maidams(burial chambers) of my Ahom ancestors at Saraideo(see picture) and other places in upper Assam where the British had plundered our ancient treasures. Searching online for news related to them, I came across reports of controversial excavation work carried out by ASI earlier in the year.( 1. Indian Express 2. Deccan Herald). I have issues with the digging as well as with the media reports (particularly 2nd one). Examine first what the ASI uses as excuse for disturbing what for us is a holy resting place of our ancestors:

All complete & utter nonsense. Ahoms were the first civilization in the Indian sub-continent to keep a detailed written record of their history in chronicles called Buranzi's. As Bijoy Bora, secretary of Tai-Ahom Sanskriti Aru Siksha Bikash Samiti(TAISSABS) promptly pointed out:

TAISSABS did write a letter to the President and Prime Minister urging them to stop the ASI excavation. But that appeal was ignored...

After months of digging this is what A.S.I found:

ASI claims that the excavation proves the allegation that the British rulers and planters took the treasures for their private collection is true. That because the valuables listed in the buranzi's are absent & there is no immediate reference of such objects in any museum in England. They also try to pass this info as a significant new discovery. I've heard stories of idiots digging up Maidans in vain for all my life(e.g Lachit Barphukan's Maidam in Jorhat as seen in picture), so am not impressed by this scientific interpretation or discovery. And it remains to be seen what steps they'll take to recover our artifacts, now that the facts are established. However this digging has at least convinced the local A.S.I office to propose that Saraideo be considered for inclusion as a World Heritage site. After that on A.S.I HQ's advice a project has been initiated to develop the site further to enable a future submission.

The media reports I cite seem typical of the insensitivity minority cultures face in preserving their past traditions. The Indian Express while having it's facts right seems to cast doubts on the significance of Saraideo(see picture) to us by referring it as the "holy place" of Ahoms. That after talking about Me-dam-me-phi¹ and carrying quotes by historians & cultural leaders about Saraideo's importance to us. The Deccan Herald has bloopers² and ends up being cheeky & insensitive by focussing only on the possibility that the attendants were buried alive with the Kings. Neither report questions or informs us if the A.S.I had sought permission/advice from local cultural organisations or even informed them about the excavation. In all likeliness they didn't bother to do so. One can only wonder if this is the uniform procedure they follow for desecrating sacred places elsewhere in India...
[note: 1. An occasion every March when we pay our respects to ancestors and observe age-old traditions.
2. It is pure speculation to call us Tai-Mao which is a Burmese Shan tribe originally from Yunan, China. Our buranzi only mentions that we came over the Phatkoi Mountains from a land beyond Burma. Research says that our language has older origins than the Shans so Tai-Ahom of the Tai group is the accepted nomenculture. We pay homage & convey our respects to ancestors which is not the same as worship.]

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N-E: Our 'human' relationships...

This is a report of the latest moves by our nuclear command center ready country in the continuing policy of appeasing the Millitary Junta in Burma. Some excerpts:
"No anti-India activity on Myanmar soil will be allowed or accepted"- top Burma leader Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the supreme State Peace Development Council (on receiving $ 57 million from India for improving the Yangon-Mandalay railway line).
[Chinese spy satelites in Burma, inflow of drugs, arms & hordes of refugees to the N-E are already ignored by the Indian govt. so I'm sure they'll keep their word.]
In his address at the Yangon University, Shekhawat said “We must strive hard for a world free from violence, conflicts and terrorism. Let us build a new world order where globalisation means not just breaking barriers of trade but it also enjoins upon us to build new human relationships”
[I'm tempted to rant again on how insular we are in this refusal to look at the attrocities taking place in Burma. But after the lack of accountability for the events in Gujrat by the govt. he's representing maybe Shekhawat's saintly doublespeak is understandable.]

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Zoramthanga: Highlander with Pathian's grace...(Part 2)

Master negotiator: During that stay in Pakistan(1972-76) as official guests, Pu Laldenga sent him on many missions to foreign countries to seek channels for continuing peace negotiations with the Indian government. Zoramthanga, along with Pu Tawnluia (at present the Home Minister of Mizoram) were involved in several rounds of peace talks with the Indian delegates in countries like Thailand, Afghanistan, Iran, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Finally in Geneva, he was successful in striking a deal for the safe entry of Pu Laldenga to Delhi. Upon their arrival in Delhi in 1976, they were engaged in peace talks in the full glare of the world. Zoramthanga remained the key initiator in all these talks. However, when Indian government held them under house arrest in Delhi in 1979, Zoramthanga along with Pu Tawnluia made good their escape to the jungle of their Arakan Headquarters where he now assumed the responsibility of the Vice President of MNF. He then single-handedly succeeded in rebuilding and rejuvenating the MNF and they continued their armed rebellion till 1986.

After the Mizoram peace accord was signed in 1986, Zoramthanga faced what he called "the most challenging and difficult task that I had ever faced in my life". But this pious and devout man achieved the seemingly impossible task, which even the Indian government refused to believe at first, of bringing home every one of his men with all their armaments to the mainstream. Unfortunately, he could not accompany his men into Aizawl(see picture) due to illness and had to halt at Lunglei. Perhaps, one of the saddest things that had ever happened to him ... to not be able to walk in to Aizawl along with his men, unto the welcome light of peace at the end of 20 long yrs of revolt.

A different revolution: In 1987 when the MNF formed the govt. under Pu Laldenga, Zoramthanga looked after Finance & Education dept.'s and continued to be his trusted lieutenant. But the govt. soon collapsed under the weight of corruption charges and rampant horse trading by Congress(I) which split the MNF into two. In 1990, when Pu Laldenga died, he became the President of MNF. Inheriting the mess left behind, Zoramthanga had to endure 2 successive defeats of the party in 1990 and 1993. He personally has never lost an election, returning to the Legislative Assembly from Champhai constituency for 4 consecutive terms. And after yrs of playing the kingmaker, in 1998 he finally led MNF to victory and became the fifth C.M of Mizoram.

Knowing the man and the life he has led you wouldn't bet against him achieving those goals. And now 5 yrs on Mizoram is the most peaceful, progressive state in the northeast; the literacy rate at 88.06% is the 2nd highest in India; and it's financial woes has reduced significantly. All no mean feats considering the proximity to Burma and the huge no. of refugees that have taken shelter in the state over the yrs. In recent times he has played a major role in bringing other ethnic rebels in the N-E to the negotiating table[e.g. current talks with NSCN(IM)]. The insurgent groups look upon Zoramthanga as a father figure... a revolutionary who actually realised his goals. And with Pathian on his side you figure Zoramthanga isn't quite finished yet...

[Note: Pathian is the God of the original native Mizo folklore. The majority of the state's population is now Christian but they still proudly hold on to their old customs & traditions.]

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Zoramthanga: Highlander with Pathian's grace

"The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it." - Abbie Hoffman

Pu Zoramthanga was born in Samthang village, Mizoram on July 13, 1944 to Pu Darphunga and Pi Vanhnuaichhingi, the second youngest child among eight siblings. Born in extreme poverty his parents somehow managed to support his education till matriculation. After that the brilliant 17 yr. old Zoramthanga, who always stood first in class, was offered the post of headmaster in the then newly-established Champhai Vengthlang Middle School. But Zoramthanga was determined to resume his college education and in 1963 he got admitted in PUC class in the Imphal DM College, a college then known to be the refuge of poor students. He did his BA honours in English with plans to try for the Civil Services (IAS) examinations.

Highlanders awake: All this while momentous events that changed the lives of the Mizos(translates into highlanders) forever, were taking place. In 1959, Mizo Hills was devastated by a great famine known in Mizo history as 'Mautam Famine'. The flowering of bamboo's resulted in the rapid increase of the rat population which after devouring bamboo's seeds, turned towards crops and also infested the huts. People died of starvation and had to move away from villages to collect roots and leaves from the jungles for sustenance. The Mizo Cultural Society formed earlier in 1955 with Pu Laldenga as its Secretary changed it's name to 'Mautam front' during the famine of 1959-1960, and took the lead in demanding relief aid. The Society united all sections of the people and in September 1960, adopted the name of Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF). A large number of Mizo youth assisted the MNFF in transporting rice and other essential commodities to interior villages. The people recovered gradually but the apathy of the Assam administration and the central authorities was highlighted during the famine. And soon out of MNFF a new political unit, the Mizo National Front (MNF) was born on 22nd October 1961 under the leadership of Laldenga with the goal of achieving sovereign independence of Greater Mizoram.

Lure of the jungle: On 28th February 1966, violence broke out at government installations in Aizawl, Lunglei, Chawngte, Chhimluang and other places simultaneously. The MNF was outlawed in 1967 and the demand for statehood gained fresh momentum. By this time Zoramthanga giving up his ambitions had joined the underground movement and took to the jungles. He was soon engaged as the secretary to Laldenga as the cadres took shelter in East Pakistan(Bangladesh) in 1969. He accompanied Laldenga during the long trip to China to procure arms for MNF. And later was sent to pave the way for the first peace negotiations with the Indian government in 1971. Later he, along with Pu Laldenga and his family managed to escape East Pakistan to Karachi when the Bangladesh nation was born in 1972. They disguised themselves as refugees from East Pakistan and crossed the dense jungle of Arakan and through Akyab and Rangoon in that journey.
[Note: I've split the post in two as my page load is now on the high side]

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N-E: A tale of hidden inflows...

In scenes straight out of C.S.I¹, drug traffickers operating across the Indo-Burma border have started using cows and buffaloes as couriers to smuggle drugs into the N-E. Plastic packets filled with heroin and other synthetic drugs like amphetamines and methamphetamine tablets are force-fed to these animals. These bags are recovered from the dung or at times the animals are slaughtered in the process. Some officials claim that even fish are used as a medium to conceal drug packets in the daily border trading point. R.K. Radhesna Devi, police chief of Manipur's Narcotics & Border affairs, recently talked about the difficulties faced by police officials.

India and Burma share a 1,643 km long unfenced border which after border trade was opened in 1995, has made the N-E states serve as the major transit point for drugs originating from the Golden Triangle². Actually intelligence officials in Manipur say that the opening of border trade led to a sharp surge in opium cultivation in Burma. The total area under poppy(see pic) cultivation has now increased manifold to about 240,020 hectares. Some disturbing numbers which are a result of these drug inflows:

What makes those numbers more disturbing is that as S.I Ahmed, chairman of the Assam AIDS Prevention Society says "Sharing of needles by drug users, rather than promiscuous sex, has led to the quantum increase in AIDS cases in the N-E". The rest of India need not feel insulated from the remoteness of the N-E that has so far seen this issue being under wraps. The N-E is fast becoming the launch pad for drugs for the rest of the country. I've previously written about the lengths we are prepared to go for trade inflows with Burma, why such pragmatism is not recommended and how we are at odds with the international community trying to bring democracy to Burma. But above all that this issue is the question of trade at the cost of endangering lives, be it of Indian citizens(remotely located/others) or of the struggling people of Burma...
[note:1. Last season in an episode of C.S.I, horses were shown to be force-fed with diamonds hidden in plastic packets by smugglers.
2. The Golden Triangle of Thailand, Laos and Burma produces 20% of the world's Heroin supply.(more info)
3. The situation in Manipur has attracted the attention of international groups that train and provide resources to doctors treating HIV/AIDS in developing countries.(see related report) ]

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Gandhi: a racist in early life?

The event of unveiling a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg has triggered a row over his alleged contempt for black people (report). The statue has been welcomed by Nelson Mandela, among others, for recognising him as the person who launched the fight against white minority rule at the turn of the last century. But newspapers there continue to publish letters from indignant readers with comments like: "Gandhi had no love for Africans. To [him], Africans were no better than the 'Untouchables' of India. Some early writings and comments attributed to Gandhi have been the focus of their ire.

Khulekani Ntshangase, a spokesman for the ANC Youth League, defended Gandhi, saying the critics missed the bigger picture of his immense contribution to the liberation struggle. Gandhi's offending comments were made early in his life when he was influenced by Indians working on the sugar plantations and did not get on with the black people of modern-day KwaZulu-Natal province, said Mr Ntshangase. "Later he got more enlightened."

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N-E: Signatures of Status and Self

That is the name of an unique exhibition of Naga¹ ornaments running at the Bead Museum, Washington. The works on display are from the collection of Harry and Tiala Neufeld of Gwynedd, Pennsylvania. Tiala is the daughter of Marsosand Ao, a respected leader of the Ao tribe, one of the 16 major tribes grouped under the heading Naga. In tribal societies, ornaments are symbols of warriors and martial deeds, social status, wealth, and tribal & clan identification. Even we(as Ahoms) have our families ancestorial jewellery and traditional weapons preserved. My favourite among these as a kid was my great-great grandfather's Hangdang(sword) which I insisted on playing with. Luckily it was too heavy for me to cause anyone any harm :)

These pieces of adornment comprising of jewelry and beadwork have been hailed by scholars of tribal art as the most beautiful, elaborate ornamentation of any tribal culture. Apart from the two collections from the period of British colonial rule that are housed in museums at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, this personal collection of Naga art & adornment is the largest in the world. Some items are more than 200 years old. In fact most of the pieces shown in the exhibit have lost their significance to the Nagas and are no longer made.

[note: 1. Naga initially was a term used by the plains people to describe people in the neighbouring hill areas. The 16 major tribes and their subgroups did not then call themselves Naga historically.
2. You can read more about Naga culture and history here]

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Tibet: Marginalised in fear...

The Chinese Govt. had invited BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes to see for himself how a new Tibet is emerging - modern, prosperous & happy. In this official tour he visited the Lhasa valley, Tashilumpo monastery in Shigatse(see pic) and the market town of Zedang. But rather than the economic development China wanted to portray to the western media, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes saw something very different beneath the surface. Monks were scared to talk about Dalai Lama in the fear of being prosecuted, chinese immigrants have taken over all the businesses and the ancient holy cities now are unrecognisable due to all the concrete & glass of modern buildings. He concludes the report by saying that :

Even in India not all has been right for the Tibetian refugees in recent times. India's recent attempts at improving relations with China has resulted in some changes in our stand on Tibet. Some attempts(dubious?) at clarifications notwithstanding, this move has clearly disappoined their leaders.

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Say no to Gender Bias !!

The Managing Director of the Videocon Group, Mr. V. N. Dhoot, made some very sexist remarks on women in an interview to TOI recently. Some excerpts:

I came across this first in Jivha's blog where he had also highlighted the disturbing fact Mr. Dhoot claims to have received an offer of a Rajya Sabha nomination from Congress (I). After the ensuing discussion, Jivha took the initiative of petitioning against the congress's decision to nominate Mr. Dhoot into parliament. If you are concerned about the people we choose to represent us in parliament, please support his initiative by signing this petition HERE.

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N-E: Muga culture gets a new lease...

The largest village in Assam, Sualkachi has been always known in the state for its unique Muga Silk products. Traditionally its population of 50,000 has mostly been engaged with weaving and related activities. But the entry of cheaper products like saris, other yarns and shawls over the years has forced the weavers to take up other professions. Earlier in the yr. we had a tough time locating different types of Muga Silk dresses there for my sisters marriage. Now the administration for once has taken pro-active steps to revive the dying Muga culture in this area. The Kamrup District admin. has recently announced a Rs 6.6 cr two yr project which has already been approved by the North Eastern Council(NEC)and will be launched from this month. This project in the form of self-help groups will directly aid 1,540 weavers in the village. Different components of the projects will be - procurement of mulberry and Muga yarn from other districts & states, setting up a yarn bank, introducing new handlooms, training on the new looms, forming marketing linkages and a PR campaign outside Assam for the products.

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Mighty U.S battles Malik Jarno...

The U.S Immigration & Naturalization Service, now a part of the Dept. of Homeland Security, has been waging an incredible battle for the past 3 yrs to deport Malik Jarno(18), a mentally retarded orphan refugee from Guinea. Malik had arrived at Washington's airport in Jan 2001, seeking sanctuary from a conflict in which rest of his family perished. The authorities had locked him away in a Piedmont Jail, Virginia then. There he was abused by fellow inmates since he could not communicate. He was also held in solitary confinement for a week and once pepper-sprayed & severely beaten by guards. Upon observation by psychologists his IQ was found to be of a 10 yr old, but he still was kept in a regular prison.

Recent news :
1. Some senators have pleaded for a review of his case.
2. Three major international law firms have now donated $ 1 million in working hrs for this case. They have filed a civil lawsuit against Piedmont jail.
3. Amnesty International has sent out a worldwide alert about the case.
4. A sample letter writen to the Dept. of Homeland Security by Amnesty international is here

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The soul of a nation

Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic writes in The Washington Post in a recent article about Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma. He says that her struggle for freedom dwells in his soul as a stark reminder of our struggles against totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. He criticizes politicians in the free world who favor seemingly pragmatic cooperation with repressive regimes.

He also rightly questions the recent roadmap saying that "Aren't there obvious flaws in a road map if the road for those who set forth on the journey to democracy is blocked and if they are slaughtered or inevitably end up in prison?". Mr. Havel doesn't mention India of course but much of what he says about western leaders applies to our country too. Unfortunately I haven't seen anyone in our media ever bring up India's Burma policy in the context of human rights. All we care about is open skies and $30 billion trade goals...

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Right on Uncle Sam !

For once the U.S is in the right and we are siding with a pack of greedy countries(ASEAN) that care more for trade inflows than human rights. The U.S State Dept. today rejected a statement by Asean at the close of its annual summit, which said there had recently been recent "positive developments" in Burma (report). The Asean summit in Bali made a statement that Burma had been making progress, and that it welcomed the "roadmap" to democracy revealed by Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. There was no mention in the statement of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest.

The Asean ( Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma ) also described American sanctions against Rangoon as "not helpful". As the U.S State Dept. rightly pointed out the roadmap is meaningless without the opposition being allowed a full role. The U.S sanctions were along the lines demanded by Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) for a decade now. NLD had won 85% of the seats of the last elections held in 1990, before the military junta seized power and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest.

[note: I did point out India's complicity with China on protecting Burmese interests in an earlier post.]

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A Journey across time...

Just came across this report on a 3 month long celebration of Assamese culture called "Focus on Assam" that started from August 2003 launched by New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, a mainstream British venue in Leicester city and Asam Sahitya Sabha of UK. Assamese dance and music events along with an exhibition of crafts including the beautiful silks, hand woven cloths (mekhela chadar, gamocha etc) are being held. The celebrations includes a screening of a documentary film on “Brahmaputra” by noted filmmaker Jahnu Baruah and writer Sanjoy Hazarika along with folk dance workshops and performances.

I was particularly happy to find that my friendly neighbour from Assam days, noted dance artiste Indira PP Bora and her daughter Menaka PP Bora, are also a part of the whole celebrations. They are the star performers in a programme of Sattriya dance and are holding wokshops on the rich Sattriya cultural heritage. Menaka PP Bora is to perform a series of story-telling sessions about great Assamese cultural and historical personalities like Sankardev, Lachit Barphukan and Joymoti Kuwori. The story-telling journey is to be expressed through hand gestures movements, costumes, theatrical treatment and live music.
[note: The exhibition is free so if you are in the U.K you can get further information, including details of opening times, at telephone (0116) 225 4900.]

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The Kashmir Conflict

MSNBC has this nice flash presentation on the Kashmir conflict. We are well familiar with the details but it was still odd to see how little of Kashmir we actually control...

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Burma: Light years away...

Soldiers of armies storm empty fields,
In a travelers trance, on the way to the high frontier
Sleepwalkers stumble, cable cars run aground
Imagine every enemy, formed high above the clouds
In the mountains of Burma, the road to Mandalay
In mountains of Burma, light yrs away
Hope you're light years away...
 - Midnight Oil (Mountains of Burma)

Earlier in the year China stated its position on Burma(not *Myanmar*) and it's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi(report).

Yesterday Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal clarified India's stand before the P.M's visit to Indonesia, Thailand and the meeting with ASEAN. Past illustration of the India-China support :(related reports: 1 ,  2 )
1. Military deals: China struck a $2.5 billion arms deal with Burma during the 1990's. They were the only country willing to openly sell arms to the millitary junta. In a bid to reduce Chinese dependence, India on the other hand has been covertly selling artillery and ammunition to the junta in recent years (report 1, report 2, report 3).
2. Naval Bases : China has developed Burma's naval base at Hianggyi Island; upgraded the naval facilities at Sittwe (Akyab) and Mergui and radar station at Coco Island close to Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar. These facilities are used for monitoring Indian missile tests conducted between Orissa and the Andaman. Defence Minister, George Fernandes did talk openly about these bases once, but later was forced to withdraw into silence. Since this issue hasn't been openly a part of our Burma agenda presumably it's o.k by us that China keeps watch.
3. Bilateral trade: In between mouthing empty empathies with Aung San Suu Kyi for the international press, we are fast increasing our trade with Burma. Bilateral trade has grown from $ 87.4 mm in 1990-91 to $ 323.43 mm in 2001-02. India's exports were worth $ 37.57 mm and imports worth $ 285.86 mm. Gas exploration projects, hydroelectric power projects are all in the pipeline now.(report) To maintain this relationship India was among the only four International Labour Organisation(ILO) governing body members to defend the apalling labour rights abuse by Burma.
4. Refugees: There are 50,000 burmese refugees of largely Christian origin in the N-E states who have been requesting political asylum for the last decade. To not get in Burma's bad books we choose to pretend they don't exist. There's no official policy or recognition which leaves them at the mercy of local authorities in the N-E states(report). Despite ratifying every International human rights treaty, we remain the only major democracy in the world which doesn't differentiate between illegal immigrants and refugees. Affected states like Mizoram have been forced to issue work permits to aid the identification of foreigners.(related post)
5. Insurgency: Burma has helped by conducting occasional raids on camps of N-E insurgents based in Burma. But since they largely are focussing on ethnic rebels fighting the Junta some camps still exist. To aid these operations we have built a 160 km road(cost 90 cr) free of cost. For it's tag as the Gateway to Southeast Asia to come true, the co-operation by the S-E Asian nations with the military junta will have to be there.

Elsewhere:
1. The U.N is still trying to talk the Junta into taking promised reforms. It envoy failed in its latest attempt(report).
2. The U.S has finally imposed strict sanctions(report).
3. The Burma cause has become fashionable enough for U2 to sing a song for Aung San Suu Kyi. Nice song but about 11 yrs after Midnight Oil's haunting number, so it didn't move me half as much.

Some internal events in our country have already started resembling autocratic states like China(see post). Our human rights record is fast catching up. And our policy on Burma is the just latest reminder on where we really stand on our support for International human rights issues. No wonder other nations don't take our posed moral high ground on international events too seriously...

[note: 1. The Military Junta renamed Burma as Myanmar in 1989 as a political stunt stating that 'Burma' implied dominance of Burmese culture over the minor ethnic groups. Since then they have proceeded to ruthlessly eliminate those very minorities.
2. Burma is the source of 60% of the Heroin in the U.S. Drug trafficking is one of the main strengths of the Burmese economy.
3. Peter Garret, legendary frontman of Midnight Oil & my childhood hero, sang those lines in 1990 when Aung San Suu Kyi was first imprisoned by the Junta after her win in the elections.
4. My forefathers(The Ahom Kings) did come from a country which has since merged with Burma. So historically Burma happens to be our original homeland. ]

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Gandhiji still relevant for Karpaga Vinayagam !!

Justice Karpaga Vinayagam of the Madras High Court unlike Jivha seems to think Mahatma Gandhi's ideas are still relevant. In a recent judgement he ordered a politician to spend time in a library reading about Gandhi as a condition of his bail. Mr Ranganathan, a Congress Democratic Forum politician in Tamil Nadu, charged with intimidation in connection with a land deal, was ordered to spend four days in a museum library. He complied that order by browsing through Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, and other books like How to Adore Gandhiji, Lectures on Gita and Human Life & Gandhiji. The judge who is known for his unconventional verdicts said the idea was to make Mr Ranganathan "realise his duties" as a legislator (other verdicts).

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N-E: Better late than never !!

Over the last few months there have been some positive initiatives taken which should in the future help combat better the insurgency in the N-E. These initiatives are along the lines of long standing suggestions/ demands by various pressure groups in the N-E.

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N-E: Carrot & the stick !

As you've probably heard last week Yahoo Groups were blocked out by some of our ISP's in attempting curb access to a online group issuing newsletters of Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). They were following directives given by the central govt. This case was India's first use of a draconian law that allows the state to censure anything on the net that it deems anti-national without prescribing reasons. This story came out first in an Indian blog(Filter Cofee).

Now I come across this report a day after that incident which says the Meghalaya Government has held out a ceasefire offer to the two banned militant outfits of the State — the HNLC( representing Khasi & Jaintia's) and the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC representing Garos). Meghalaya Chief Minister, D. Lapang, is quoted as saying that "Once the militants stop their criminal activities, we will ask the police to suspend operations against them''. Lapang IMO is just being wise by trying to bring these groups into the mainstream now before they grow into stronger, more dangerous outfits. Relative to other ethnic outfits of the N-E, these groups are still in their infancy as far as numbers and equipment goes.

I'm almost tempted to call these events a classic example of the good cop/bad cop routine. But it probably just underscores how out of sync the centre is with the initiatives taken in the N-E states...

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N-E: Queen of Elephants given clean chit !

Parbati Barua, dubbed Queen of Elephants by the media, who was accused of cruelty while catching and taming an elephant, was given a clean chit last week, by the Union Forest & Environment Ministry. The inquiry commission freed her of all charges saying the Chhattisgarh Forest Dept. did not provide Barua requisite support during the operation. It also held the department responsible for the death of the elephant and rejected Maneka Gandhi's charges of cruelty and torture (see report). At 47, Parbati Barua is Asia’s lone woman elephant tamer, in an otherwise male-dominated trade.

Incidently Parbati had earlier in the yr in press interviews refuted the allegations levelled against her by Maneka Gandhi claiming Vivek Menon of the World Wildlife Fund and cinematographer Mike Pande had misled Ms Gandhi & the Chatisgarh govt. A somewhat misleading description of the events were posted in this online petition seeking removal of Parbati from official duties. Later when the media went to town showing the footage of that documentary film on the capture of the elephant, she had written in detail the steps she undertook for the capture of the rogue elephant. She had then questioned the field experience of her accusers & cited her own work. Her team of 6 helpers who came to Chattisgarh, had a collective experience of over 200 years of working with elephants which included the capture of 75 wild elephants and training of over 380 elephants - both wild and captive born.

Parbati, is the daughter of Late Prakritish Barua, who was popularly known as Lalji, a well-known expert on Asian elephants. In this fascinating interview Parbati recalls her childhood when she was exposed to elephants when only 47 days old. She tells us of the time when she caught her first wild tusker almost single handedly at the age of 14. Now a member of the Asian Elephants Specialists’ Group of the IUCN, Parbati spends more than 265 days a yr in jungles, with her mahuts and elephants, to acquire more knowledge about the elephants and wildlife as a whole. She now has two elephants(both female), which are used for relief works during the floods in West Bengal and also in chasing away wild elephants, and in jungle patrol. Since 1981 she's been treating the injured and sick elephants of West Bengal's Forest Department. Earlier in the year she was made the Chief Warden of Elephants in Assam at The Elephant Festival held in Kaziranga National Park.(report).

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Kaziranga: Silent echoes...

For someone who has spent so many yrs living in places near this world heritage site, I don't have too many personal experiences to share about Kaziranga. I did visit Kaziranga a few times while on picnics/treks in nearby locations in Karbi Anglong. But I've never stayed over for a proper visit. I do remember one occasion when forest rangers dissuaded our group from trying to hold a baby Rhino which seemed to take a fancy to us. He had then warned us of female Rhino's which are known to charge at people if they sense danger to their offspring. I had a tough time persuading some of my female friends to heed that warning because the baby rhino looked so cute. They were in turn trying to coax me to take it with us on the sly so that they could have it as a pet !

Anyway this month there has been lots of reports coming out of Assam about Kaziranga. Here's a general summary:
1. World Bank Inspection: A high level delegation of the World Bank visited Kaziranga National Park on September 5 on a two-day visit to see for itself the state of affairs in the world’s most famous habitat of the one-horned rhino. They took stock of the situation in the National Park, its environment, wildlife policing system and infrastructure. The officials also assessed the overall forest scenario in the State.
2. Elephant Festival: The Forest Department has decided to hold the next edition of the Elephant Festival in Kaziranga between January 30-February 1 next year. Now the participation of pachyderms during the festival is to be limited to about a hundred(was 300 this yr). During this festival elephants are given a health checkup. This event held annually is a major attraction for tourists worldwide.
3.The Mimosa invisa threat: This weed a native of tropical America has devoured sizeable area of grassland(2.3 sq km so far) in Bagori, Kohora and Agartoli Ranges of the National Park. Mimosa invisia was brought to the area by neighbouring tea estates as nitrogen fixer for the soil. They have stopped using it now but the damage is already done. As the plant contains a toxin called mimosin it could cause harm to animals grazing on it. Use of chemicals to weed it out can be harmful to the animals & the ecology, so now manual cutting & uprooting is being undertaken every yr. by park authorities.
4. Encroachment: Of the proposed 6 additions to the park totalling 429 sq. km, 3 have been now finalised. These 3 new additions to the park(422 sq. km in total) aimed at reducing the load in the core park area due to the ever-increasing no. of animals are however yet to be cleared of encroachers. These people of suspect nationality have constructed cow & buffallo shelters in that area. These shelters are also used by poachers compounding the problems faced by the authorities. Some tea gardens have also filed cases in courts opposing addition of their lands to the park. Political interferrence has stopped a no. of eviction drives attempted so far by park authorities, to be successfully carried out.
5. Erosion: Every yr. the core park area is estimated to lose an area of 5 to 15 sq. km due to erosion. Brahmaputra Board under the Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India did came forward for undertaking the survey and investigation of this erosion caused by the river Brahmaputra in order to find out a possible preventive measure. But the Govt. of Assam, for reasons they know best, did not accord any approval to the matter. Originally 430 sq. km when declared a national park in 1974 the core park area(without taking additions in account) is now reduced to less than 300 sq. km.

As they relate to a World Heritage site at least some of the news(good/bad) I've cited above probably deserved focus(or mention) in the national media. They do owe it to the park authorities who are playing a lone hand against forces natural/ political/ antisocial for all these years. National focus brings tourists, revenue and pressure on the political setup to take tough measures to protect the Park. After all should the neglect accorded to the region pass on to what is a national treasure? Maybe because it isn't a qualified disaster, the story isn't right yet. But they won't have to wait long, for as Dylan would put it, it's not dark yet but getting there...

[note:1. The datasheet of Kaziranga listed at World Conservation Monitoring Centre site is here. Since it hasn't been updated in 6 yrs some of the data(particularly land area) isn't accurate.
2. Some recent relevant statistics about Kaziranga: It now has 75% of the total world's population of one-horned-rhinoceros (~1600);and more than 50% of total world population of wild buffalo. During the last five years as many as hundred rhinos were killed by the poachers. In 1998 alone, 42 and in 2002, 30 rhinos were killed.
3. The current list of 754 World heritage sites is here. There are 24 sites from India now. In 1985 Kaziranga became the 7th site from India to get included in the list.]

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N-E: To the Boiling Pot !!

The offshoots of BJP & its hindutva allies have been busy this yr. attempting to give all regional issues in the N-E a communal color. So what is essentially a humanitarian issue of refugees from Bangladesh is now treated based on the religion in question. In Assam where Muslim refugees have increasingly grown, Praveen Togadia, General Secretary, VHP earlier in the yr. talked about "annexing Bangladesh to make the process of displacement of refugees easier"& other equally stupid statements designed to show empathy. In Tripura-Assam border areas like Silchar, units of RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena call recent incidents of violence, a targeting of Hindus & a conspiracy of Bangladeshi criminals(sic). They also term the recent desecration of Kali & Shiva temples an attempt to create communal riots. All the incidents they spoke of were against bengali-hindu refugees with tribal insurgents the likely culprits. That's how the hindutva view of rampant cross-border infiltration works I guess...

In continuation with that agenda, there are now plans afloat to distribute 1,00,000 tridents in Assam by the local VHP units on the occasion of the Lachit Diwas(November 24th). The choice of occasion isn't surprising given their mindset. Lachit Diwas is celebrated to mark a historic occasion when the Ahoms had humbled the great Mughal armies sent under Raja Ram Singh by Emperor Aurangzeb at The Battle of Saraighat in 1670 AD. The greatest general in the 600 yr. old history of Ahom kings, Lachit Barphukan,(Barphukan translates to Chief General in Assamese) then seriously ill had still led the naval fleet in the river Brahmaputra, plotting the strategies that resulted in a rout for the invading Mughals. Along with being the defining moments of his heroic military career those exertions were to ultimately cost Lachit his life. Any attempt now to portray it as a victory of Hindus over Muslims is dumb and an insult to his memory. It amounts to nothing less than sacrilege. The recent discovery & promotion by the rest of India of Lachit as a Hindu warrior opposing the Mughals is equally silly too. Hinduism was only adopted by the Ahoms, in the 17th century after more than 400 yrs of rule, to appease their subjects and to try assimilate in the mainstream(IMO a naive historical blunder). And moreover the patriotic general was fighting for what was then his country of Assam against an invading army whose religion didn't figure in the equation.

Lachit Barphukan's name is still held in reverence in Assam for his unflinching patriotism and sense of justice. In a famous incident, once on a surprise inspection during an earlier siege by the Mughals, the General had found the outer defense embankments in Numaligarh incomplete. He immediately confronted his uncle who was in charge of that Garh(fortified embankment) and soon had him confessing of his betrayal to the Mughals. His uncle pleaded for mercy saying that he was after all his kith & kin. Lachit then spoke the words since immortalised in our history "Dekhot ke Momai Dangor Nohoi"(My uncle isn't bigger than my country) and beheaded him on the spot. Nope, those Amar Chitra Katha comics you may have read are wrong, my ancestors were much more direct and simple with their sense of justice.

Assam's history has always been of a pluralistic society where native people lived in peace & harmony with settlers from outside. The Ahom kings too after an initial period when they established their kingdom, never choose to annex neighboring kingdoms. Instead they signed treaties of peace and established allegiance through a system of taxes & inter-tribe marriages, making the N-E a federal state(excluding Manipur & Tripura, which remained sovereign). At that time they had a form of administrating justice that may border on barbarism by today's sense of fairplay. It consisted of a huge pot of boiling oil onto which trouble-mongers and people who disturbed the peace & harmony of the country were tossed. Pity that we can't revert to those methods now...

[note:1. A great description of The Battle of Saraighat and its background is here
2. That victory at Saraighat was the 17th time the Mughals were repulsed from the borders of Assam. They didn't attack Assam again after this defeat. The bridge in the picture above was later constructed at that spot in the Brahmaputra to honour that victory.
3. The original Ahom religion and language are now extinct. Their god was called Pha and their language was the oldest member of the Tai branch of the Siamese-Chinese linguistic family.]

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Just don't call me Chinky !!

Like most people from the Northeastern part of India I do have oriental features. Normally I'm comfortable with the failure of a no. of people I meet to perceive me as Indian. Not their fault I reason. After all apart from a random media report on insurgency, floods or AIDS we have little presence in the mainstream national consciousness. And anyway I apparently inherit my family's very generic tribal features which makes things even more difficult (IMO I'm all Ahom!!). I've had Naga/Mizo girls come up to me and speak in their native tongues because I can easily pass as one of them. Likewise for Nepali/Bhutia people too. Moreover there are so many tribes in the northeast that despite staying most of my life there and having friends in all the 7 states I occasionally stumble too.

Initially when I moved out of the N-E, I remember finding it strange being called Chinese/ Korean/ Tibetan/ Japanese by people. My initial reactions were a bit extreme. I remember almost beating up a waiter in a Bombay hotel because he used a derogatory word to describe me & the group of people from the N-E I was with. But later on I did have my share of fun in the bylanes of Bombay making scary faces at young kids who taunted me by calling "Chinky, Chinky!. Chinese, Chinese!" every time I passed them. And by pretending to be Japanese when bookshops insisted on treating me as a foreigner, to see what prices they will quote in College Street, Calcutta. But the novelty of being treated differently wears off. And you form your own strategies to try assimilate into the mainstream better. In Delhi, when faced with mystified people, I've taken to speaking exclusively in chaste Hindi & pretending to not understand English :)

But on days when I'm a little down, the indifference that forms most of my defense mechanism refuses to help me out. Especially when someone queries in English what country I'm from, just as soon as I finish requesting for a book in my best punjabi-accented Hindi(there's nothing wrong with my diction either !). Since I hate confrontations I did let that pass. But I can't help reflect on what such occasions mean to me. Just another confirmation that I'm different from the others. And that after 5 & a 1/2 decades of freely being a part of India we still don't belong...

BTW in case you didn't know, Chinky is an offensive slang word for a Chinese person. If you've used it to call someone from the N-E he/she will probably smile or ignore it. Don't be fooled by that nonchalance. To them it only represents a confirmation that they are different. Or indifference/acceptance because they are used to being called 'Chinky'. In effect it is nothing less than a grave racial slur. Do them a favor by asking what part of the N-E they hail from. If you have time, learn the capitals of those states. Ask how far their homeplace is from there. Since we are naive, simple people it will work every time & you'll probably get to know lots of new interesting people too...

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Polliticking @Tripura

To follow up on my previous post on the rising terrorist attacks in Tripura these were the related statements issued by the men in power.

Swami Chinmayanand, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs on a visit after the I-Day eve massacre said that :
* The situation in Tripura is now worse than in Jammu & Kashmir.
* State govt. didn't allot enough land for early completion of the barbed wire fencing of the border with Bangladesh to take place.
* The state govt.did not utilize the Central Force properly in anti-insurgency operations and has lacked political will to solve millitant problems.

Refuting his allegations Tripura CM, Manik Sarkar said:
* Equating with J&K is silly as there is one battallion guarding per 15 km stretch of that border, while an equal no. of jawans are patrolling per 110 km border in Tripura. Also BSF estimates of personnel reqd. to patrol the border: 22 battalions while present no.'s: 11 battalions.
* Centre hasn't followed up with Bangladesh Govt. the BSF proposal to jointly patrol the border with BDR(Bangladesh Rifles). Nor pressed them to do anything about the 50+ training camps in Bangladesh, the details of which the state govt. has released to the centre.
* The state govt. is the only insurgency-affected state which has openly declared that the centre & millitants can hold talks without first consulting them.

Silver lining (amidst the counter allegations): The border fencing is expected to be complete for 736 of the 856 km international border with Bangladesh by 2006. Five organisations including Border Road Organisation and Central Public works Department are involved in the project which is to cost 1.10-1.35 cr per km. Completion will ease the load on our border battalions and possibly reduce the ease with which terrorists have slipped in with arms & ammunition.

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Tata Tea encroaching on heritage site!!

The historic Sambor Garh, which was built by Ahom king Pratap Singha in 1538 to ward off enemies is facing a new corporate challenge now. In the historical past the garh(which means a hill or fortified embankment in Assamese) performed a similar role as the Great Wall of China in being the last outpost of the fledgling Ahom Empire. Subsequently of course the Ahom kings were to establish their control over much of the N-E through treaties and conquests. In modern times it has already suffered the indignity of being bi-furcated by the National Highway 37 in the south bank and now there are recent reports that a part of the hill has been dug up as a part of the expansion plans of Nonoi Tea Estate owned by Tata Tea. The State govt. and its archeological department staying true to form, have so far not given them any notice. The local AASU(All Assam Students Union) unit has however lodged a protest and issued a warning to Tata Tea to refrain from tea plantation there.

[note: As a member of a clueless generation I had to consult my Mom about the exact location of the Sambor Garh. Quite surprised to find out that we've crossed it everytime we travelled from upper Assam to Guwahati. There's not much left of an embankment now... and soon there'll be just another Tea estate there I guess.]

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N-E: My mercurial alumni springs a coup !!

Gegong Apang, the eternal political oppurtunist of N-E India hasn't changed much over the years. Now he declares that the BJP is the symbol of nationalism and joins it along with some 31 members of some strange reincarnation of the Congress( was it D now?) becoming Chief Minister yet again. Wonder what views he holds on the cow slaughter bill supported by his new party. Considering that beef is the staple diet of the tribes in Arunachal Pradesh his statements once the bill comes up for informal discussion will be watched with interest there. Back in my college days I still remember professors warning me & my fellow backbenchers that we are on the way to become another Gegong Apang, who was one of our college's most famous alumnus. Apparantly he had just as wild a time as we did during college years. A decade later those predictions didn't quite come true but my alumni is still having a wild time in the political landscape :)

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N-E: Xenophobia strikes Mizoram !!

The rape of a minor girl a month ago by an illegal immigrant from Myanmar incited a xenophobia that has triggered an exodus of 10,000 such migrants in Mizoram. Other towns and villages have followed suit in the footsteps of Aizwal, the state capital in ordering out the Myanmarese residents by Sept 15th. The statements were issued by The Catholic Church, Parish of Holy Cross, Champhai and youth groups which exert a powerful influence in the matters of the state here. The Mizoram govt. which is one of the more liberal and progressive administrations in the N-E has repeatedly appealed to the people to show restraint and ensure that human rights and dignity were respected. The state govt. was apparantly working on a systematic identification and permission for the Myanmarese nationals to enter & live in the state. To enforce laws census of foreign nationals was also conducted in the 8 districts of the state. By all accounts there are around 40,000 illegal immigrants/refugees present in the state in total. Detection is very difficult as the language spoken and the features are the same for the myanmarese and the local population.

[note: I'm quoting from local papers of the region. There are other conflicting reports in the international press about this exodus here.report 1, report 2]

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Majuli: World's largest river island shrinking!!

Politicians have finally woken up to the fact that the river island of Majuli in the Brahmaputra river in Assam is under threat by regular erosion due to floods. Assam's Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was in Delhi recently to meet the Chairman, Brahmaputra Board to emphasise the need for anti-erosion and flood protection work to help save the island & its great heritage and cultural value. Majuli, one of our favourite haunts for a trek or a picnic on the weekends during college days, has always been among the worst-hit areas in Assam when waters of the Brahmaputra are innundated. From it's earliest recorded size at 1246 sq. km (in 1853 by The British East India company), Majuli has now shrunk less than 880 sq km (as recorded by the Brahmaputra Board in 1993) in size. Erosion was accelerated after the great earthquake of 1950 and each subsequent flood has continued to ravage the river island.

Due to its relative isolation(barges and ferries are the sole connection to the mainland), the ancient culture and heritage of the Mishing, Deori's, Sonowal Kacharis and the Ahom's(my tribe!!) who live there are still well preserved. The major cultural attractions are the Vaishnava Sattras(see pic) established by Shankardeva in the 15th century. Shankardeva's Vaishnavism being a simpler non-ritualistic version of Hinduism rooted in faith and prayer. These Sattras were centres promoting ethics and socio-cultural ideals. There were originally 65 sattras there but after the island was nearly submerged in 1998 & some valuable manuscripts destroyed, a number of them have been relocated to the mainland.

During Ras Purnima in the month of 'Kartik' (October - November) virtually every single person on the island is involved in the three-day long 'Ras' festival, depicting the life of Krishna. Every village hosts its own, and people who have left Majuli return to take part in the song, dance, theatre and merriment. And the language that is used is 'Brajavali', the tongue of Mathura. In Majuli, the days of Bhawna(local theatre) and Ras are special, with thousands turning out all over the island to watch and experience. I'm still quite bummed that in all my visits there I didn't get to see Ras Purnima but I do hold fond memories of spending time interacting with the tribal people, trying to understand their(& my own!!) native language, practices & beliefs. Also remember the exotic wildlife I saw there(geese, rare wild ducks) and above all roaming around all day on miles and miles of glorious white sand with no end in sight :)

The Sentinel in a related recent report quotes Dr. Richard E. Sparks, Director , Great Rivers Research and Education Center(GRREC) at Alton, Illonois who talked about the technically feasible ways to stop erosion in Majuli. He favoured dykes around the river bank - to reduce water current & to also form land due to siltation between dykes. He thought that the present plans of dredging the river was too expensive & impractical and construction of flood control reservoirs like wing dams or agricultural levees as simply moving floods around(i.e inundating upstream in preference to downstream land). He also cautioned that the river linking scheme touted as a cure for the regular floods be done only with due participation of biologists and technical experts to not leave an adverse effect on the bio-diversity. With the official request put by the CM it now remains to be seen what exact steps the Brahmaputra board actually take to help preserve this world renowned heritage site.

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My Paradise still burns...

This week I was reminiscing on a series of conversations held years ago with two of my school-friends, both of whom happened to be of Bengali descent. We had then talked a lot about the demographic patterns of the north-eastern states that had just come out in the latest census(1991). For those not from the north-eastern part of India it might seem a pretty exotic topic for school-kids but demographics are a burning topic there. Every millitant organisation worth its salt bases a large part of its popular support on the declining population of the native people. And as kids we were all quite aware of the political events taking place in the region. The army curfews and regular shootouts taking place in places you frequent on a daily basis being a part of our growing up process.

Anyway as good friends we weren't bound by dictates of political correctness, so we talked about how continued infiltration from Bangladesh had started to threaten social fabric of some of the smaller states. And Tripura in particular, we felt was a future Manipur, Mizoram, or Nagaland waiting to happen. Landlocked Tripura was after all hemmed in from three sides by Bangladesh with a total of 856 km long border with that country. So after the decades of free influx of refugees(mostly bengali-hindus) the ethnic tribal population was now a minority(see table). And even back then tribal people were fast losing touch with their heritage and culture. Tripura already had bengali as the official state language and younger people increasingly took it up as their primary language. In fact most tribals of Tripura I met then spoke bengali more fluently then their own native tongues. Dissidence was building up among the tribals and everything pointed out to a major backlash waiting to happen.

And now as I browse through figures for terrorist acts taking place in the N-E in recent yrs, I face up to an inevitable acceptance that what we mused about then has now irrevokably happened. The All Tripura Tiger Force(ATTF) &National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have increasingly been carrying out attacks in the Bengali-dominated areas now as seen in the recent bloodbath on I-Day eve which took 30 lives. [You probably missed that story as it only appeared as a footnote in national papers.]

Breakup(casualties):

	1999	2000
Civilians	599	907
Extremists	442	585
Security Forces	208	165

(source: Union Home Ministry)

Terror-related incidents(2002)

	Terrorist incidents	Terrorists killed	Civillians killed
Assam	412	308	193
Nagaland	208	not available	16
Manipur	not available	125	60
Tripura	292	22	150

(source: Union Home Ministry)

Apart from a token summary of casualties or an odd report when refugees become an cross-border dispute the media hasn't explored the reasons behind the discontent. Or indeed questioned what steps the government had taken in the last 50+ yrs to handle the drastic demographic imbalances brought about initially by post-partion migration & later by infiltration. The roles political parties have played in promoting insurgents & immigrants both in the past 5 decades could make an interesting story too. That we 3 largely ignorant school kids could discuss much of all that 12 yrs back makes for an interesting predicament. It also typifies the sort of apathy that we the people of the laidback land of Lahe Lahe have to live with most of our lives...

[Update 31/8/03: Today TOI & other media sources speculate that RDX might actually be from Nepal.]
[note: Tripura is in focus now after the Bombay blasts. RDX used in the blasts were likely brought in through its porous borders & the blast is being deemed similar to the one that happened in Tripura 3 yrs back as per a TOI report yesterday.]

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POLITICS: Bravery of being out of range !!

Even if you just see the recent U.S efforts as taking advantage of the somewhat symphetatic world opinion to advance their empire-building plans, you would be impressed with a man seemingly in charge. But these latest remarks, in a series of tough talking comments the President has made post-9/11, has war veterns all amazed at his audacity. Consensus is that it may well lead to more suicide attacks on the ground troops in Iraq.

Dubya's past however doesn't reveal such a tough spine. As those who followed his political campaign closely(I didn't) would know there are gaps in his millitary service records.(Related sites:awolbush.com) And some very valid accusations that he used his privilieges as the son of a congressman to escape from enlisting in the vietnam war by joining the national guard.

Highpoints of Military Service years:(detailed timeline)May, 1968 American casualties in Southeast Asia:350 per week. George W. Bush, 12 days away from losing his student draft deferment (i.e he'd be eligible for draft into the Vietnam War) abruptly decides to join the 147th Fighter Group of the Texas Air National Guard. A very long waiting list(100,000) and the lowest acceptable grade on the pilot aptitude qualification test(25%) didn't stop Dubya managing to enlist on the same day that he applied.

After 6 weeks(of basic airman training):promotion to 2nd lieutenant( normal = 8 full semesters of college ROTC courses or 18 months of military service or completion of Air Force officer training school),& soon put on inactive duty status. He then spent 2 months in Florida working for Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Edward J. Gurney. When he wasn't handing out press releases and making sure that the reporters didn't oversleep, Bush returned to Houston for weekend Guard duty.

In early 1970, Bush rented a one-bedroom apartment at the exclusive Chateaux Dijon complex in Houston, a building with 6 swimming pools where Bush played all-day water volleyball games and dated many of the single women who lived there. July 72 : Applied for a voluntary three month Vietnam tour: refused though Air Force needed additional F-102 pilots to fly reconnaissance missions.

1 Aug '72 : Suspended and grounded from flying duty on verbal order of the TX 147th Group's Commanding Officer for "his failure to accomplish annual medical examination." Speculation during election campaign that Bush avoided the test as he didn't want to take a random drugs test(not proved). Oct/Nov '72 to Oct, 1973: Unknown wherebouts. Skipped his duties.

In October 1, 1973: The Air National Guard relieves Bush from commitment eight months early, allowing him to attend Harvard Business School, transferring to a reserve unit in Boston for the rest of his time. Bush's acceptance into Harvard Business School surprised some, since he had graduated from Yale a full five years before.

[58,152 U.S soldiers died in the Vietnam war & 153303 were seriously injured.]

Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great
For righting wrongs
You hit the target
And win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away
       - Roger Waters(Amused To Death)

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"Dubyaspeak.... The New York Times 'istyle' !!"

NYT op-ed columnist Bill Keller examines recent events related to the Iraq war( I tried to keep touch with some of them in my posts "The WMD trail...") in "The Boys Who Cried Wolfowitz". This article has Mr. Keller, a veteran Pulitzer winning journalist, and a self-confessed supporter of the war, struggling to justify himself. He flip-flops between justifying his moral support for the war & attempting to blame the war on a conspiracy of a group within the intelligence agencies led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that pushed the case for war with/without legit proof. Funnily enough he ends up mouthing lines which would do Dubya proud. Not intentional I know but it is tough to reason your way out of supporting which was for all purposes a war fought without factual evidence(leave aside moral/international sanction). He makes a good (subtle) attempt though.Selected excerpts of that article follows:

Mending bridges with anti-war proponents Mr. Keller begins by 'rejecting' obvious justifications now in the 'No WMD but a scandal a day found' scenario saying:
- "...between the excavation of mass graves, which confirms that we have rid the world of a horror, and President Bush's new willingness to engage the thankless tangle of Middle East diplomacy, which raises the hope(?) that Iraq was more than a hit-and-run exercise, the war seems to have changed some important things for the better taking the easy way. This is true, but not quite(justification) enough."
- "...that it's not over yet. Just as we have yet to prove that we can transform a military conquest into a real Mission Accomplished, we have yet to complete our search of a country that,...is the size of California. This is also true, but likewise inadequate."

In similar vein he continues:
-"I supported the war, with misgivings about the haste, the America-knows-best attitude and our ability to win the peace....deciding factor for me was not the monstrosity of the regime (routing tyrants is a noble cause, but where do you stop?), nor the opportunity to detoxify the Middle East (another noble cause, but dubious justification for a war when hardly anyone else in the world supports you)"
before launching into his rationale for the war:
-" No, I supported it mainly because of the convergence of a real threat and a real opportunity."
"The threat was a dictator with a proven, insatiable desire for dreadful weapons that would eventually have made him, or perhaps one of his sadistic sons, a god in the region. The fact that he gave aid and at least occasional sanctuary to practitioners of terror added to his menace(yet to be proved!). And at the end his brazen defiance made us seem weak and vulnerable, an impression we can ill afford(sic)."
"The opportunity was a moment of awareness and political will created by Sept. 11, combined with the legal sanction reaffirmed by U.N. Resolution 1441. The important thing to me was never that Saddam Hussein's threat was "imminent" - although Sept. 11 taught us that is not such an easy thing to know - but that the opportunity to do something about him was finite(very candid!). In a year or two, we would be distracted(sic) and Iraq would be back in the nuke-building business."

He then ummm... starts to lose objectivity a bit:
- " Even if you throw out all the tainted evidence, there was still what prosecutors call probable cause(good enough for Uncle Sam I'm sure!) to believe...was harboring frightful weapons,..was bent on acquiring the most frightful weapons of all. ...Clinton believed so... Two generations of U.N. inspectors believed so. ...not a Bush administration fabrication that Iraq had, and failed to account for, massive quantities of anthrax and VX nerve gas and other biological and chemical weapons. Saddam was under an international obligation to say where the poisons went, but did not."

Case established he can now be 'truthful' :
- "What the Bush administration did was gild the lily - disseminating information that ranged from selective to preposterous. The president himself gave credence to the claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa, a story based on transparently fraudulent information.
- "Colin Powell in his February performance at the U.N. insisted that those famous aluminum tubes Iraq bought were intended for bomb-making, although the technical experts at the Department of Energy had made an awfully strong case that the tubes were for conventional rocket launchers. "
- "And as James Risen disclosed in The Times this week, two top Qaeda planners in custody told American interrogators - one of them well before the war was set in motion - that Osama bin Laden had rejected the idea of working with Saddam. That inconclusive but potent evidence was kept quiet in the administration's zeal to establish a meaningful Iraqi connection to the fanatical war on America."

After this point he pursues his theory on the "Team B" of the CIA which apparently were the dirty men behind all this. He is 'strangely' lenient on Colin Powell & chooses to put the responsibility on Dubya. Strange because he has been a Powell baiter in the past.
- "The hawks hyped the case (profusely) to prove we were justified in going to war, with or without allies. Mr. Powell hyped it (modestly) in the hope that the war, which he knew the president had already decided to wage, would not be a divisive, unilateral exercise. The president either believed what he wanted to believe or was given a stacked deck of information, and it's a close call which of those possibilities is scarier."
- "...It seems much more likely that the decision to make war drove the intelligence. Paul Wolfowitz, the most dogged proponent of war against Iraq, is also a longtime skeptic of American institutional intelligence-gathering.... "

He concludes the article with grave words:
-"The truth is that the information-gathering machine designed to guide our leaders in matters of war and peace shows signs of being corrupted. To my mind, this is a worrisome problem, but not because it invalidates the war we won. It is a problem because it weakens us for the wars we still face".

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Bottom line: Blame it on the backroom guys. All very nice & clean. Mr. Keller has been running a series of columns criticizing Dubya's government policies in recent months. So he has to sidestep/justify his own moral position & then take aim.

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"I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." - Charles De Gaulle

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The WMD Trail...(Update)

The U.S media machinery... rolls on. Whatever be your judgement of the sincerity or moral character of the U.S administration, one thing is for sure...they understand & utilize the media perfectly. There is a form of 'thought control' being imposed on us through the enormous clout Pentagon has on today's media. Press breifings have evolved into a quaint form of 'doublespeak'. A recent example: U.S. Checks Possible Iraq Weapons Sites(details) for the umpteenth time. Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said. ``... but there is discussion from both the chemical and the biological side that leads us to intelligence that we have to go confirm or deny....'' Rest assured that the denial won't take place in the media unlike numerous possible leads reported very sincerely by the western media. This is but one example of those media skills on display now. We (along with the media) have already sucked up to all the half-truths & quotes placed out of context in 'war' before the war...

Retirement blues: UN weapons inspector Mr.Blix has a few 'warm' words for Dubya's people. Highlights "..constant vilification by 'bastards' who 'planted nasty things in the media' ...was a bit like a mosquito bite in the evening that is still there in the morning, an irritant." People on the other side "..spread rumours about his being homosexual, and going to Washington to pick up my instructions every two weeks. "

Blackmail & arm-twisting: US threatens Nato boycott over Belgian war crimes law (details). Gist: U.S soldiers are above International Law. Why? As U.S is not a signatory of International Criminal Court (supported by 90 countries). A vote last year gave them exemption. This year France, Germany & Syria abstained to voice protest. What is the issue with Belgium? It has a law giving it jurisdiction to try war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity wherever they are committed. (Cases pending: against Tommy Franks Cmdr of Iraq war). U.S Tactics ? threat to suspend its financial support for a new €400m (£280m) building for Nato; implied threat to move Nato HQ from Brussels. (Rumsfeld "It's perfectly possible to meet elsewhere." ). Background: Belgium opposed Iraq war & joined France and Germany in launching a separate EU defence initiative in April.

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The WMD(Weapons of mass deception) Trail ...

70+ days and counting...Dubyaman still searches for that single shred of evidence that can(???) serve as evidence for indulging in the Iraq war. Supporters are losing patience & those with an axe to grind are increasingly asking uncomfortable questions.
Summary of recent events:

The New York Times carries columns asking for accountibility while ABC whose coverage of the war was ummm... quite patriotic deemed it fit to air this discussion by war critics. Apparantly Colin Powell's doubts over CIA intelligence on Iraq prompted him to set up secret review before he made a crucial speech to the UN security council on February 5.

Even more sensational, leaked transcripts of a pre-war meeting between Jack Straw & Colin Powell has raised alarm across Nato. It has both expressing serious doubts about the reliability of intelligence on Iraq's banned weapons programme. The interrogation reports of two senior al-Qaida members, both in US custody, showed that the CIA had reason to doubt the allegations of a connection between Saddam's regime and the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Dubya's staunch ally (lapdog??) Mr. Tony Blair is himself facing up to a increasingly sceptic public. His confident & sensational pre-war claim that Iraq had WMD that was operational in 45 minutes is now being questioned & seem to emanate from dubious sources. Former international development secretary Clare Short claims that Blair lied to cabinet.

Tony Blair also faces a fresh crisis, as evidence emerges that two vehicles that he has repeatedly claimed(during his whistle stop tour of the Gulf, Europe and Russia) to be Iraqi mobile biological warfare production units are nothing of the sort. It is increasingly likely that the units were designed to be used for hydrogen production to fill artillery balloons, part of a system originally sold to Saddam by Britain in 1987. Also discord between Blair's office and intelligence services intensifies amidst allegations that only fragments of reports were used to trump up the case for war.

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