Delhi : Lying without blushing

It is the mother of all contradictions or paradoxes or more importantly a classic case of lying through the teeth without blushing ! While the world has become a global village, thanks to the rapid progress in Information Technology, the Delhiwallahs in the garb of netas, seem to think that they can get away by lying or playing the game of ignorance. Or else how does one explain the response from the Delhi netas, who had the temerity to counter pose, why they have not been informed of the grave humanitarian crisis in Manipur, which was scripted, directed and produced by the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur and came under the blockbuster name of Economic Blockade that stretched for 68 days ? Not only is this an added insult but it also exposes where and how Manipur figures in the overall scheme of Delhi. The question of ‘not informing them earlier’ sounds like a poor joke in this age when any information can be had with the click of the mouse. In 2005, the story was the same, with the dhoti and topi clad politicians relaxing in their air conditioned rooms, while the 25 odd lakh population had to spend over night at a petrol pump to get their share of five or ten litres of petrol or diesel, for 52 days. No, we are not treading the beaten path of ‘Delhi bashing’ when anything goes wrong in the State for that would amount to flogging a dead horse. However we need to see and understand Delhi's policy towards the North East and Manipur, from a new perspective, particularly in the backdrop of the demand raised by the NSCN (IM) for the creation of a Greater Lim, where all Naga inhabited areas will come under one administrative unit. A full understanding of Delhi's approach to Manipur vis-a-vis the Lim issue may well be a diffcult or even an impossible task, but being on alert equipped with a questioning mind helps in identifying the not so obvious but nevertheless significant point. It is with such a mental preparation that we can detect the slips made by Delhi especially when some political leaders reportedly reprimanded some leaders from Manipur, why the economic blockade and the resultant humanitarian crisis was not brought to their notice earlier ! By this very admission, the political class stands exposed for all to see and hear and the message that one gets is, Manipur is important only as a frontier State, since it is strategically placed and can be the doorway to South East Asia through which India hopes to play a more meaningful role. Remember, BRIC-Brazil, Russia, India and China, which were at one time touted as the countries to watch out for. The factors working in favour of these BRIC countries are the availability of cheap labour, both skilled and unskilled, the large geographical areas they cover, the huge population etc. With China clearly stealing a march over India in almost every aspect, politically, militarily and most significantly economically, Delhi cannot afford to remain smug and hence the marginal increase in the importance of Manipur as a dominion of India in the eyes of Delhiwallahs. There are no emotional ties or cords that bind the people of the North East with the people of mainland India and the act of coining the term, North East region itself has some significant meanings. The lies of the Delhi netas, only add to the misgivings.

So even after more than two months of choking the life lines of the State, the leaders at Delhi were not aware of the facts here, or so they claim ! Either the people who run the affairs of the country are ignorant fools or they care two hoots about the fate of the people of Manipur and this does not speak well for the largest democracy in the world. The mainland media too preferred to concentrate on the Khap Panchayats and honour killings and of course, the wedding of Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and how Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent of the Gandhi legacy, personally sent his wishes to the newly wedded couple ! The very fact that CNN-IBN ran a story under the title, “Is Manipur India's Forgotten State ?” with the inimitable Rajdeep Sardesai at the helm, itself says that there is a missing chain somewhere and the ‘chicken neck syndrome,’ which refers to the narrow strip of land that connects the North East region with the rest of the country, attains a certain level of legitimacy. Yes, after more than 60 days of people coping without fuel, LPG and escalating prices of all goods, including daily needs such as rice, dal or vegetables, Delhiwallahs had the temerity to come up with the question, why they were not informed before ! This is an insult to the existence of Manipur as a State of India, for as we have noted in the very beginning of this commentary, the progress in Information Techno- logy has brought the world closer than ever before and information from any part of the world can be had by just clicking the mouse ! Or are the Delhi netas not adept in using the internet ? We understand that there is a separate Union Ministry specially set up for the North East in the form and name of Development of North East Region as well as the North Eastern Council. In the face of this fact, we cannot help but question, whether these institutions exist only to inaugurate foundation stone laying ceremonies of bridges or merely act at the time of appointing the Director of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences ? Now that Delhi has woken up to the humanitarian crisis that besieged Manipur for more than 60 days, it is amazing to see how security along the highways has suddenly become so effective. Does this mean that all these years, the Centre did not care or did not bother to realise the gravity of the situation everytime an economic blockade is imposed here ? Or does it mean that it prefers to opt for the ‘ignorance is bliss line,’ especially when the blockade is imposed with the Lim issue serving as the rallying point ? In a few days, India will celebrate her Independence Day, but sadly, out of circumstances or out of the mess created by the political class, States in the North East, especially Manipur will see only deserted streets. Is this the “Tryst With Destiny” that Nehru had in mind way back in 1947 ? Sources:-http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/

Honeymoon with License Raj

The decision of the State Government to suspend the rationing of fuel to the consumers and go in for open sale, will surely mean different things to different people, and it will be interesting to see in what ways it is going to impact on the short honeymoon of Government officials and the antiquated License Raj system. After a long, long time, that is sometime from the middle part of the 90s, State Government officials suddenly came face to face with what it means to wield the influence and ‘respect,’ that harks back to the Permit Raj or License Raj period, thanks to the 68 days economic blockade imposed by the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur. To the roadside women vendors, who eke out a living by selling the adulterated petrol to the people, the open sale will see a dip in their daily income while the big sharks behind the fuel racket must have laughed all the way to the bank, rather stashed away all their booties in their private chambers. To those, directly involved in transporting the fuel and overseeing its loading, unloading and the whole exercise of seeing it off till the retail outlet, it meant a suddenly found authority and a huge morale booster to their petty egos. This class belongs to the Government officials who we have just mentioned above. For many people it was also the time to flex their muscles and use their ‘connections’ in the right places to get five or ten litres of petrol. Laying hand on a filled LPG cylinder proved to be a harder task, even amongst this class, who had their persona stamped with ‘right connections’ all over. To the public, the answer should be obvious. The open sale of fuel in the petrol outlets, means no more staying over night in a long queue to get five litres of petrol or diesel. To a certain extent it also means getting better quality fuel, for those sold in the black market usually have a ratio of 30 : 70 kerosene and petrol respectively, while in the pump the ratio may be around 15 or 20 : 85 or 80. Such is the situation in Manipur today, that there are numerous elements, who are ever ready to exploit the situation to their advantage and line their pockets, never mind the fact that there is something called social responsibilities and a time for everyone to come together and stand shoulder to shoulder against any forces that are inimical to the interest of Manipur. In such a scenario, how we can leave out the political class and the bunch of hangers on who gloat with self pride by occupying the seat just beside the Minister in the car or run errands for the memsahib ? In times of scarcity, such as the one we are facing, it is this class of species, who decide who meets the Minister and when and of course how long. Let's raise a toast to the beautiful Indian democracy as seen and practised in Manipur. Ideally the decision of the State Government to suspend the rationing system and go in for open sale of fuel at the outlets, ought to have had the same positive impact on all the people, but just as no two human beings are alike in their disposition, the decision of going in for open sale of petroleum products is sure to mean different things to different people and this is what we find extremely interesting and hilarious as well. Our further comments will also throw up the hilarious side of it, which at times come close to a tragi-comedy !
We started off with how the new development will affect certain class of Government officials and we say this not without reason. There was something missing or which lacked any credible reason for the petrol outlets to remain closed for such a long time, though the blockade was called off way back on June 18. Okay, we know that the Transporters' and Drivers' Council, Manipur had decided never to ply on NH-39 again and manoeuvring goods laden trucks across the slush and treacherous terrain of NH-53 must have been a herculean task. However the fact also remains that there was a steady stream of oil tankers, bullet tankers carrying LPG cylinders and other loaded trucks coming through NH-39. In other words, there is no reason why there be scarcity of essential commodities, especially fuel. There is no novelty in talking about the money made on the sly by creating a climate of scarcity, for this is known to all, but one thing which wasn't very obvious, but had a direct impact on the lives of the people was the waking up to the fact of the immense power and authority that Government officials can wield in such a situation. It not only means fattening their wallets, but also meant being transported to the Socialist India of yore, when everything had to pass through the corridors of officialdom. It was this rediscovery of their once upon a time importance, that whetted their petty ego and pardon us, there is definitely something very hilarious about this. It reminds one of the days of bell bottoms, block heels etc of the 70s, when India was literally gripped by the mirage of Socialism while getting anything done as simple as getting a telephone connection and buying a Premier Padmini or an Ambassador car meant waiting for years. It was these characteristics or system, religiously followed and ‘protected’ by those officials who came to be identified as occupying a white collared job, when everything had to undergo the scrutiny of officialdom, which may range from the highest post in the bureaucracy to the level of a Chaprasi. Fortunately, India came to her senses and did away with what had become infamous as the License Raj, but this obviously did not go down well with the Babudom, for it meant clipping their wings in more ways than one. And unsurprisingly or expectedly, it was obvious that some of these petty State Govt officials were bent on sticking on their new ‘found status,’ or else what better explanations can be there for the long shut down of all petrol pumps, economic blockade or no economic blockade. Thankfully the honeymoon of Govt officials and the License Raj system has come to an end now. Sources:- http://www.thesangaiexpress.com 

INDIA: AFSPA promotes armed insurgency in Manipur

INDIA: AFSPA promotes armed insurgency in Manipur

On 5 November 2010, Ms. Irom Chanu Sharmila, a Manipuri poet and human rights defender, will complete ten years of her indefinite hunger strike in Imphal, Manipur state. Sharmila started her fast on 5 November 2000, three days after the Malom massacre in Manipur. On that day, the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary unit stationed in the state, killed 10 civilians including women and children in an inhuman and vengeful act of retaliation, responding to an earlier ambush staged by the armed insurgents against the Assam Rifles.

A decade since the massacre, while the justice system of India is dragging its feet and has failed to finish even a preliminary inquiry into the incident, Sharmila has become the most powerful voice of democratic dissent in the country through her silent protest against armed violence, committed by the state and non-state actors. She has been insisting that she will end her fast only when the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is repealed, a prerequisite to end armed insurgency in Manipur.

Sharmila's unique protest follows Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence. It has withstood the test of time, and exemplifies the triumph of human spirit over the unbridled power of the state machinery. During the past 10 years, the state as well as the central government has tried everything at their disposal to force Sharmila to stop the fast. When these attempts failed, the government placed Sharmila in detention, keeping her in house arrest or confined to a small hospital room in Imphal, on the excuse that an attempt to commit suicide is a crime in the Indian Penal Code, 1860. At the moment Sharmila is detained in a room in the security ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Imphal. The state government has continuously denied her permission to freely meet visitors.

The AFSPA provides special powers to arrest, detain and kill civilians on mere suspicion. The Act also empowers the armed forces to search and destroy properties on mere suspicion in 'disturbed areas'. It is widely used in the Northeastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir. Wherever AFSPA is in operation, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial executions, torture, rape and arbitrary detention are routinely reported.

In 1958 when the Union Home Minster introduced the law in the Parliament, he assured that the Act would be in operation for a mere 6 months. 52 years since then, the law is still in operation in states like Manipur. Despite the impunity provided by the law, the armed forces are not successful in reducing armed insurgency in places where AFSPA is enforced and on the contrary, it has increased. Violence committed with impunity by both the state and non-state actors have alienated the population from the state. There are compelling grounds to believe that some armed insurgent groups operate with the support of the state and central security agencies.

The people of Manipur has done everything humanely conceivable to register their protest against the AFSPA -- naked protest by mothers, self immolation by student leader, mass demonstrations, petition to the Supreme Court, complaints to the United Nations are to name a few. Similar is the case with other citizens in rest of the Northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. Civil society groups including the media, political parties, jurists, expert groups appointed by the government and the United Nations have constantly called upon the government to withdraw AFSPA from Manipur and has held that the withdrawal of AFSPA is an essential requirement to end the culture of violence in Manipur. However the government has failed to pay heed to these considered opinions.

AFSPA provides statutory impunity to state security agencies. It negates the human rights framework envisaged in the constitution of India as well as the international human rights instruments India is party to. AFSPA is fundamentally a curse to freedom and undermines democratic values.

In 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that by imposing AFSPA, the government of India is in fact using emergency powers without resorting to the procedures laid down in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Again in 2007, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination unequivocally urged the government of India to repeal the Act within one year. During her visit to India in March 2009, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the government of India to repeal this Act.

The Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 setup by the Union Home Ministry led by Justice Jeevan Reddy, a former Judge of the Supreme Court; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by the current union law minister, Mr. Veerappa Moily; and the Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir led by the present Vice President of India, Honourable Hamid Ansari, have all recommended the repealing of AFSPA. Since the last winter session of the Indian Parliament, an Armed Forces (Special Powers) Amendment Bill has been placed before the Parliament. However, the text of the Bill is not yet made public. To say the least, the people residing in the states where this draconian law is enforced are not consulted concerning this Bill.

Even though the inhuman nature of AFSPA has been exposed repeatedly proving that it is an ill-conceived law that perpetuates innumerable violence and inconsolable misery against the people, it is still enforced. On the other hand, Sharmila, the icon of protest against this law is treated like a petty criminal, charged for attempting to commit suicide. Her struggle lies not only in defending the basic and fundamental human rights of the people, but also questions the very foundations of Indian democracy which venerates Mahatma Gandhi and his principles of ahimsa or non-violence.

In Manipur, the Just Peace Foundation (JPF), in collaboration with the civil society of Manipur, is celebrating Sharmila's indomitable spirit, her courage to hope for an end of violence amidst adversities, her unwavering stand for justice and her deep yearning for peace. A simple function at the Manipur Press Club will launch today the 100 days countdown to the completion of Sharmila's decade-long fast. A series of cultural programs, literary and artistic activities, public meetings and rallies, and poster campaigns will mark the countdown which will culminate into a Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace from 2 to 6 November 2010.

The ALRC along with the JPF seeks your participation to make this noble effort a success. We request you to use this occasion to take all actions possible to collectively urge the government of India to repeal AFSPA. For your convenience the ALRC has created an online petition entitled "Repeal AFSPA NOW". By signing the petition, you can send your views to the government of India demanding the repealing of this draconian law.

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2010statements/2703/

# # #

About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia.

An Era Ends

The death of prominent and independent Manipuri vernacular daily Poknapham editor and owner, Shamurailatpam Gopal Sharma, may indeed well mark the conclusion of an old school of journalism and journalistic practice in Manipur. The genial, soft-spoken gentleman, other than everything else that he may have represented, was also someone who successfully tided the onslaught of the new and brutal paradigm the media world was thrown into in the mid 1990s – a brave new world, if you like, in which business and business gains became the oxygen and prime motivation of a profession which was once thought to be a mission before anything else. Most others who began with him were not resilient enough to change with the tides of the times, and perished. Gopal Sharma not only survived the severe trepidations of the 1990s, but came out riding with aplomb the high waves of the new game.

The transformation happened before the eyes of everybody older than 20 years. From a single sheet newspaper printed on flatbed letter press treadle printing machines which had not seen much technological advancement from the one Johannes Gutenberg invented in 1439, newspapers in Manipur in the mid 1990s saw a literal quantum leap in terms of printing technology, quality and quantity of editorial content and not to say the least, an exponential expansion in the size of readership. In evolutionary jargon, this was akin to one of those cataclysmic climatic changes the earth is believed to periodically undergo, such as the one believed to have wiped off 75 percent of life on earth about 200 million years ago. The evolutionary truism is, those who cannot cope changes are eliminated.

Once upon a time, newspapers in Manipur were the enterprises resulting out of journalistic heads getting together to launch mediums of information disseminating. This explains why once, journalists owned newspapers, and predominantly editors were also owners. Today, it is business that drives these enterprises, and sure enough, it is about good business management and deep pockets for investments that hold most of the keys to success. Editor owners of media houses are getting fewer by the day, and may indeed be a dying species. Whether this is for the bad or good is secondary, but the truth from which nobody can escape is, this is the defining value of the enterprise today. The front page jacket advertisement, in which the entire front page is given away for catchy display advertisements to cash loaded multinational corporations, obviously for a fortune, were unthinkable a generation or two ago anywhere in the world. Today it is very much an accepted media practice. The liquidity in the hands of newspaper managements have also increased manifolds as a result, giving them much more investment latitude.

This has no doubt promoted professionalism in many senses, but as witnessed in many of the metropolises in the country with respect of many national newspapers, it can also seriously marginalise the importance and independence of journalists. Gopal Sharma, belonged to the past school once but he was among the very few who managed to reinvent himself to meet the new challenge of the newspaper as business first. While other dinosaurs perished, this one transformed to acquire a new avatar. He was thus a well known editor of a slick, respected prominent newspaper, and the engine of a successful media business in the same breath. He held fort to remain an editor owner in the new age too. With his death, another important bridge to a past media paradigm may have died. May his soul rest in peace.

While the journalistic fraternity mourns the death of a self-made journalist and entrepreneur, whose life is another story of grit taking the brave and perseverant from rags to riches, let the fraternity also take heart in the possibilities that the media pioneer in the state has shown. Given the preparedness to work hard, the resilience to accommodate changes, and the acumen to timely identify business opportunities, there is no adversity which cannot be turned into advantage. Gopal Sharma’s life is indeed a reminder of the epitaph given by Horatio the philosopher friend of Hamlet at the death of the sweet Prince of Denmark: “The readiness is all.”

Legacy of Eigya Gopal

In the absence of any well documented and well maintained record of the history of journalism in Manipur, it is difficult to single out an individual much less a publication and study the evolution of journalism in the State down the years. Yes, we had in Hijam Irabot, unarguably the first political leader of Manipur, who is credited to have brought out a journal during his days, but that had more to do with spreading the socialist ideology or thoughts to the peasantry and was not strictly journalism as understood universally. However, this is taken as a something of a benchmark in the march towards modern journalism in the State, as we understand it today. Much water have flown down the river, and the newspapers published in Imphal today can be said to be the flowering of the seeds sown through the ages by pioneers, who took to this profession, either out of passion for the nature of the work involved or through one's political affiliations. Just like the rest of India, which saw the emergence of some journals during the freedom movement against the British imperialists, such as Kesari and Young India to name just a couple of them, in Manipur too, political parties also jumped onto the bandwagon and it was not so long ago that the Congress mouth piece Simanta Patrika and Eehou of the Manipur People's Party were in circulation. Of all the newspapers produced to propagate certain ideologies or champion the cause of a political party, it was the CPI sponsored Khollao which perhaps managed to transcend the fine dividing line between a paper strictly devoted to the interest of their political party concerned and mainstream journalism, which is broadly understood as apolitical. Along with the presence of the political mouth pieces, there were some vernacular dailies such as Paojel, Sanaleibak etc. In between there was Prajatantra and Huieyen Lanpao, which had their own list of loyal readers and patrons, especially during the days when Salam Bharat Bhusan was the Editor of Huieyen Lanpao. The late Lok Sabha MP, N Tombi Singh can be credited for giving a thrust to English journalism in the State by launching Manipur Mail in 1980, though this paper has definitely seen better days. In between, Manipur witnessed the rise and fall of a number of newspapers, both in English and vernacular and in a very positive development, we witnessed the coming to age of quite a number of promising youngsters (then), who chose to tread the hitherto uncharted course of journalism as a career outside the State in publications such as Times of India, Statesman and The Telegraph, just to name a few. This is besides those who worked or are working in news agencies such as the Press Trust of India, United News of India, India Abroad News Services, Reuters, AP, AFP etc, and other agencies. Compared to some of the vernacular dailies and those who are contemporaries of the Sh Gopal as well as those who have been in this line for the last two decades or so, we at The Sangai Express can be said to be the new kids in block and are not exactly in the position to write something about the evolution of journalism in Manipur, but there are compelling reasons when we really need to look back to the past, if one is to understand how the multi-coloured, 8 or 6 paged newspapers, you get to read with your morning cuppa has come about. And one of the reasons is Sh Gopal Sharma !
In talking about the evolution of the press or media through the years, where does the late Sh Gopal Sharma, or fondly called Eigya Gopal by the present, younger group of journalists, stand ? First and foremost is to acknowledge the fact that the history of journalism in Manipur can never be complete without a mention of Poknapham which he founded and edited till his last breathe on August 9, 2010. Literally starting from scratch, the late Gopal Sharma managed to inch his way up the ladder, professionally and when he breathed his last, he had left behind a newspaper empire, which had managed to carve a niche for itself in the minds of everyone. So how would history place Shamurailatpam Gopal Sharma in the history of journalism in the State ? This is interesting, for the fact that many saw him as more of an entrepreneur and an excellent manager more than a journalist, as understood in the classical sense of what a journalist is. In fact there were times, when journalists, during the rare moments they get together, would opine that it was time for Eigya Gopal to hang up his boots as Editor and solely concentrate on the management. Lest we are mistaken, we go on record to state that there was no malice at all in this observation and in fact it rather demonstrated the concern for the late man, who was also a diabetic and could do without all the headaches, that come in the form of some telephone calls from some hoodlums in the garb of revolutionaries. It was amazing to see, how this man, who made his way to the very top from the bottom most level, was so adept at changing his approach or thoughts according to the needs of the time. So from the letter press, Poknapham, smoothly made the made the transition to modern technology, with computers and printing machineries, that would not have thought of or even dreamt about, when Eigya Gopal first took his step in the field of journalism. The transition from the letter press to the hi-tech printing technology today, could not have come without planning to the last detail. This Eigya Gopal executed perfectly and from a one leafed newspaper, Poknapham, was transformed into an eight paged newspaper with multi-colours and all the features, special columns, etc that go to make a newspaper a complete newspaper. However it would not be doing justice to the late soul, if his entrepreneurial skills are taken into consideration at the cost of his career as a newsman, for the fact stands that all his man-management skills and the keen sense of observation and competitive spirit are qualities, which he could have picked up only as a newsman. Sure Poknapham is our rival in the circulation business, but business is business and has nothing to do with admiring the grit and character of a man like Shamurailatpam Gopal Sharma.