Mary Kom Opens With Win in World Championship

Bridgetown (Barbados), Sep 11 : Four-time defending champion M C Mary Kom (48kg) began her campaign in style, out-punching Sweden's Lungo Vesenne Natalie 10-1 in the opening round of the sixth World Women's Boxing Championships here.

Dubbed 'Magnificent Mary' by the International Boxing Association (AIBA), Mary Kom was slightly cautious to start with before gaining in confidence to lead 2-0 after the opening round.
The mother-of-two from Manipur built on the lead making it 6-0 in the second round. Mar Kom added four more points to her kitty in the next two rounds to round off a dominating performance.

Her next opponent in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow would be Jenny Smith of Australia.

However, there was disappointment for India in the 54kg category when Priyanka lost 6-10 to Asian Champion Zhang Qin of China.

At the end of the first round, Priyanka trailed 2-4 and never really recovered from the deficit to bow out of the tournament in the opening round itself.

Of Music, Poetry, Roots And Peace

By Ashley Tellis

On an unusually rainy afternoon of an unusually long monsoon in Delhi’s beautiful Jawaharlal Nehru campus, a very unusual concert unfolded. What the state government of Manipur did not do and the central government in Delhi would not do, was done by a young man, Ronid Chingambam, with a guitar in his hand and poetry on his lips.

Since May 1, 2010 and the terrible standoff between the Nagas in the hills and the Meiteis in the valley of Imphal which led to terrible hardships for the Meiteis and deaths and violence for the Nagas in Manipur, the only attempt to bring the communities together was by a group of young Meitei revolutionary poets called Burning Voices, led by Ronid Chingambam.

That he is Meitei is important. Many feel that the step towards reconciliation and peace must come from the more politically powerful Meiteis, who dominate the state in political representation, economic power and territorial anxiety. It is perhaps too much to ask of politicians, for whom these things are way too important, to reach out, beyond self-interest, and hold the hand of the Other and

understand what it means to enter the subjectivity of the disenfranchised. To be sure, that is not impossible to do in the case of

Manipur because the Meiteis suffer a similar othering from the Indian state.  They know what it is to live with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act just as the Nagas, Kukis,

Mizos, Chins and others in the hills know what it is to be classified and re-classified out of their land and their rights by the colonial and postcolonial states.

It was wonderful that it took a poet and a musician to see that the common enemy is the brutal liberal nation-state, and marvellous that joint resistance to it took the form of music that evening. The afternoon opened with the premiere of the remarkable film Songs of Mashangwa, directed by Oinam Doren. The film is about cult folk singer

Rewben Mashangwa who was to be the main performer, closing the event. Mashangwa is well known in the region for his resuscitation of Tangkhul Naga folk music and his blending it with Western music and a contemporary set of influences to produce a unique sound that both does not let go of lost and dying traditions of singing, and looks forward to the world with a capacious and open new sound.

The fact that a Meitei made the film was perfect, the fact that Rewben spoke in Meiteilon in much of it, was even better. But what was most extraordinary about the film was the way in which Mashangwa used folk tunes and sounds, instruments and folklore to keep alive and in motion songs and sounds that most of his contemporary Nagas have forgotten, that have died with the old Nagas of the villages.  No pious sentimentality from Mashangwa, no dead ‘tradition’ sought to be preserved and memorialised, no reverence for the Christian influence that beat the life and vitality out of the folk traditions and sanitised them. This is why, when he speaks of the inner thighs of women smelling of chicken legs, it is not sexism but cocking a snook at the desexualised Church.

This energised, secular, chthonic vitality marked the rap music of the super young and super cool H Kom and the raw, politically

angry rock of the group Imphal Talkies and the Howlers, one of the most radical bands in the region of the Northeast (with Ronid Chingambam as lead singer). As if these two acts were not electrifying enough, there was some stunning guitar to follow by HR Experience, and the god-level lead guitarist Vikram and the even more stunning because more understated bassist Raju.

But the show belonged to the warm, friendly bear-like Rewben Mashangwa and his plucky, little son who could barely pronounce the word ‘reconciliation’ but ably accompanied his father on stage. With local Naga instruments which he makes himself, a guitar and clad in traditional Naga garb, Mashangwa brought another world to the stage in creating magical moments. In Rewben’s own words from his page on myspace: “Being from the Tankhul tribe, the music I play is called Hao music and the main instruments I use when performing are the 'Tingtelia', a traditional violin type instrument which took me seven years to modify to suit what I was doing musically and the 'Yankahui', a long traditional bamboo flute which I have now modified to be more consistent tonally.’’

Growing up like any Northeastern boy, Mashangwa imbibed a lot of influences from the West from reggae to the Blues, from rock to folk rock. As he grew older, an engagement with his own musical culture — the Tangkhul Nagas have songs for everything and, increasingly, they were dying — compelled him to

record all of it. Rewben went on an ethnographic mission and collected all the folk songs he could find, especially from older people in the villages. He learnt to play the particular flute he plays from an old man in his eighties. His anthropological work did not stop at merely creating a new sound mixing Naga folk music and Western blues. He also guides students in the Anthropology Department at Manipur University.

Thus was born Rewben Mashangwa’s particular sound. Even his rendition of Forever Young made it sound more like a Naga folk song than one by that mad Minnesotan with his scratchy voice. Rewben feels very strongly about the issue of the preservation of folk culture, the relationship with one’s language, landscape and roots. Yet, he does not buy into the binary of folk vs modern or folk vs popular. He is not close-minded about influences from outside, and recognises that all musical forms evolve through history, and folk was popular at one point and is in the very texture of the community’s articulation of itself.

Multilayered as it is, it is nevertheless a delicate sound, this sound of peace. Mashangwa and most of the Meitei musicians that evening spoke in general terms of peace, reconciliation and brotherhood. Nothing else would have been possible in this first, tentative move

between two communities brutally polarised by the Indian state. As the last of the sounds wafted out of the auditorium, one wondered if they ever would reach the ears of Parliament in the city or be carried on the wind to Kangla Fort in

Imphal. But as long as voices like Ronid Chingambam’s and Rewben Mashangwa’s exist, there is hope, hope for us all.   

**Ashley Tellis is an academic and can be failedsubjectivity@gmail.com

What God Did Not Do, Delhi TV Crew Did

New Delhi, Sep 11 : "Did you pray to the God here at this temple in the morning to spare you from the Yamuna floods?" thundered the Zee TV reporter, half-submerged in the Pracheen Shiv Mandir complex on the banks of the river in East Delhi.

A TV reporter stands in the Yamuna as people look on from the Old Bridge in Delhi.

Deftly balancing a rainbow umbrella and his camera, the cameraman walked down the steps of the temple to where the reporter was standing, his trousers rolled up to the knees.

The target of the reporter's question was the hapless young priest, Bharat Bhushan, who fumbled and stammered before nodding what looked like a half-yes and a half-no.

But the reporter didn't need an answer, he had one already. "What can God do? The God has drowned," he declared, looking straight into the camera.

The camera moved to the deity who sat in her place with a stone smile on her lips, muddy-brown waterlapping against her feet.

This was just one of the over 20 TV teams that had found perches for themselves and their OB vans along the banks of the Yamuna waiting to record the "catastrophe of sorts", the "10,766-crore-litre deluge", the "moment when cars will start swimming and the city will start drowning".

A young boy splashes water directing it towards passengers of a bus as monsoon rains cause waterlogging on a road of New Delhi. AP

Happy children, with more than enough water to splash around and bathe in, shouted, "Aaj ki Taaza Khabar."

They had all started work early in the morning, primed by some newspaper headlines that the end was near, that it would come around 4 pm.

That the water could cross the 207-m mark, as it did in 1978.

After around 6 lakh cusecs were released into the Yamuna from the Hathni Kund Barrage in Haryana on Wednesday, the river rose to reach 206.03 m by Friday evening -- 1.2 m above the danger mark.

By Saturday morning, it is expected to rise to 206.35 m, and maybe even reach the Ring Road. But the Central Water Commission said it wasn't going to breach the 207-m mark.

A flood-affected resident carries a child as as he wades through floodwater in a slum near the river Yamuna in New Delhi. AP

But those were only facts that came in the way of Friday's lovely TV story.

At 4.03 pm, the deluge didn't come. The reporters looked confused. A reporter from India Live stood valiantly, waist-deep in the river, doing her flood piece.

That was the lowest vantage point. As she stood under the bridge, telling the world that Delhi was about to drown, Pawan Mishra, a slightly puzzled bystander, made an obvious point. "But this is where the Yamuna flows. It is the river's space. Why are they all making it seem as if the river has expanded?" Mishra said.

But Mishra confessed to having played his own part in the tamasha. Somewhat guiltily, he said he had succumbed to the invitation of a young reporter who, speaking in Punjabi, had urged him to roll up his trousers and get into the water. He had done so, but the river had only lapped his ankles.

She had egged him to go farther. But from where they were standing, the river had looked menacing to Mishra. He had chickened out.

Later, he was looking for her.

Commuters travel as it rains heavily in New Delhi. AP

"They are like butterflies," Mishra said. "They skip from one spot to another, stand on the bridge, go down to the river, they do all sorts of things," he said. "I have been watching them for a while. One of them asked me to ask for flood relief on camera. But I don't even live here. I only came to watch the 4 pm deluge." One cameraman said his channel had given him specific instructions to show the water as if it was a threat.

"Of course this is a flood," he said, pointing to a few jhuggis that had been submerged.

"We do what we are asked to do. We will be here late into the night. Yo u never know when the floods will come." In 1978, the river had crossed 207.48 m, affecting over 250,000 people.

But on Friday, when no deluge came, the reporters began to take U-turns. One channel said there was a "Brake on the floods"; one reporter, a cloud over his face, said there was "no hope of floods". His anchor had a ready explanation: a crack in a dam in Panipat was the reason why the flood had got delayed.

A resident wades through rising flood waters as he retrieves his belongings from his room at a Hindu temple on the banks of the River Yamuna, seen through alley right, in New Delhi.

At Boat Club near ISBT, TV crew had hired rickety boats to do their "piece-to-camera" or "walk-through".
Around 74 boats and 68 divers were kept in the standby mode by the Delhi government but at the Boat Club most boatmen made a killing by renting out the boats to TV crew.

A member of a television crew stationed near the Yamuna said the boats could be used for rescue operations with the cameras in them.

The media was doing public service, he said.

In a far corner, Doordarshan reporter Anuj Yadav stood with his team. "We are reporting the truth. There are no floods here. The other media are reporting Delhi will be flooded in 24 hours. This is creating a crisis," he said. "This is Peepli [Live]."

A few steps away from this moral high ground, a young TV reporter climbed on to the roof of a house, adjusted her hair and began to speak. She was out of earshot.

Source: The Indian Express

Mizoram Earmarks Rs 46,610 Lakh For Flagship NLUP

Aizawl, Sep 11 : The Mizoram government has earmarked Rs 46610.90 lakh to implement the ambitious New Land Use Policy (NLUP) for the financial year 2010-2011.

Of this, Rs 23128.70 lakh would be funded under CSS and the remaining Rs 23482.20 lakh under ACA, according to official sources here today.

The sectoral allocation of the NLUP fund was also cleared yesterday.

Rs 1562.40 lakh has been allocated for project management, including capacity building, under Additional Central Assistance (ADA).

Under agriculture sector, Rs 12,340 lakh under CSS and Rs 7,552 lakh under ACA have been allocated for 12,340 beneficiaries.

There are 1,152 beneficiaries in horticulture to which Rs 737.25 lakh under CSS and Rs 5222.75 lakh under ACA have been allocated.

The New Land Use Policy (NLUP) basically aims to help farmers move away from the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation and adopt more sustainable land-based means of livelihood.

About 80 per cent of farmers in Mizoram still depend on jhum cultivation that involves clearing of forests and burning trees, weeds and bamboos.

Bodos Unite to End Violence

By Preetam B. Choudhury

Bodo leaders at the meeting on Friday.

Barama (Baksa), Sep 11 : In a move towards restoring peace in the Bodo belt, several organisations which had earlier been at loggerheads today decided to work together in the greater interest of society.

Braving the incessant rain since early this morning, leaders and representatives from over 26 Bodo organisations attended the unification meeting at Barama College in Baksa to find a solution to end the violence and work for a common cause.

Members of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), the Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF), the United Democratic Peoples’ Front (UDPF), the National Democratic Front Boroland (Progressive), the Ex-BLT Welfare Association, the Boro Women Justice Forum (BWJF), the All Bodo Women Welfare Federation, among others, took part in the conclave.

The Bodoland Peoples’ Progressive Front (BPPF), however, stayed away from the conclave.

Thousands of people gathered at the college ground with the hope that something positive would come out of it.

The meet adopted three resolutions — to form a committee for holding more such meetings, to appeal to the anti-talks NDFB to come forward for peace talks in the greater interest of the Bodo community and to approach the Centre to hold talks with the NDFB.

Terming the move as historic, Bodoland Territorial Council chief Hagrama Mohilary, who is also the president of BPF said, “It is really good to see that we have realised the need to unite and work together. We have many agenda that need collective effort. Let’s usher in a new beginning by forgetting our past differences and work together.”

Echoing Mohilary, NDFB (Progressive) secretary general B. Swmkwr said, “Lack of co-ordination and constructive effort among the Bodo groups have caused immense loss. To forge unity and mutual understanding, we need to forget the past. Our motto henceforth should be to forget and forgive. Let us work together for unity and development and make our dream of separate homeland a success.”

Boro Women Justice Forum president Anjali Daimary termed the unity move as the need of the hour.

Absu presiden romode Boro said unity is a common desire of the Bodo community.

Bodo Sahitya Sabha president Kameswar Brahma also called upon the leaders to end their differences.

“The common people are not idiots. It is the leaders who need to change their views and unite to work in the greater interest of the community,” he said.

Manorama Devi Rape And Murder: Assam Rifles Indicted

Imphal, Sep 11 : In what could be a landmark judgement against the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Guwahati High Court on August 31 this year has authorized the state of Manipur to act on the report of the one man commission in the alleged rape and killing of Manorama Devi by the armed forces in 2004.

"The Prime Minister and the Home Minister must now open the report submitted three years ago in the Manorama killing incident. The Centre went to the High Court delaying the issue.

The report is in a sealed cover. The issue in this case is not about the validity of the Armed forces act. It shows how some section of the Army can use this act to do criminal activities," said Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer.

Justice Upendra Singh who headed the Commission of Inquiry found the security men guilty of excesses.
"The security people do not care for the law of the land," said Justice Upendra Singh.     

The Assam Rifles had challenged the validity of the commission arguing that they are governed under a special act and only the Centre can set up a commission of inquiry not the state.

Six years after Manipur erupted with the defining image of anger against the killing and resistance to the Armed Forces Act this judgment could be crucial in understanding that the Act is meant to aid civil powers and not substitute it.

Except the armed forces almost everyone agrees that the AFSPA requires amendment. It has already been reviewed.

And the judgment may have just come at the right time when the government is has indicated considering dilution of some of the provisions of the Act.

 

One Drowns, 1.5 Lakh People Affected in Assam Floods

Lakhimpur/Golaghat, Sep 11 : One person drowned and around 1.5 lakh people were affected in the flash floods which hit Assam’s Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Golaghat and Sonitpur districts following incessant rains in the upper reaches.

In worst-hit Lakhimpur district, one Govinda Bora drowned in the swollen Sesa river, under Narayanpur revenue circle, after it broke its right bank dyke inundating 30 villages, including Buraburi, Boralopar, Kathalijan and Hingia affecting around 15,000 people, officials said today.

The carcass of a two-year-old rhino calf was recovered from the flood waters inside the Kaziranga National Park’s Gorakali camp area in Golaghat.

Floods due to heavy rains has inundated larges areas of Kaziranga forcing the animals to come out of the national park to move towards the highlands of neighbouring hill district of Karbi Anglong and nearby tea estates for shelter, they said.

Forest officials were patrolling the Park and its vicinity to prevent poaching and for ensuring safety of the animals crossing over to Karbi Anglong. The speed of vehicles on the National Highway passing through the park is being controlled by imposing 144 CrPC.

Singora, Gandhali and Gabhoru rivers had submerged 32 villages in Narayanpur while in Lakhimpur, Ranganadi has inundated 10 villages, including Major Sapori, Bongaon, Gorsinga, Pandhuwa, Dhandharin kathonin, Jorkhat and Baligaon.

In neighbouring Dhemaji, 30,000 people in 60 villages were affected by swelling Siang river in Pasighat of Arunachal Pradesh, Brahmaputra, Thimen and Lali rivers in Assam.

A red alert has been sounded in Dhemaji district as Brahmaputra and its tributaries were rising menacingly and in Lakhimpur it was above the danger level along its course from Arunachal Pradesh due to heaving rains during the last four days, the officials said.

Rivers Kabusapori, Berasapori, Bogorisapori, Borang and Tengajan in Jonai subdivision, and Jiadhol, Gainadi and Kumotia in Dhemaji subdivision in west Dhemaji subdivision were flowing above the danger level.

At Samarajan national highway-52 was submerged by the deluge which also over topped the metre gauge railway track halting the movement of the Arunachal Express and Rangiya- Jonai passenger train to the last rail head Mokokcheleng on the Assam-Arunachal border.

In Sonitpur, eight villages were submerged by the rushing waters of Sesa river at Kolabari area.

The district administrations were providing rice to the affected people, while the National Disaster Response Force was helping in shifting affected people to safer places.

Many people on their own were sheltering on roads, raised platforms and railway tracks, in government schools and offices not yet affected by the floods, sources said.

Health and veterinary doctors with their teams were also attending to the flood-hit people and their domestic animals.

This is the second wave of floods in Assam this year after the first one last month.

Assam Raises Concerns on Big Dams

Guwahati, Sep 11 : Union Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh Friday said he would apprise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about concerns of the people of Assam regarding the construction of big dams in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh.

'I would let the prime minister know about the apprehensions of the people of Assam regarding building of dams in Arunachal Pradesh. This is not just the issue for Assam, this has been an issue for the entire nation,' the minister said.

Ramesh was here to participate in a daylong consultation with various civil society and environmental groups on the issue of dams in the northeast.

'Big dams would lead to catastrophic environmental hazards in downstream areas in Assam. We shall launch a mass movement if the projects are allowed to continue,' Samujjal Bhattacharyya, advisor of the All Assam Students' Union, said.

'Let the government immediately scrap permission for construction of dams in Arunachal Pradesh,' Akhil Gogoi, a farmers' rights leader, said.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several private firms for 10 major hydropower projects to generate an estimated 30,000 MW power in 10 years time.

The state, bordering Myanmar and the Tibet region, has the potential to generate an estimated 50,000 MW of hydropower. Among the major projects currently being executed in the state are the Ranganadi Project, the Subansari Project and the Taloh Power Project.

However, the Arunachal Pradesh government is adamant on continuing with the construction of dams.

'Those who are opposing the move are doing so with some vested interests. There are no environmental issues as experts have cleared the proposals,' Arunachal Pradesh MP Takam Sanjay said.