05 February 2011

The Crisis Before Manipur

http://isikkim.com/wp-content/themes/newsikkim/innerthumb.php?src=http://isikkim.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Pradip-Phanjoubam.jpg&q=100&w=349Centre for North East Studies, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia and India International Centre is organising a talk on “The Crisis Before Manipur” by , editor of the Imphal Free Press, one of the most articulate and fearless voices to emerge from the North-east.

The talk will be held at the India International Centre, New Delhi from 6:30 pm on February 9, 2011.

Renowned scholar Sanjoy Hazarika and Saifuddin Kitchlew, Chair and Professor, Centre for North East Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, will be chairing.
Abstract of the talk by Pradip Phanjoubam:
Journalists from the northeast, in my case Manipur, are familiar with the problem of representing issues truthfully in a rather profound way. Assessments of local situations by locals are generally seen as tending towards the subjective and thereby unreliable. The dominant discourse in academic and journalistic writing treats nothing but the empirical and physically verifiable as the standard for identifying and gauging the truth of any claim.
This dilemma is even more acute as the ideologies behind most of the conflicts, at their most fundamental levels, are about secession from India, therefore, anti-national. To write of these movements with sympathy can invite censure, mostly indirect but direct as well. My concern in the past many years have been to try to negotiate with this problem.
How do you tell the story of a deadly, anti-national conflict without foreclosing all subjective, empathetic assessments? My conviction is, the failure of a complete understanding, and thereby diagnosis, of the problems of Manipur and the northeast. The failure has pivoted around the very nature of the essential limitation of the empiricist’s vision – or if I may call it, the bureaucratic approach. To the risk of simplifying overmuch, this approach sees the problem as having everything to do with governance, development, unemployment etc.
Politics too has been, through the years, bought over by this vision. So, there is now hardly any substantive difference between the bureaucratic and political visions. I believe the gravest flaw of this approach to read the situation from tangible indexes only is that it is doomed to miss out on one half of the reality of these conflicts – the subjective, and thereby often intangible reality. My paper will, deal with this issue among others.
About Manipur:
Bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and the states of Nagaland, Assam, and Mizoram; Manupur’s capital is Imphal. The two main physical features of Manipur are the Manipur River valley and the western mountainous region. In 1762 and 1824 Manipur requested British assistance in repelling invasions from Myanmar. The British administered the area in the 1890s. In 1907 a local government took over. A tribal uprising in 1917 led to a new government administered from Assam. In 1947 Manipur acceded to the Indian union. Manipur was ruled as a union territory until it became a state in 1972 after a joint agreement between the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the United Naga Integration Council and the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). The agreement stated: “It is agreed upon that the Congress Party does not oppose the Naga integration movement and does not consider the Naga integration movement as anti-party, anti-national, anti-state and unconstitutional activity.” The integration mainly between the Meities and the Nagas has remained the major issue of conflict over last many decades.
via isikkim.com

Saga Of Unheeded Island Within Land

Government Of India’s Indifferent Attitude Led Some Lands Landlocked In Bangladesh

By SHIB SHANKAR CHATTERJEE

Indian border security force’s jawans are strictly vigil during the visit of Indian former home minister, Shivraj Patil on India-Bangladesh international border at Manikganj village on January 03, 2006 on the issue of various crucial problems of Indian enclaves, which are landlocked within Bangladesh territory and in this context, the peoples (from child to old one) of 4 numbers of Indian villages were gathered and was showing protest and demanded before the home minister of India to include their villages into Indian territory soon, while they are still as Indian citizens but unfortunately lived within Bangladeshi territory and harassed by the Bangladesh rifles and the hooligans time-to-time. (Photo/Shib Shankar Chatterjee) Case Study Number – A :

“….. Look, in the enclaves, forcible occupation is a common incident and it occurs off and on. So, it is difficult to keep either any landed property or the crops of the field under control.

Especially in my case, I can say, I was a permanent inhabitant of the chhitmahal, Kote-Bhajni. I had inherited 128 Bighas of land from my father.  But, I could not enjoy those landed property due to forceful occupation, robbery and plundering.

Once in a winter morning of 1979, one Mr. Ataur Hussain, a well to do landlord of nearby Bangladeshi village appeared before our door along with 14 to 15 Gunda (that is, ruffian or hooligan)s with traditional sharpen weapons and asked me to vacate the land immediately. Seeing this, some village people also came there to enjoy the ‘game’.

Upon enquiry, he told me that I had sold the land and property to him in 4/5 installments. To prove in fact, he showed a registered notebook or document, which was registered in the Haldibari Sub-Register Office under Jalpaigguri district in North-Bengal areas of the Indian State, West Bengal.

The incident unnerved me and I totally forgot to utter a word. The inhabitants in and around our house also got terrified with the incident and they too dared not to tell anything. I did never go to Haldibari except once in my childhood and that too to pay a visit to the local ethnic fair of Hajur.

I went there (my ancestral house) in a body along with several people of our village. However, nobody put any resistance to that illegal attack and occupation and thus we were driven out from of our landed property. I lost my paddy-land, house and property.

After that, I went to Mekhliganj (under Jalpaigguri district in North-Bengal areas of the Indian State, West Bengal) along with the members of my family and took shelter in one our relative’s house. I could not bring anything with us except a few ornaments.

My family consisted of six members, my wife, three sons, one daughter and I myself. Our days began to pass in great hardship.

In the meantime, I sold my wife’s ornaments, which she got during our marriage time and filed a suit against Mr. A. Hussain and his forcible occupation of our land and property in the Mekhliganj Sub-divisional court. It was but a cheating case. The suit continued for last three years and at last, I won victory. But, yet I could not occupy my land and property.

My wife had died. My younger son is a daily-labour, elder son is a Rikshawala (that is, Rikshaw-puller) and I can’t say, what does my second son do.

Anyway, my present address is the camp erected by Public Work Department (PWD) Road near Deshbandhu Colony and my business is to make Kagojer-Thonga (that is, paper-bag) …..”, reminiscences septuagenarian Umesh Rai Barman of  Kote-Bhajni Chhitmahal under Haldibari Police Station (PS) of  Jalpaiguri district in North-Bengal areas of  the Indian State, West Bengal.

Case Study Number – B :

“….. It was the day for the celebration of my marriage. The Bangladeshi PS, Debigonj, under Panchagarh district is just beside my house. The Officer-in-Charge (OC) of that PS along with 15/16 Police personnel suddenly attacked us with guns in hand and musk on faces with a view to robbing of our property.

Seeing this, a few guests of our village fled away. But, the rest of the guests and family members beat right and left by their sticks and the hilts of guns, bound us with the rope and at last kept confined in a room and then started plundering our belongings (including some valuable articles, which were bought for marriage purpose). I stood motionless and stunned.

Truly speaking, we had to live upon threat. We could not eat, drink and sleep peacefully even, for a day. The Muslims often harassed us and our women almost everyday dishonoured and sexually and physically abused them, which compelled us to loss our patience. Therefore, at last we had come here leaving all we had.

Here, we maintain our livelihood in great hardship, breaking stone, working as daily labour or other such unworthy jobs. Although, all these works may not offer happiness but peace at home. As a result, we can at least sleep unprovoked and save the chastity of our daughters, wives and mothers, et cetera.  

But, the question of justice was always beyond expectation. Yet, if we would lodge any complain against any robbery or theft, nothing could happen. On the contrary, oppression or harassment of those people would renew …..”, regretted 55-years-old Keshab Deb Singha of  (01 Number) Dahala Khagrabari Chhitmahal under Haldibari Police Station (PS) of  Jalpaiguri district in North-Bengal areas of  the Indian State, West Bengal.

Case Study Number – C :

“….. I think, especially the women of the Indian Chhitmahals always live in great peril. The ladies from minimum 10-years to maximum 50-years have no freedom to go or move out of the door without the permission of the elders and yet many a time, they cannot preserve their honour.

Lack of security and oppression of the unwanted persons always haunted them. Even everyday, after sunset every women, whether a girl of   teenage, young or aged are require to hit out a plan to protect herself either behind the bush or dig a hole et cetera from the harassment of   the Bangladeshi miscreants. Nobody cannot sleep at night peacefully.

These anti-social miscreants always pass some abusive remarks at our women class. Not only that but they also threatened to kill us.

More of the Story Here

Earthquake Shudders Northeast India

North East region

Shillong, Feb 5 : It was a shuddery Saturday morning for people from the North East as an earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude rocked Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Imphal.

The epicenter of the quake is believed to be the Indo-Myanmar border and occurred at around 7.24 pm, the Central Seismological Observatory reported.

The quake was felt by residents for close to 10 seconds and several buildings developed cracks in the aftermath. No casualties have been reported so far.

While Meghalaya was rocked by a major tremor that lasted for 30 seconds and measured 6.4 in the Richter scale; less low intensity tremors were also reported. The epicenter was located at 24.8 Latitude North and 94.5 Longitude East. Arunachal Pradesh also experienced minor tremors.

Shillong residents felt tremors measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, according to the Meteorological Department. Imphal also suffered the impact with a quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale at 7:24 pm that continued for more than 10 minutes.

Running Rhinos To The Ground

By Saumyadipta Chatterjee & Naresh Mitra

rhino-poachedKaziranga, Feb 5 : Imagine a six-month-old rhino calf desperately nudging his mother to wake her up from her sleep. Once, twice, thrice...the calf keeps at it, becoming tired in the process, but doesn't give up. Despite his repeated efforts, however, mama doesn't respond.

What the baby doesn't realize is that mama will never wake up again. A gang of greedy poachers has shot dead his mother for her horn.

"What does one do with these criminals except shoot them dead?," says a man in charge of protecting the flagship species of Kaziranga National Park.

The bottomline is, or at least it seems, that poachers are targeting the pachyderms in Kaziranga at their will, killing them, chopping off their horns and selling the loot to wildlife traders across international boundaries for huge wads of moolah. But just being trigger happy' is not going to help curb the poachers and save the rhinos of Kaziranga, a World Heritage Site that is home to two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos.

Talk to any wildlife officer deployed in protection of the rhinos, or other animals in Kaziranga, and they all say the thing that worries them most is unabated poaching of the pachyderms in the national park. "It's a million dollar trade. Rhino horns are very much in demand in South-East Asian countries, particularly China. And these poachers are indiscriminately targeting the flagship animal of Kaziranga," admits a senior forest officer.

2010 was one of the "busiest years" for the forest guards of the park. The year was witness to the killing of five rhinos, of which four took place in the Agaratoli range alone. "At the same time, we gunned down five poachers last year. Following our stepped-up operations, 10 poachers surrendered as well. Besides, we have identified 25 poachers and launched a crackdown to track them," says ranger K K Deuri.

According to sources, three-fourths of the park's eastern range border is porous and the poachers, taking advantage of this, sneak into Kaziranga with the help of locals and strike at the most opportune moment.

They kill rhinos and chop off their horns for "prospective buyers". "These poachers normally take the help of locals who have worked at the park as casual workers, especially for construction work. The topography of the park is at the fingertips of these locals. The poachers then hire sharpshooters (some of whom are from Manipur's Paite tribe) and enter the jungle in a small group, normally comprising three persons a local and two Paites or two locals and a Paite," an official said.

But what surprises Deuri is the kind of arms and ammunition these poachers use to kill rhinos. "The poachers carry .303 rifles with them. Where are they getting these guns from? It's a prohibited weapon. One cannot get it easily unless there's some sort of pilferage somewhere. But we are certain about one thing. These guns are modified at markets in Dimapur to be used by the poachers."

The nefarious design of these criminals became quite clear on December 13, 2010. "In the wee hours on that day, my men heard gunshots from a camp at Turturoni Kathoni (in Agaratoli). They laid an ambush and, around 6.45 am, spotted three poachers. They started firing when they saw us. We fired in retaliation; one poacher died on the spot and another suffered wounds in his hip. He later died, at around 8 am," Deuri said.

"When police came along with a magistrate, they found rotis, flattened rice, sugar, water, a silencer of a .303 and a horn on them. But the carcass of the rhino was not found. It was only after six days that we found it at a place about 50 metres from the encounter site," he added.

But the incident that led to Deuri's team recovering the carcass was quite moving. "We first spotted a rhino calf, alone. As a rule, a calf always moves around with its mother. We started following the calf and saw that it was nudging its mother to wake her up. The mother rhino was lying there dead, with her horn hacked. The two poachers that we had shot dead had managed to kill the animal and take away its horn. But they failed to flee," the ranger said.

The second poacher who was gunned down by Deuri and his team was identified as Naren Pegu, a Mishing, and one of the deadliest poachers in the region. "He has been the biggest catch so far. Pegu actually contributed to the making of several poachers. He was a gunrunner and a financer of such poaching attempts. According to reports, he had killed about 30 rhinos since 2006," he said.

Incidentally, Pegu was arrested, along with his accomplices, in June last year. Police had then found Rs 14 lakh on him, a source said. After coming out of jail on bail in September, he had migrated from Agaratoli to Tinsukia. "Since then, he was operating from Tinuskia," Deuri said.

The way Pegu and his likes make money from these rhino horns has also come to the fore now. According to a forest official, immediately after striking in Kaziranga, the poachers' next destination is Dimapur, where they finalize their deals for the rhino horns in some hotels. Once the deals are struck, the horns are smuggled out of the country via the Dimapur-Moreh (Manipur)-Myanmar route. "Unless the administration in Dimapur wakes up and takes some stern measures, we in Kaziranga will continue to fight a futile battle to save the rhinos," the official said.

04 February 2011

UFO 'Filmed Hanging Over Jerusalem'

jerus
The Internet is buzzing over videos of a UFO flying above Jerusalem - but is it an elaborate hoax?

Two different films have surfaced of a glowing ball hanging over the Dome of the Rock.

College Girl Asked To Pull Down Zipper!

By Vikas Kahol

200201899-001A storm is brewing in a dental college of Panjab University over the alleged harassment of an intern by the institute’s director-principal. G.K. Gauba, who heads the Dr HS Judge Institute of Dental Sciences, allegedly asked the girl to pull down the zipper of her pullover to show a slogan on the T-shirt she was wearing underneath.

Though the girl resisted, he forced her to do his bidding. The girl had got the T-shirt as a gift from her US-based cousin. The T-shirt had the slogan ‘I love New York’ printed on it with a heart drawn over the letters.

The girl on Wednesday approached the vice-chancellor (V-C) of the university, R.C. Sobti, for action against Gauba. The principal, however, insisted that she was wearing an “indecent and vulgar” dress.

The incident is threatening to blow up into a big row on the campus. Students and staff alleged that the principal had harassed students in the past also. They went on strike and held a demonstration outside the dental college. A large number of students have also lodged a separate complaint against Gauba. Sobti said he was looking into the matter.

“I have received a complaint from the girl and have constituted a five-member committee to look into the allegation,” he said.

The students were, however, not impressed and alleged that the V-C had patronised Gauba. Sources said the girl felt so humiliated after the incident that she broke into tears and called her parents to the college. They consoled her and met the V-C. Gauba, who is at the institute on an extended deputation from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, maintained that he wanted girls on the campus to dress up in a “sober” manner. He said the intern was wearing a “revealing” outfit and he only asked her to put on some other cloth over it.

The students, however, countered that and said the girl was properly dressed. “Gauba does not have any legal or moral authority to comment on students’ clothes,” a student said. Students alleged that the principal had a history of “harassing girls”. They also accused him of threatening to mess up their careers by giving less marks in internal assessment. This is not the first time that Gauba has courted controversy. A fourth-year student had earlier complained to the Vice-President — who is also the chancellor of the university — against him. She had charged Gauba with making “ advances” at her, but he had denied the allegation.

Sobti refrained from making any comment on the complaint lodged by the victim. He said he had passed it on to the committee for further action. The committee would be headed by the president of the Panjab University Teachers Association and would have four women members, he said. It has been asked to submit its report within 48 hours, i. e., by 5 pm on Thursday. The V- C, however, ruled out any interim action against ’ Gauba, including suspension, and assured that he would not interfere with the functioning of the committee.

Asked why he had summoned the girl’s parents and tried to settle the matter, he said they had come to hand him the complaint letter and wanted him to see the T- shirt the girl was wearing at the time of the incident.

Sobti admitted that there was a complaint against Gauba last year. But in an apparent attempt to defend the principal, he said: “ That complaint was in some different context. The girl could not clear the test at that time. We had conducted a special examination to redress he grievances,” Sobti said. He said he would also ask the committee to find out why Gauba courted such controversies frequently.

Arunachal Pradesh an Integral Part of India: PM

arunachal-pradesh-locationNew Delhi, Feb 4 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that Arunachal Pradesh has always been an integral part of India and will remain so and the Chinese map showing the northeastern state as its part will not change the reality.

This "simple fact" was conveyed by the Prime Minister to a delegation of All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union which met him here yesterday, AAPSU president Takam Tatung said.

"Arunachal Pradesh has always been an integral part of India and will remain so," Tatung quoted Singh as saying.

On the issue of China issuing stapled visa to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, Singh said the Centre was putting its sincere efforts to solve the problem at the earliest.

The Prime Minister said Arunachal Pradesh cannot remain in isolation and the fruit of development should reach there like the rest of the country.

"During my visit to Arunachal Pradesh in 2008, creation of infrastructure in the state had been outlined and our governments both at the Centre and in the state are doing best to accelerate the pace of development," Tatung said quoting the Prime Minister.

The AAPSU delegation also brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the decades-old Chakma-Hajong issue in the state, insurgency in Tirap and Changlang, Assam-Arunachal boundary row and mechanism to monitor proper implementation of all the government schemes in the state, Tatung added.

Mizoram to Push Back 28 Bru Families

mizoram-chakmasAizawl, Feb 4 : The Mizoram government will send back 28 Bru families, who returned to the state of their own will and effort during January, to neighbouring Tripura as they are not enrolled in Mizoram voters' lists, according to officials.

Of the 221 Bru families that returned to the state from relief camps in North Tripura district's Kanchanpur sub-division, 28 could not prove that they were bona fide residents of Mizoram and the government does not have any alternative but to deport them back, claimed the officials. A senior state home department official, who did not wish to be identified, said the identification of bona fide residents was undertaken and completed at the six relief camps and also in various villages in Mamit district along the Mizoram-Tripura border because 221 families returned on their own will to the state without prior identification.

"The criteria for identification of Bru refugees are inclusion in the voters' lists of Mizoram and ownership of job cards under the NREGS and ration cards," the official said. The Young Mizo Association (YMA) branch of Tuidam village in Mamit yesterday issued an eviction order to seven Bru families who "illegally" came and started staying in the village recently, and told them to return to Tripura on or before February 8.

The YMA leaders claimed that the seven families did not belong to the village and were not bona fide residents of Mizoram. Meanwhile, the Mizoram government could not commence the third phase of repatriation of Bru refugees that's due as funds earmarked for the expenses of the project are yet to be disbursed to the Mamit district administration.

The ministry of home affairs has sanctioned the funds but they have not been released, a senior official in Mamit district said, adding that even after the fund is released it has to be routed through the state finance and the home departments.

"We would not be able to disburse the rehabilitation and resettlement package unless the funds are available with the Mamit district administration," he said. Earlier, a meeting of major NGOs in the state urged the government not to repatriate the Bru refugees until and unless the Bru militants eschew violence and lay down arms and also not to allow the return of the refugees without supervision by the government officials.