Governors Who Refuse To Go To Mizoram Should Apologise: Kiren Rijiju

By Sunetra Choudhury

New Delhi, Sep 3 :  Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has hit out at the UPA-appointed Governors who refused to be transferred to north eastern states like Mizoram. While appearing on a special show on NDTV, the minister who is from Arunachal Pradesh said those governors must "apologise to the nation."

"It is a very emotive issue for me. When a person is posted to the North East and he refuses to go there, that person loses the moral authority to speak on equality in the country. If people like governors and IAS and IPS officers will only choose serving in metropolitan and comfortable cities, then they don't deserve to be in their position,'' he said, adding that they should "apologise to the nation and to the people of the North East."

Recently, the NDA government first transferred Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram before sacking her and then sent Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, who publicly admonished the government's decision. "Of course the Rashtrapati (President) has all the powers to transfer a governor, but then I thought it is not convenient...I decided not to go to Mizoram or any other state. I have my right to resign. I was thinking to resign since last three months," he said while explaining his decision to quit.

Since the BJP came to power, it has made it clear that it wants to replace nearly a dozen governors who were appointed by the previous government with its own nominees. Since May, many governors have either quit or have resigned after being transferred.

"Some of the governors are very pro-active. They interact with the people and take part in the developmental process. They are an inspiration to the people. But some of them unfortunately are not up to the mark as expected from the high office,'' he said.

In the same interview to NDTV, Mr Rijiju also indicated that the government was rethinking on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA. Referring to Irom Sharmila, Manipur's social activist who has been on a 14-year-long hunger strike to the demand the repeal of AFSPA from the state, the minister said, "She has created a deep impact. Look at the way she has fought for the cause for so long and i am optimistic that I will meet her."

Prices of Essentials Shoot Up As UNC Imposes Indefinite Blockade From Sep 4

Imphal, Sep 3 : The United Naga Council (UNC) has decided to impose indefinite blockade in Manipur and the national highways from 6 am of September 4 to protest the killing of two persons at Ukhrul district. It has also decided to ban all national projects in Naga dominated areas of Manipur.

During a rally on August 30 at Ukhrul two persons died in police firing and the last rites were performed yesterday at Ukhrul district.

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has announced Rs 5 lakhs ex gratia for the two victims and reimbursement of the treatment of those injured. The blockade is likely to continue until the Union government intervenes and negotiates. People of Manipur went on panic buying after hearing the news of the blockade.

The traders have also suddenly hiked prices of essential commodities. Price of potato reached Rs 40 per kg, onion Rs 45, rice Rs 40 (superfine). Most of the oil depots did not supply petroleum products. Long queues were seen in front of the oil depot which were opened.

The state had yet to experience normalcy due to the stopping of vehicles coming to Manipur due to the crisis in Assam and Nagaland border. Transporters' union had also urged the state government to arrange supply of goods through Imphal Jiribam highway sector as vehicles were often hijacked and drivers kidnapped at Nagaland areas.

Manipur residents often demand complete stoppage of stir on national highways as the state is landlocked and only two highways connect it to the rest of the world.

Besides people are scared of United Naga Council related blockade as it has a track record of imposing blockade for months resulting in unprecedented crisis in the state.

1800km strategic road project on China border put on fast track

The Centre has decided to put the construction of 1800km long strategic road in Arunachal Pradesh on fast track.

The most ambitious strategic border road project till date will join Tawang the western most point in Arunachal Pradesh with the easternmost point of Vijaynagar via Bomdila. The project cost is expected to run close to Rs 25,000 crore.

Overlooking Chinese position along the Himalayan ridge close to the McMahon line the project was envisaged during UPA II regime in 2005, but was hanging fire due to several glitches, including environmental clearances and monetary constraints.

The decision to put the project on fast track came at a meeting held by the junior minister in the home ministry, Kiren Rijiju. Army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag, DG Border Road Organisation and top officials of ministry of environment and forests and road surface transport were also present at the meeting.

The Chinese have already built excellent infrastructure all along the McMahon line putting them in highly advantageous position against Indian interests.

Sources said that the BRO has been asked to get serious about the project or else the project could be opened for the private players.

The ministry of environment and forests has also been asked to get clearances in advance and remove glitches.

"The project is essential for us to connect our far flung and remote villages. We want this project to be completed during the five year tenure of our government," MoS (home) Kiren Rijiju said.

Japan To Aid Connectivity Upgrade in Northeast India

New Delhi, Sep 3 : India and Japan Monday decided to strengthen cooperation for improving connectivity and socio-economic development in northeastern states of India.

According to an Indian government release issued after summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, both sides welcomed the study by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on "regional connectivity between northeast India and the neighbouring countries".

Both sides also welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Export-Import Bank of India and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for enhancing collaboration in infrastructure development between India and neighboring countries and promoting cross-border business activities.

The two sides also decided to strengthen cooperation for improving connectivity and socio-economic development in northeast India, the statement said.

"The Japanese side announced a survey by JICA to identify possible cooperation including road connectivity projects in northeast states of India," the release said.

It said that India appreciated assistance by Japan to the northeastern states including a number of projects in the field of forest resource management and those currently under feasibility studies such as a potential yen loan project for improving water supply in Imphal.

Crimes Against Northeast Indians in Delhi up 270%

By Deeptiman Tiwary

New Delhi, Sep 2 : Though the government has repeatedly said that people from the northeast living in Delhi are safe and that there is no specific targeting of people from the region, government data paints a different picture.

According to the home ministry, in the past three years, crimes in which people from the northeastern states are victims have gone up by 270%.

The data gives credence to observations by the government-appointed M P Bezbaruah committee that people from the northeastern states are racially discriminated against in Delhi. The 11-member committee, formed after the fatal attack on Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania earlier this year, recently submitted its report to the government where it held that 86% of northeasterners living in Delhi had faced some sort of racial discrimination.

Between 2005 and 2013, close to two lakh people from the northeaster migrated to the Capital.

The home ministry data shows that crimes against people from the northeast states increased from 27 in 2011 to 73 in 2013. The crimes that witnessed the highest increase were on expected lines: molestation, rape and hurt. While molestation increased by 177% in the period, rape cases increased from one in 2011 to 17 in 2013.

Although the government claims that it has taken a series of steps to ensure safety of persons from northeastern states in Delhi, in a statement in Lok Sabha — minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju maintained that "it is not a fact people from north-eastern states are being ill-treated in different states of India including Delhi" and that attacks against them were "random" — the Bezbaruah committee has held otherwise.

It said in its report that people from the northeastern states faced more problems in Delhi than in other metros such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. It also said that over two-thirds of women from northeast states had reported that they faced harassment in Delhi.

The government says a series of steps — which include regular police patrolling of colonies where people from northeastern states live as well as race and gender sensitization programmes — have been taken following the death of Tania to ensure the safety of people from the region in Delhi. They will hopefully bear fruit.

‘Fenced-out’ Tribals Yet To Shift To Mizoram

Aizawl, Sep 2 : Despite instructions from the Indo-Bangla Border Fencing Compensation Demand Committee's (IBBFCDC), at least 450 families, mainly from Chakma and Bru communities, are yet to shift to the Mizoram side of the India-Bangladesh border.

IBBFCDC leaders said 450 families, who are living beyond the fence demarcating the border, had been ordered to relocate within the Indian territory. However, the families have not shifted, claiming they had not been able to shift as they have not received any compensation from the government.

"The contractors in charge of the border fencing delayed paying compensation," one of them said, adding that only those whose lands were damaged in the fencing process have been compensated.

Most of the affected people belonged to south Mizoram's Lunglei district and hail from Malsuri, Tablabangh, Bindasora, Silkur, Tipperaghat, Khojoysuri, Bandiasora and Nakuksora villages. Many families have lost their homes, kitchen gardens and cultivable land due to the 319-km-long India-Bangladesh border fence in the Mizoram sector.

UNC Plans agitation over deaths in police Crackdown

By Iboyaima Laithangbam

Imphal, Sep 2 : The dead bodies of two Tangkhuls who were killed in a police crackdown in Ukhrul district on Saturday were eventually buried at Tangkhul Nagalong ground on Monday after a mass condolence meeting there. It was attended by thousands of persons of the district and representatives from other Naga areas.

Meanwhile, a ban on all national projects in the state and vehicular movements was also announced. Besides, the meeting resolved not to accept Rs 5 lakh exgratia announced to each of the families.

A day long meeting was held at Tangkhul Nagalong ground at the district headquarters with the dead bodies kept there. L. Adani, the president of United Naga Council which has been spearheading agitations demanding alternative arrangements for the Nagas in Manipur said that all national projects in the state will be banned. Besides, no movement of vehicles shall be allowed in the Naga areas with effect from 6 a.m. on September 4. The bans shall continue till the union government intervenes to find out an amicable solution.

During the condolence meeting, it was resolved that the exgratia announced by the Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh on Sunday in Imphal shall not be accepted. Both the victims were declared as martyrs. Both of them hailed from Tuinem village about 22 km away from the district headquarters. They were married and both the wives are at advanced stage of pregnancy.

Indications are that if there is no positive response from the government, indefinite economic blockade may be imposed against Manipur.

Give Manipur its Life Back, And Irom Sharmila Her Freedom

By Shiv Visvanathan

Freedom fighter: Irom Sharmila is the most Gandhian figure of this generation

Often a phase, a body, a story of a person hangs like a question mark over a nation; stating things in a way which is unique.

When a young woman called Irom Sharmila decided to fast over a decade ago, the Indian state misread her acts.

They thought they would outlast her, out-think her, slander her, but every shed has a genius which can outwit a coercive state. Over 10 years, Irom Sharmila became a symbolic foil to Army rule, to a state which could not think beyond the Army for any act of policy.

Recently, the District and Sessions court Judge A. Guneswor Sharma ruled that Irom Sharmila could not be arrested because hers was not an act of suicide. Sharmila was fasting but she did not refuse forced feeding. The same judge released her only so that the state could arrest her again.

Normalcy

Reasons of state are more compulsive than reasons of humanity or judgment of law. A fragile woman threatened a nation state and the latter, like a Puglian dog does the predictable, re-arrests her before the people can sense her sense of freedom. Irom Sharmila is the most Gandhian figure of this generation. Like each Gandhian she is uniquely different. She does not weave, she does not spin, the only threats on her are the plastic tubes stuck into her. Her regimen is as rigorous as an ashram dweller, but her home is a hospitable bed guarded by security forces.

Yet there is a joy and laughter no security force can suppress. She openly claims that she is no martyr, no fundamentalist, dying to sacrifice her life, for her life is too precious for that. She wants AFSPA to end so she can marry the man she loves, engage in ordinary things which can make life so meaningful.

She claims she just wants to return to the normalcy of living and refuses to be a monument or a statue to some cause. All she is saying, simply like Simone Weil in Manipur, is: "I have no right to enjoy life when that normalcy, that dream of walking and living without constraint or fear is not available to my people."

She is right. AFSPA is a draconian band against normalcy, a way of freezing life, at 4pm. So that the Army and insurgence can take over Manipur by 6. At 4 you can sense the tension, shops start shutting down, watch woman packing the bundles because the streets have to be deserted at six. This is the obscenity Irom is protesting.

Once you unleash an Army against your own people , the Army gets brutalised and citizens become more vulnerable, democracy dies a ritual death every day, and Delhi does not even give it a footnote as it is obsessed with security. What we have here is an apolitical impasse between an Army that will not risk its soldiers without AFSPA, which gives the demonic powers, and a woman who claims that a people deserve the normalcy of life, livelihood and living.

Over 10 years since her fast began, the struggle of Irom Sharmila reflects a deep need for change in Manipur

One has to go beyond the frozen script. Politics needs the humility to admit it has emasculated the lives of people, not only torturing innocence but destroying the innocence of Manipur. To re-arrest her is the knee-jerk act of a knee-jerk society. India as a society and the BJP as a new regime has to realise first that AFSPA is not the only solution and secondly, it distances other solutions.

Tyranny as order is not an act of problem-solving and sensitive judges and intelligent officers have realised this. I am not quoting seditious documents but reading from the Justice Jeevan Reddy report which needs a second look and time-bound application.

We need peace, and we need to realise that the last thing India needs to do is to behave like Israel and Gaza strip. As a nation, we have to realise law and order is a loaded term. It can be insensitive for the security forces and yet it can also be a beginning of grumbling, but welcoming normalcy.

Today, AFSPA has almost become a frozen contract between the Army and insurgence to freeze politics. Irom's rearrest merely confirms this.

Let us realise that Narendra Modi cannot relate to SAARC till he renews the border areas in the North-east. The two cannot be isolated. To even think so is silly. This is a domain which will open further as a new railway line will be built across Manipur, all the way to Burma and Thailand.

Support

The government has to realise that it is not the middle class in Delhi that wants change. The people in Manipur also do. It needs the humanity which realises that the brutalisation of Manipuri students in South Delhi and devastation of the state may both come from the suppression of Manipur.

Many experts and Army officers will tell you over tea that, "these people are different. They don't understand democracy". Irom's fast is an answer to such illiteracy.

It is the simple wisdom of a woman telling the Army, telling the insurgence that there is a world of life and living beyond them. If that is sedition, let me call it the highest form of patriotism, a patriotism which is a toast to life and which is intensely life giving.

One realises that politics is the art of the possible. Army officers often confess that they can't send the bodies in without AFSPA. I realise that the Army is only the wing of the state. All Irom's fast is asking for is return to politics and to citizenship.

A continued state of emergency desecrates the society and democracy. And this we cannot allow. This is the content of her appeal. It's a prayer to return the normal everyday to Manipuri life.

The writer is a social science nomad