Showing posts with label Articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Articles. Show all posts
25 September 2014

India’s Gateway To The East

By G PARTHASARATHY

Given the shared heritage, there’s tremendous potential for New Delhi to push its economic interests with Yangon

In the minds of New Delhi’s elite, India’s South Asian neighbourhood is made up solely of the seven members of Saarc, even though we share no land borders with three of them. We tend to forget that four of our north-eastern States — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram — share a 1640 km land border with Myanmar. Not only is Myanmar a member of Bimstec, the Bay of Bengal grouping linking Saarc and Asean, it is also our gateway to the fast growing economies of East and Southeast Asia.

While successive leaders of Myanmar, who are devout Buddhists, have looked upon India predominantly in spiritual terms, as the home of Lord Buddha, they recognise that an economically vibrant India provides a balance to an increasingly assertive China. Sadly, we have not been able to take full advantage of either our shared Buddhist heritage by facilitating increased pilgrimages, or used our economic potential effectively to promote our interests.
Changing situation

Ties between India and Myanmar have quietly blossomed over the past two decades. The respective militaries and security agencies of the two countries have facilitated cooperation across the border. This has led to effective action against cross-border insurgencies and narcotics smuggling. Myanmar’s information minister recently reiterated his government’s readiness to crack down on Indian insurgent groups such as the ULFA (Assam), PLA (Manipur) and NSCN-K (Nagaland). India, in turn, has acted firmly against Myanmar insurgents entering its territory.

Myanmar has moved steadily in easing the rigours of military rule since the elections that swept President Thein Sein to power in 2011. The military still has a crucial role in national life, as negotiations are on to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire with 16 well-armed insurgent groups drawn from ethnic non-Burmese minorities. This is no easy task, but is a prelude to negotiations on the highly sensitive issue of federalism and provincial autonomy for ethnic minority areas.

After years of bonhomie during military rule, Myanmar’s relationship with its largest neighbour China is under strain. China’s Yunnan province borders the sensitive and insurgency-ridden Kachin and Shan states in Myanmar.
The China factor

China has helped significantly in building Myanmar’s infrastructure and equipping its military. India’s fears of Chinese bases in Myanmar were not borne out. But differences between China and Myanmar have grown recently, especially on large projects like the Myistone dam, which had to be junked, and a proposed railway line to connect Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal. There is growing opposition to Chinese projects in copper and nickel mining. The sentiment is that China has taken Myanmar for a ride regarding an oil pipeline linking Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal port of Kyaukphu.

There are concerns over Chinese involvement with insurgent groups such as the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa Army. Despite this, border trade across the Yunnan-Myanmar border is booming, reaching $4.17 billion in 2013, against a mere $35 million border trade across the India-Myanmar border, though the “unofficial trade” (smuggling) across this border is estimated at around $300 million annually.

India’s former Ambassador to Myanmar VS Seshadri has authored a report spelling out how India has been tardy in building connectivity through Myanmar to Thailand and Vietnam and securing access for our landlocked north-eastern States to the Bay of Bengal. Our border trade regulations are formulated by mandarins in North Block and Udyog Bhavan who have no idea of the ground situation. They could learn a thing or two from China’s pragmatism — the manner in which it treats the markets with its neighbours not as foreign, but as extensions of its own markets. Opening up such trade will also enable our north-eastern States to meet their growing requirements of rice at very competitive rates.

Unless we learn to look at our neighbours the way China does, bearing in mind the inherent strengths of our economy, we can never match the economic influence of China on our borders in the North-East. The new minister for north-eastern affairs VK Singh has served at length in the North-East. It is hoped he will liberalise procedures and permit trade across borders with Myanmar in currencies traders mutually agree upon. Vehicles should move freely across the borders on roads through Myanmar, to Thailand and Vietnam.

Moreover, the “Kaladan multimodal corridor” linking our north-eastern States through the port of Sittwe in Myanmar will be useful only if Sittwe becomes the key port for India-Myanmar trade. India has done remarkably well in human resource development projects in Myanmar. It has played the lead role in the establishment of the Myanmar Institute of Information Technology, an advanced centre for agricultural research and education, an agricultural university and welcomed many Myanmar professionals for training in its medical and engineering institutions.
Tardy record

But we would be less than honest if we did not admit that in project and investment cooperation, our record has been tardy. After having secured exploration rights for gas in the Bay of Bengal, we conducted our project planning and diplomacy so clumsily that we did not have a strategy ready for taking the gas to India through a pipeline across Myanmar and our North-East, or for transporting it as LNG. China deftly stepped in and took away all this gas by expeditiously building a pipeline to Yunnan province.

In the mid 1990s, Myanmar offered us hydro-electric projects with a potential of over 1,000 MW across rivers near our borders. We took years to scrutinise these projects, which companies in South Korea earlier offered to construct. After nearly two decades we backed off. Our private companies too not been able to avail offers of land for plantations across Myanmar.

India was offered hundreds of acres of land for agriculture and for bamboo plantations for making paper pulp, close to its borders. Two private sector companies signed MoUs with Myanmar counterparts. But Myanmar officials found our private sector to be more bureaucratic than our government. India lost access to huge bamboo resources which went to a Thai company that clinched a deal in weeks — something our companies could not achieve for nearly two decades.

The writer is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan
04 September 2014

Running Like The Wind

By Sudipta Bhattacharjee

There is a jinx on Mizoram. Or rather, its picturesque Raj Bhavan. Why else would four people in a row opt out of its gubernatorial joys in a matter of weeks?

Situated in the heart of the state capital, Aizawl, the Raj Bhavan, more compact than its sprawling counterparts elsewhere in the region, was built in 1899. Since then, it has undergone structural changes, but continues to hold pride of place, surrounded by the secretariat and the legislative assembly on the northern side, Republic Veng (a civilian residential area) on the east and a small children’s park, maintained by the forest department, to the west. It is certainly not this panoramic campus that is making governor-designates resign in a hurry.

Shortly after the National Democratic Alliance came to power, there began a scramble for resignations by governors appointed during the United Progressive Alliance regime. B.L. Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), M.K. Narayanan (West Bengal), B.V. Wanchoo (Goa), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), V. Purushothaman (Mizoram) and K. Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra) set the trend, followed by Sheila Dikshit, who was appointed the governor of Kerala in March, just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and months after losing power in Delhi.

When Purushothaman left Aizawl, Kamla Beniwal, who had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister, was shifted from the western state to Mizoram. After the NDA government came to power, she was sacked her for ‘misuse of office’ and Sankaranarayanan was chosen. He publicly criticized the decision. “[The president] has all the powers to transfer a governor, but then I thought it is not convenient... I decided not to go to Mizoram,” he announced.

Big mystery

The next name to do the rounds was that of Sheila Dikshit. First she met the Union home minister, Rajnath Singh, and the president, Pranab Mukherjee, in Delhi on hearing the plans to transfer her to Mizoram, and said she would resign if the government took such a decision. Last week, Dikshit resigned, claiming: “I did what my heart said I should do.”

While Mizoram awaits a new entrant to grace its Raj Bhavan, the Union minister of state for home, Kiren Rijiju, has hit out at the governors who refused to be transferred to that state. Hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, he has taken the matter to heart. In a recent interview, he said: “It is a very emotive issue for me. When a person is posted to the Northeast 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 added that such people should “apologize to the nation and to the people of the Northeast.”

Postings in the region are often considered a ‘punishment’ because of problems of militancy, lack of infrastructure and facilities as well as the difficult terrain. But Mizoram has been an “oasis of peace” since 1986. It has an airport nestled amid blue hills, a fairly decent road network and a friendly people. Its Congress government is headed by a veteran leader, Lal Thanhawla, not known for crossing swords with the occupant of the Raj Bhavan. The state is culturally resplendent and unlike others in the region, dissidence, horse-trading and the juggling of chief ministers (situations when the governor galvanizes into action) is almost non-existent.

With no visible reason thus far to not accept the gubernatorial post, one wonders if the two historic wooden cannons, installed in 1979 at the gate of the Raj Bhavan, hold any clue to the mystery of the reluctant governor.
03 September 2014

What Course Must India’s Rice Import Take?

By Tejinder Narang

Importing rice for Tripura and Mizoram doesn’t seem easy, but it is also a $450 million opportunity for trade.


For the first time, FCI is compelled to import rice for the north-eastern states of Tripura and Mizoram, owing to temporary interruption in railway lines rather than lack of availability of rice. Monthly consumption of these two states is 40,000-50,000 tonnes, or about half a million tonne per annum.

Indian Railways is commencing gauge conversion of a 220-km track from Assam to Agartala (Tripura) from October 1, 2014, while the highways in the region are in a shoddy state. Imports for the next two years—about 1 million tonnes—through alternative routes are a necessity rather than an option. Also, due to absence of trucking-worthy cross-border routes, imports may have to be diverted through the Chittagong port in Bangladesh.

The current cost of procuring Indian rice is R2,755 per quintal and despatch expenses are R3,200 per quintal to Tripura from north or south of India. It totals R59,550 per tonne, or about $975, as against the $375-385 per tonne landed value of 25% broken Myanmar rice if supplied through Yangon port to Chittagong. After accounting for unloading at Chittagong, transit storage, shortage, demurrage, road transport of about 200 km to Agartala, financing charges, etc, it should not cost more than $450-460 per tonne delivered at the FCI depot in Agartala. A 0.5 million tonne import will be approximated at about $225 million (R1,370 crore) per year versus the R2,977 crore incurred under local arrangements. The apparent cost saving is 55%. But it is going to be logistical and procedural nightmare to handle this import.

FCI is attempting to engage three PSUs (PEC, MMTC and STC) for this import while they are not well-versed with the scope of the work involved. Normally, these PSUs finalise bids, contracting and shipments to Indian shores, hand over grains to FCI and transfer payments to foreign suppliers. But, in this case, Indian PSUs may not be able to deal effectively with customs/phyto-authorities of Chittagong, handling agents and transporters of Bangladesh. Port authorities in Chittagong can delay berthing/discharging vessels for India-bound cargo due to their own local priorities. Trucks can be in short supply as a 25,000-tonne parcel requires 2,500 trucks (10 tonne per truck). Agreements by rice handling agents or transporters may be breached. Pilferages may be attempted both during storage and transit. Even Bangladesh’s own wheat imports have 2-3% short-landing as a routine occurrence, for which they deduct payments of shippers.

There is no government company in Myanmar that can transact 0.5-1 million tonnes of rice; private players of Myanmar lack export financing and are happy doing container business. Myanmar’s annual rice export is around 8,50,000 tonnes. China is currently a major importer of its rice. If India chips in with its annual demand of 5,00,000 tonnes, rice prices can witness steep rise. FCI may, therefore, include other origins like Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia for evaluation of bidding and provide an option to supply these origins if commercial feasibility from Myanmar is eroded.

Global rice traders who can participate in this import are based in Singapore, Dubai or Bangkok. But will they be ready to undertake comprehensive operation for shipping rice from Myanmar or elsewhere, clearance at Chittagong, and then arranging despatches to Tripura at “fixed cost” to FCI/PSUs? That alternative must be explored.

There are three options for the government. First, import through PSUs if they are prepared to perform totality of operation themselves by disbursing actual expenses incurred by them. Second, let PSUs configure the bidding process where the foreign suppliers takes the full obligation at a “fixed price” for origin at Myanmar or elsewhere, for delivery at Agartala and builds in the risk premium for Bangladesh while the PSUs disburse the amount to them in two stages. Third, FCI issues a global tender in which PSUs and other foreign sellers bid and compete for delivery at Tripura from any origin and any route at a fixed price. The assurance of Bangladesh giving transit facilities to the Indian government must form an integral part of the tender document. The second alternative may be more practical.

The combined business of about two years is about $450 million and its extension to third year cannot be ruled out. The quantum and pace of import tendering depends upon urgency at Tripura and commercial considerations. Will overseas rice traders see this as an opportunity?

The author is a grains trade expert.
01 September 2014

Give Manipur its Life Back, And Irom Sharmila Her Freedom

Freedom fighter: Irom Sharmila is the most Gandhian figure of this generationBy Shiv Visvanathan


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
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

Cowards Against The Brave

By Garga Chatterjee

It is not accidental that there are four lions staring down at anyone who might take the Satyamev at face value.


 

Certain truths are always hidden from public attention. Hence, beyond the affected victims, they do not form a part of public memory. In the year 1966, when the Indian Air Force was bombing large parts of Mizoram, including the present capital city of Aizawl, many Mizos were desperately trying to seek refuge to save their life. The sanitised term “collateral damage” was not in vogue back then.
Those were not the days of precision bombing. That there is no such thing called precision bombing even now is evident from Gaza to Baghdad, where those who claim precision in targeting undesirables provide a rich harvest of dead non-combatants.

When the Mizos were getting bombed with the kind of discrimination and precision using incendiary bombs that only an Air Force raised on Gandhian ideology can provide, many of the bombed people must have had a lot of thoughts rushing through their heads. It is my suspicion that some of thoughts were not exactly ones of affection towards the Union of India.

Legally, sedition involves incitement of disaffection towards the state. It is not entirely impossible that some Mizo fathers and mothers incited their daughters and sons to be disaffected towards the powers that were bombing them. And in doing so, they became serious criminals under the law of the Indian Union’s land.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had famously proclaimed that affection for the state (the Union of India in the Mizo case) could not be manufactured or regulated by law. However it is quite possible to create a situation where the grandchildren of bombed people are made to turn out in smart saffron, white, and green uniforms for August 15 festivities in Aizawl.

School children under the watch of armed personnel seem to be a favourite setting for affection manufacturing activities. Smiling children. Happy nation. Waving flags. Zero sedition. No one is a bigger criminal than a state that uses its armed might against civilians it considers to be its own citizens. Incidentally, Mizoram shares a border with the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Some things don’t change – the name of the aggressor and the victim may change.

Like most black laws that an anxious nation-state uses to curb anything that tries to puncture its mythology and glorious creation story, the axe is typically used to shut up those who try to adhere to the official Hindustani slogan “Satyamev Jayate” (truth alone prevails). It is not accidental that there are four lions staring down at anyone who might want to take the Satyamev pronouncement at face value.

Very often, the lions go out to hunt in packs. Too many undesirable people, whose remains will never be found, know this well. That is how much of the instant justice for sedition is meted out. It is only when a relatively powerful person breaks the silence that the lions seem unsure what to do. They roar, but don’t bite.

Recently, there has been uproar against a member of the Indian Union parliament, and said member’s comments are said to have been “seditious.” Kalvakuntla Kavitha, a Telengana Rashtria Samithi member of parliament, allegedly said: “Jammu and Kashmir, and Telangana were both forcefully, and at the same time, annexed to the Indian Union. When I say I feel strongly, it’s because we were both separate countries, but were merged with the Indian Union after Independence. In 1947, we were not a part of India.”

Her father is the elected chief minister of Telengana, a newly established state whose contours resemble in a large way the Nizam of Hyderabad’s erstwhile dominion. Her father’s stature, her MP status, and the reading down of the sedition law in 1962 will ensure that no harm comes to her as far as the sedition case is concerned.

The hunted have always outnumbered the hunters, and anything that puts the focus back on the hunted expands liberty. There is no space for naiveté at the level of a parliamentarian, but even with its cynical calculation and political intent, whatever opening is provided, ought to be cherished and celebrated. Only rarely do the contradictions between the powerful come to the fore – when it comes to the origin myths of a nation-state like the Indian Union.

What is left unsaid in the slogan “truth alone prevails” is “when.” Does truth prevail by its own merit as if my magic, is it allowed to prevail strategically to earn points for openness so that more damaging truths can be suppressed?

Section 124(A) of the Indian penal code deals with sedition. Sedition is a law for the powerful against the powerless, of the anxious against the confident, of fiction against fact, of the rulebook against dreams, of the coward against the brave.

An anxious nation-state fears plebiscites. A humane state embraces the people’s will. People who expose origin myths as well as the crimes of the government under whose jurisdiction they live are typically targeted as seditious. They disrupt the long lullaby of the non-violent creation of India and Indians. To consider a nation-state and its political mythology holy is a slur to the sacred – the kind that predates all man-written books, laws, and constitutions.

We must all be fearful of lions because a beast that has tasted blood does not rest even when it is not in the jungle. The shrillness with which K Kavitha has been demonised only shows the weak and tense foundations of the India-making project. And she hasn’t even gone halfway down the path of the parliamentarian, the departed GG Swell, who showed bomb-covers in the Lok Sabha when patriotic tricoloured lions refused to own up to their aerial hunt in Mizoram. Lions love Section 124(A). As long as the hunter holds sway about the story of the hunt, sedition laws will remain. The browns are an unfortunate people.
27 August 2014

Assam Sinks Into Anarchy

A NEW FORMAT NEEDS TO BE DEVELOPED IF BORDER DISPUTES IN THE region CAN NO LONGER BE RESOLVED BY OLD METHODS, SAYS PATRICIA MUKHIM


Any of the North-eastern states have been carved out of Assam, with which state Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh have simmering border tensions. While Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh have been, and are at the receiving end of the Assam police in border skirmishes, the people of Nagaland along the borders of Merapani and Golaghat have defended their territory with a belligerence that is unprecedented. They are dismissive of the Assam police’s attempts to cramp their style. In fact, it is interesting to note that the Nagas have been able to inflict casualties on the neighbouring state on several occasions but the latest border flare-up has resulted in a huge toll for Assam.

The chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland, Tarun Gogoi and TR Zeliang,  were summoned to Delhi by the Union home ministry to discuss the matter. Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has been told to sort things out between the two states. Now this is an interesting development. Gogoi is a senior Congress leader and was a Union cabinet minister at one time. That he should be summoned to the national capital and be told to speak to a junior minister could not have been music to his ears. Of late, Gogoi has been at the receiving end of public criticism after the inability of the state police to control mob violence, thereby leading to three unnecessary deaths.

Gogoi has not been on top of thing for some time now. Dissidence within the Congress and the government had gained ground and a leading cabinet minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, resigned in protest after the parliamentary elections when the Congress did poorly. The party high command, however, does not have the grit for any change of leadership in Assam at this juncture, since Gogoi is an old faithful while his bete noire, Biswa Sarma, is a young Turk whom the high command has not learnt to trust.

In any case, the Congress at this juncture is too burdened by its own existential dilemma. It has neither the time nor the inclination to mess up with Congress chief ministers. But this is precisely the problem with Assam. Gogoi is no longer the most popular leader who has the confidence of the public. The election of seven BJP members of Parliament out of 14 was a verdict against the Congress and the Gogoi government and its litany of failings. Barring the voters of Kaliabor, who opted for Gogoi’s son, Gaurav, the large majority of people have no more patience for a government that has evidently failed to provide governance.

Like every other politician in the party, Gogoi, too, is promoting dynastic politics. Gaurav Gogoi, a foreign returned heir to the Assam throne, had contested the parliamentary elections and won the seat despite the general poor performance of the Congress. He is very active on social media and, following his Facebook posts, one can gather that he is not exactly popular among his peers. They are seeking accountability from the father-son duo. They are fed up with the alibis trotted out by the chief minister each time there are incidents of killing and communal violence in Assam. The border skirmish with Nagaland is just one of the many problems Taun Gogoi is facing and it seems like he is a tired man who is fire-fighting on several fronts without trusted lieutenants who can take flak for the government. Add to this the fact that Biswa Sarma could be using his clout to create problems for Gogoi on different fronts.

And while Assam is in a state of near anarchy with the government looking like a lame duck (not taking the blame for what has happened in the state but blaming the Modi government at the Centre for not stepping in with Central forces to control the recent rioting), the Congress is also looking at largescale dissidence in the next assembly elections, due in 2016. Just as the party high command is in denial about most things and has refused to take steps to address the reasons for its recent rout, Gogoi, too, lives in a state of denial about most things happening in Assam and the failure of his government machinery. When he appears on local television channels he is utterly dismissive about the rising tide of public anger against his government and says that other states also have similar problems so Assam does not fall into a special category as far as such problems are concerned. What he has failed to appreciate is that people elect a particular government because they expect it to deliver on a few key areas of their lives such as water and sanitation, safety and security, good communication networks to their villages, agricultural support, etc. These have evaded Assam in the three tenures of the Congress-ruled government and people want change — if only to see whether other parties can deliver. As for the border clashes between Assam and its neighbours, the problem can no longer be allowed to fester. In fact, proper research might throw up interesting evidence about the link between the claims for a greater Nagaland — the long standing demand of the NSCN(IM) and the belligerence of the Naga people settled along the Assam-Nagaland borders. Now that the Modi government has taken over at the Centre, most states want to draw his attention to their long standing grouses.

There is a tendency to push the border talks to chief secretary-level officials of the states in conflict. This has not proved to be too effective, going by the Assam-Meghalaya model that has remained intransigent. Other methods and strategies are needed at this point in time. There have been suggestions from experts in the Central government that disputed areas should be turned into special economic zones, health hubs or educational centres that would benefit people from both sides of the border. This suggestion has not received traction. Perhaps it is time for the Union ministry of home affairs to step in and come up with tangible action plans to avoid future inter-state boundary skirmishes that take a toll on human lives.

People living along the borders often suffer the most neglect since development evades them most of the time. If we look at the Assam-Meghalaya border for instance, people on both sides tend to gravitate towards the state that offers them more options in terms of communication, security and recognition. Meghalaya has not been able to develop roads to take governance to the last mile. The Assam government, on the other hand, has been quite active along the border. It’s a different matter that Assam has settled people of Nepali origin in the Langpih areas and they have taken up very aggressive posturing.

A new format needs to be developed and border disputes can no longer be resolved by old methods. There is need for a new line of thinking. I doubt, however, that the Gogoi government has the time and energy for that. It is fighting too many battles on several fronts and the aggression will only intensify with the onset of the next assembly elections.

THE WRITER IS EDITOR, THE SHILLONG TIMES, AND CAN BE
CONTACTED AT patricia17@rediffmail.com

How Assam-Nagaland Border Dispute Became A People Versus History Problem

By Simantik Dowerah

Shops, offices and educational institutions are open in Assam's Golaghat town as it limps back to normalcy after witnessing major clashes between civilians and police on 20 August resulting in the death of three people and many injured.

Ironically, the clashes happened during a protest against police excess. At the core of these clashes was the Assam-Nagaland border turmoil which got sidelined because the attention shifted to police violence rather than on the contentious border issue.

Today, 780 families of 16 villages at Sector 'B' at Uriamghat in Assam's Golaghat district, whose houses were burnt down by NSCN-KK cadres who illegally crossed over to Assam, lead an uncertain life at the ill-equipped relief camps. They stare at a bleak future as the state government provides no solid assurance to secure them, and their homes have already been destroyed. As of now, they do not have the courage to return to their homes because they fear being targeted by Naga insurgents.
In their latest wave of attack, 16 people lost their lives. This is not first time that Assam has lost its people to Naga miscreants. In two big attacks in January 1979 and in June 1985, Naga militants. allegedly with support from the Nagaland Police killed nearly 100 people in the Golaghat district including Assam Police personnel.

Shops get opened after curfew was relaxed from 6 am to 12 noon in tension-gripped Golaghat on Friday. PTI
Shops get opened after curfew was relaxed from 6 am to 12 noon in tension-gripped Golaghat on Friday. PTI
Officially, Assam and Nagaland share a 434 km boundary after the latter was carved out as an independent state in 1963. However, Nagaland has been encroaching on vast swathes of land in the upper Assam districts of Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat since then. Over 60,000 hectares of Assam forest land is under the occupation of Nagaland where schools, health centres, churches and other facilities have sprung up with the direct help of the Naga government. Violence is used a method to scare away the residents after which a methodical occupation begins. Helpless in front of the aggressive Nagas and owing to Nagaland's refusal to accept the constitutional boundary, Assam has also knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court but the verdict is still awaited.

"Both the Centre-appointed Sundaram Commission (1971) and the Shastri Commission (1985) had ruled in favour of Assam. But Nagaland rejected the recommendations of both these panels. For administrative convenience, the Britishers had way back in 1925 demarcated a boundary between Assam and Nagaland. But Nagaland started behaving aggressively after the state was formed in 1963. The first clash happened at Assam's Kakodoonga Reserve Forest in 1965," professor in Sociology, Tezpur University Chandan Kumar Sharma told Firstpost.

Different bodies in Nagaland often refer to history to fortify their claim on the land that officially belongs to Assam. But the reference to history is hotly contested.

"The Nagas are seeking a historical boundary but there is no evidence to prove it. The Ahom kings gave land to Nagas for agriculture but the ownership of the land always belonged to the state. During the Ahom rule, the Nagas were entrusted with the responsibility to look after peace in areas which were located further south of the Ahom capital. There is no documentation on the basis of which Nagaland can claim the land as theirs. The border in the days of Ahom rule was not a hard (fixed) one. It was converted into a hard one from soft by the Britishers (in 1925)," Sharma said.

In a memorandum submitted to the Supreme Court-appointed Local Commission on Assam-Nagaland border issue on 20 August 2007, the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) also came down heavily on the historical "distortion" of boundary the Nagas were carrying out. It said: "Every year the Naga chiefs with large revenue came down to the Ahom capital to pay tribute. It was then only the Nagas would enjoy products of the khats (land). Unless they came and paid tribute in kind to the Ahom kings, the Naga chiefs were not entitled to enjoy the khat and fishing lake. A refractory chief was not allowed to come down and thus he forfeited the products of the khats. According to the British records, there had been some 25 khats along the foot of the Naga Hills but within the Ahom kingdom.

"It is unfortunate that the Nagas have distorted this historical fact by explaining the khats as "taxes" paid by the Ahom kings, whereas the khats were landed estates, granted by Ahom kings to certain villages or clans of Naga in consideration of services. The khats were cultivated by a class of men called paik who were subjects of the Ahom kings. Even during the British period, the khats were treated as valid revenue grants and were still cultivated by tenants. However, these were managed by the Katakis. These katakis were employed by the British officials as intermediaries in their dealing with the Nagas. In the Ahom period, the Katakis were appointed by the Ahom king. During the British period, the Katakis were appointed by the British. All Katakis were Assamese, not Nagas."

Assam's border plight is not limited to Nagaland alone. Clashes are also common on the Assam-Meghalaya and Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. On 29 January this year, armed groups from Arunachal Pradesh attacked Chauldhuwa village at Behali Reserve Forest village in Assam's Sonitpur district killing 10 people and injuring eight. Major clashes also occurred at the Assam-Meghalya border in January 2011. The state also shares its boundary with Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
Border conflicts that Assam has with most of its neighbours is due to the fact that all these new Indian states belonged to the erstwhile Assam Province. It was created by the British in 1911 after the partition of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Provinces. Shillong was the Assam capital before Meghalaya became a separate state. Assam was first separated from Bengal in 1874 as per the 'North-East Frontier' non-regulation province by the British. Then it became a part of Eastern Bengal in 1905 and became an independent province in 1911.

"Before these hard boundaries were set up to collect tax, the natural resources on the border areas were all common," Sharma said.

"The Britishers began tea plantation in a massive way by destroying vast forest areas. The tea gardens were prohibited areas and no trespassing was allowed. In fact, this was the first step that disconnected the Naga tribes living on the hills from the rest of the population on the plains as the tea gardens blocked most of the paths which were in use to transit between the hills and plains for generations," he said.

Not only had the tea gardens created a gap between the hills and plains but they also made the Nagas realise that by owning tea gardens they had the chance of becoming farm-based entrepreneurs. What the Nagas have been eyeing for decades are also profits from tea farming. Geographically speaking, Nagaland is cradled on the Naga Hills which are part of the Arakan range or Rahkine range. Due to the hilly terrain, farming has always been a challenge on the slopes. In this context, tea cultivation has also made the ongoing Assam-Nagaland border strife an economic one. In fact, many small and illegal tea gardens have already come up in the disputed region under Naga ownership.

Security personnel patrol in the streets of tension-gripped Golaghat town after curfew was extended till 6PM on Friday. PTI
Security personnel patrol in the streets of tension-gripped Golaghat town after curfew was extended till 6PM on Friday. PTI
"They are seeking land in the plains. Those who are seeking land in plains for farming are mostly the elite class in Nagaland. In fact, they are allegedly using illegal migrants from Bangladesh as cheap labourers to work in the tea gardens. The Nagas are also shifting their attention away from their traditional jhum cultivation," the professor said.

But this practice has come up with its own set of problems. Now the Bangladeshi population has gradually swelled in the area leading to confrontations between them and the Nagas regarding ownership of land. Add to that jobless workers of nearby tea gardens have also settled down in these places which are largely reserved forests.

"Many Assamese families who live in these reserved areas have lost their property in some other parts of the state due to recurrent erosion and floods. As the government has no rehabilitation policy for them, these people have to fend for themselves," Sharma said.

N Venuh, associate professor in the department of History and Archaeology, Nagaland University shared a different perception on the issue.

"The real people of Assam and Nagaland living in the region do not have any differences on the boundary. It is the increasing number of Bangladeshi migrants and Adivasi immigrants that is causing the problem. Earlier these Adivasis were tenants of the Nagas but now that they have started claiming the land as theirs. Some unscrupulous elements took advantage of the situation and made it an Assam-Nagaland border dispute," Venuh told Firstpost from Lumami in Nagaland's Zunheboto district.

He also blamed the Assam government for allegedly indulging in electoral politics.

"They want these people to settle there and take electoral benefits out of them. They actually want to protect these people at the expense of the original Assamese and Naga people who are the original inhabitants of the region. The real people are very clear about the boundary. The border dispute has been enforced upon us for political reasons. No one from Nagaland is encroaching. In 2007, a joint team of 27 civil organisations both from Assam and Nagaland had toured the entire region and found that there is no dispute on the ground," he said.

However, Sharma did not agree with Venuh that there is no encroachment from the Nagaland side. He pointed out that beyond the economic purview the expansionist mentality of the Nagas, particularly of its insurgents, has become a reason of great concern for Assam.

"The demand for a Greater Nagalim has only found favour from successive state governments in Nagaland. It is a fact that the NSCN cadres, no matter to which faction they belong to, roam freely with weapons and the Nagaland government conveniently looks away. Unofficially, it is quite apparent that the Nagaland government is behind this land gain mission. Unless Assam embarks upon strong policies to protect its borders from encroachments, this would continue unabated. There is also need to stop the appeasement policy towards Nagaland. It is still unbelievable that Assam gifted Dimapur to Nagaland whereas it rightfully belonged to the Dimasa tribe," Sharma said.

It is obvious that both the states are using the circumstances on the border as per their convenience.

"If the both the governments are sincere to resolve the dispute and if they take the real people into confidence the problem should be solved in the future," Venuh said.
But there is a catch. Who are the 'real people'?
26 August 2014

Rethinking Impunity

By Bunker Roy
The Centre has not only shown a lack of will and courage to dispense with this act, but even blocked a debate on it. ( Source: AP )
The Centre has not only shown a lack of will and courage to dispense with this act, but even blocked a debate on it.

Why it may be time to revoke the AFSPA in areas like Manipur.

Gandhi (1982), an epic but intimate biographical film, was Richard Attenborough's greatest triumph.
The release of Irom Sharmila from custody and her subsequent arrest have again raised the issue of whether the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act should remain in force in areas like Manipur. For some time, the chief minister of J&K has asserted that his state can do without the AFSPA. In Manipur, Sharmila has been on hunger strike for 14 years, demanding that this controversial and draconian law be repealed.

Neither the UPA nor the present government has paid any heed. What is so special about this law and why are all governments so reluctant to do away with it? It provides the authorities with a shortcut to assume certain repressive powers that are not normally available to them in a democratic society. It gives commissioned as well as non-commissioned officers of the armed forces special powers to deal with law and order situations in areas notified by the Central or state government as “disturbed”. These special powers include the right to use force, even to cause death; arrest without a warrant; destroy shelters, camps, structures, arms dumps; enter and search without a warrant. But neither the AFSPA nor any other law defines what constitutes a “disturbed” area.

The AFSPA, originally intended as a short-term measure, has remained in force for decades in states like Manipur. Despite tremendous public agitation in that state, the Centre has declined to repeal it, even though there is considerable evidence that it has led to gross violations of human rights. A number of committees, like the Jeevan Reddy Committee and the Santosh Hegde Committee, have clearly indicted the armed forces for gross violations of human rights and recommended the repeal of this exceedingly harsh law.

An argument often put forward by the government and army in support of the law is that the Supreme Court upheld its constitutional validity in the 1998 case, Naga People’s Movement of Human Rights vs Union of India. A law may be constitutionally valid, but that is no guarantee against misuse. The Pathribal fake encounter case of March 2000 and the alleged rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama Devi, a 34-year-old Manipuri woman, in 2004 by armed forces personnel are only two of the many examples of such misuse.

The army also asserts that the majority of complaints of human rights violations against its personnel are false. The problem with this type of argument is that most complaints are investigated and tried by the army itself. It has shown considerable reluctance to hand over such cases to the civil authorities or courts. It is only at the intervention of higher courts that the army has been forced to hand over some cases to outside investigating agencies like the CBI.

The AFSPA provides protection to armed forces personnel working under it, as no prosecution can be launched against them without sanction from the Centre. Civil rights activists have often complained that this gives them impunity. This argument is not very convincing because even if this provision is removed from the act, members of the armed forces will continue to be covered by Section 197 of the CrPC, which debars courts from taking cognisance of any offence alleged to have been committed by them without sanction from the Centre.

The Centre has not only shown a lack of will and courage to dispense with this act, but even blocked a debate on it by suppressing Justice Reddy’s report. Last year, the then Union finance minister, P. Chidambaram, even expressed the helplessness of his government to revoke the law because the army was against it. This is a country where the army is supposed to work under civilian control and decisions like imposing or revoking a particular law have to be taken by the government, not by the army. Chidambaram should have found a different argument to explain the Centre’s reluctance.

The army has been deployed to deal with serious law and order situations in this country on numerous occasions. In most instances, it has dealt with the problem without the protection of the AFSPA. It is therefore time the government showed willingness to objectively assess the need to retain this law. It may consider keeping it in operation in states affected by insurgency or terrorism, particularly when the trouble emanates from across the border. However, it may revoke the law in areas that are comparatively peaceful. If the government can think of controlling Maoist violence in some areas of the country without invoking the AFSPA, why can’t it do the same in areas like Manipur?

The writer is a retired director of the Bureau of Police Research and Development and author of ‘Policing in India — Some Unpleasant Essays’
19 August 2014

Sedition, Devastation And The Birth Of A Nation

By Garga Chatterjee

In 1966, the Indian Air Force bombed Mizoram, including the present capital Aizawl.

The sanitised term 'collateral damage' was not in vogue then. When Mizos were being attacked with incendiary bombs that only an Air Force raised on Gandhian ideology could provide, many of those bombed must have had a lot of thoughts rushing through their heads.

I suspect that some thoughts were not exactly those of affection towards the Union of India. Legally, sedition involves incitement of disaffection towards the State.

It's possible that some Mizo parents incited their daughters and sons to become disaffected towards the powers that were aerially bombing their town and villages.

In doing so, they became serious criminals under the law of the Indian Union's land. MK Gandhi had famously proclaimed that affection couldn't be manufactured by law.

However, it's quite possible to get the grandchildren of the bombed people to turn out in smart saffron, white and green uniforms for August 15 festivities in Aizawl. Schoolchildren under the watch of armed personnel seem to be a favourite setting for affection photo-ops.

An anxious Nation-State uses black laws to curb anything that tries to puncture its mythology and glorious Creation story. This weapon is typically used to shut up those who try to adhere to the official Hindustani slogan 'Satyamev Jayate' (Truth alone prevails).

It isn't accidental that four lions stare down at anyone who takes the Satyamev pronouncement at face value. Lions hunt in packs. Too many undesirable people whose remains will never be found know this too well. That's the usual method of instant justice for sedition. It is only when a relatively powerful person breaks the silence that the lions appear unsure.

Kalvakuntla Kavitha, Telangana Rashtra Samithi member of Parliament, allegedly said, "Jammu & Kashmir and Telangana were both forcefully, and at the same time, annexed to the Indian Union.

When I say I feel strongly, it's because we were both separate countries, but were merged with the Indian Union after Independence.

In 1947, we were not a part of India." Her father is Telangana's Chief Minister. That, her MP status and the 1962 reading down of the sedition law will ensure no harm comes to her. No parliamentarian is naive, but even within cynical speeches, I would celebrate any opening provided to myth-busting.

Sedition is a law of the powerful against the powerless, of the coward against the brave. A humane State embraces people's will. A brutal State sends in the army.

People who expose origin myths and crimes of the government under whose jurisdiction they live are typically sedition targets. They disrupt the long lullaby of the non-violent and consensual creation and unification of Nation-states. To consider a Nation-State and its political mythology holy is a slur to the sacred ­— the kind that predates all man-written books, laws and constitutions.

The shrillness with which K Kavitha has been demonised shows the tense foundations of the India-making project.

And she hasn't even gone half the way down the path of parliamentarian GG Swell who showed bomb-covers in the Lok Sabha when patriotic tricoloured lions refused to own up to their aerial hunt in Mizoram. I propose a statue for GG Swell. Let's call it the statue of integrity.

The author is a commentator on politics and culture
15 August 2014

‘India Needs To Push Connectivity Corridors with Myanmar’

New Delhi, Aug 15 : Key connectivity projects between India’s landlocked northeast and Myanmar, a crucial part of India’s Look East Policy, need to be completed on time to boost trade and partnership between India and the booming Southeast Asian region, especially with China stealing a march, experts said here Thursday.

Releasing a report titled “Transforming Connectivity Corridors Between India and Myanmar into Development Corridors”, officials and experts said that Myanmar, which shares an over 1,600 km border with four northeastern states, is a key part of the development of India’s northeast.

V.S. Seshadri, India’s former ambassador to Myanmar who formulated the report, said the timelines of the Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-modal projects need to be straightened out fast, especially with democracy striking firmer roots in Myanmar and its economy opening up. Both projects are officially set to be completed by 2016.

He pointed out that land border trade between India and Myanmar is much lower than between Myanmar and China. While formal land border trade between Moreh in Manipur and Tamu in Myanmar and Zokhawthar in Mizoram with Rhi in Myanmar amounts to around $35 million, the two-way trade between Muse in Myanmar and Jingao in China is over $2 billion.

The condition of roads on the Chinese side, in Yunnan province, is also much better with double-laned roads. “China has several 22-wheeled tractor trucks parked on its side of the border which it uses to transport goods to Myanmar that exports mainly agricultural goods like rice,” said Seshadri.

However, informal land border trade between India and Myanmar is thriving with people of both sides, including women, carrying headloads of goods across small river borders. This trade is said to be approximately worth Rs.35,000 million.

Another factor, said Seshadri, is that in Namphalong Market in Tamu in Myanmar, there are around 1,000 shops stocked with goods like toys, confectionery, blankets, agricultural produce. The market is bustling.

But there is no market on the Indian side in Moreh, Manipur. He said that “greater predictability and stability” was required to boost land border trade between the two countries.

The former envoy said there was a realization in Myanmar that its western sector, especially Rakhine state that borders India, needs rapid development and that Myanmar “would welcome India taking the initiative in boosting development”.

He also suggested that a broad gauge rail line that is supposed to be built in Imphal by 2018 could be extended to Moreh and then on to Kalay in Myanmar’s Sagaing division with international funding. “It will be a crucial link in connectivity,” he said.

There is a proposal to develop Moreh in Manipur into a major township, equipped with hospitals, educational institutes and banking facilities that would go a long way in boosting connectivity and trade, he said. An Integrated Check Post is set to come up at Moreh by the end of a year.

Besides, Special Economic Zones could be set up in Mizoram and Manipur bordering Myanmar to boost trade, the report by Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) suggests.

Minister of State for External Affairs and Development of the Northeastern Region V.K. Singh said in a statement that was read out that development of the northeast was “organically and intrinsically” linked with Southeast Asia and that Myanmar was “key to development of the Northeast”.

Sujata Mehta, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the external affairs ministry who read out the minister’s statement, expressed hope that the report would be of enduring value.

RIS chairperson and former foreign secretary Shyam Saran said Myanmar was the gateway to Southeast Asia and shares border with four northeast Indian states.

He suggested that with Myanmar opening up economically and moving towards a democratic framework, India should take prompt action to push through the connectivity projects to transform them into development corridors.
06 August 2014

Waiting For The Governor

By Tungshang Ningreichon

Manipur Governor visiting Shirui village in Ukhrul

Our house in the village is like a train with a gap, like a bogey derailed. The gap is the living room that was never built and now it stands as the self styled mud room. The gap speaks of hope that one day the house will be completed. The hope has lasted for more than 15 years!

Our home is simple but aesthetically challenged. It reflects a lack of architectural input and resources. People often mistake it for the village primary school a few meters away, or sometimes for the pastor’s quarter, traditionally built in an ‘L’ shape with many rooms to accommodate guests.

Every time I come home there is new “technology” installed. My father loves to experiment with tools, electronics and machines, turning every room into a store room with wires running all over the house; plug points are dictated by his preference for sitting arrangement while typing. He is, by the way, the best typist I have ever known. When he first tried his hands on the computer, I thought the keyboard would break into pieces with the force he is used to, on old typewriters.

This time there were fancy lights installed in and around the house that took me by surprise when I went to use the washroom. I was not expecting tiny bright diodes to light up my night activity. These fascinating patch-like diodes were fixed on the wall, taped on each end like it was hurriedly done for temporary use. Yet again they reminded me how the genes of style and utility are so far away from each other with men in general, and especially my father, for most houses in Ukhrul have wires and plug points hanging messily over the wall or from one corner, speaking of men and designs.

Every house however has a number of interesting lamps, torch and light tools which are mostly made in China or Burma. For those who can afford it, the inverter is placed somewhere shabbily but owned like the most prized possession. The district, you see, has acute power shortage. These days the power supply is for an hour and a half during the day, and tactically from 10 pm onwards when the town is asleep so that mosquitoes, insects and animals can find their prey and their way home.

In Tamenglong, local organizations had to shut the electricity department to register their protest of the dancing truant lights. People of the district have found better use for the electric wires—they take it home. This is legally called “stealing” and is so rampant that the DC of the town had to convene a meeting to take stock of the situation. Why blame the people for making use of resources around them I say with a smirk.

One of the latest reasons cited for the shortage of electricity is the poor rainfall. By that logic, the God of rain is pleased with selective places in the State where people have been holy enough to receive rain and be lighted while the remaining can compensate with candlelight dinners!

I don’t know if any of the reasons we have been hearing past many years is justified anymore but, in the words of Apou, my “memory bank” does not have any data of ever experiencing 24 hours power supply ever since we lived in the village.

The last time people in Ukhrul had two days of uninterrupted power supply was when the Governor of the State was in town as the chief guest for Shirui Lily week. His visit was such a hit that the Facebook status of my town newsfeeders; Yoyo, Tennoson, Kahorpam and Khanthing, expressed “joy” like receiving rare grace that comes home like the uninvited guest.

The statuses seemed to say that the town is beaming with life and energy and also lack of direction; of not knowing what to do with the suddenness of being lighted!

The celebration however had to end the moment the Governor left. The set up, as I imagine it, is like the lineman was watching from a tower and as soon as he saw the dust and smog off the line of vehicles, he pulled the plug puffing a cigarette, much like how the curtains are drawn after a movie ends...ah, how dramatically he must have switched it off, and for the next two days the town was ‘powerless’. Perhaps the electricity department had to reclaim or make up for its generosity and the quota of the two days of lighting the Governor.

We wait for the Governor and his entourage to visit the town again or, even better, if Narendra Modi comes to see Shirui Lily and tour the villages in Ukhrul... yawn yawn...while my father and families acquire newer tools to light homes and the companies and dealers lick their fingers counting the profits!

**Tungshang Ningreichon is a happy mother from Langdang and writes occasionally for the love of stories, histories and memories.
05 August 2014

Strategizing Political Demands of the Kukis in Northeastern India

By Nehginpao Kipgen

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The leaders of the two Kuki armed groups — the United Peoples' Front (UPF) and the Kuki National Organization (KNO) — are again heading to New Delhi with the hope of materializing a political dialogue with representatives of the central government.

A meeting with officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to take place within the next few days. The meeting will be the first high-level engagement between the two sides under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The issue of holding political talk has been dragging on for years. The Indian Army and the Kuki armed groups have observed Suspension of Operations (SoO) since Aug. 1, 2005. A tripartite agreement, involving the UPF and KNO, the central government and the Manipur state government, was formally signed on Aug. 22, 2008. The current one-year-term ends on Aug. 22.

The SoO was possible after the Kuki armed groups accepted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal for resolving armed conflicts through dialogue. The Congress government agreed, in principle, to initiate political dialogue within the framework of the Indian constitution.

Last year, the Indian government made the assurance that political talk would begin immediately following the winter session of the national parliament. Mr. Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary (North East), MHA, briefed representatives of the UPF and KNO on the modalities of holding dialogue. However, eight years have lapsed since the start of the SoO, but no political dialogue has materialized yet.

Because of the government's alleged indifferent attitude, the UPF had last year warned not to allow the inspection of its designated camps by government officials if no political dialogue began by Aug. 22. The group also threatened to boycott the Congress party in the 16th Lok Sabha election.

How is the situation of the armed groups and the political atmosphere in New Delhi different from the previous years? Is there any sight of solution to the Kukis political demand under the new administration?

In anticipation of political dialogue with the central government, the armed groups discussed among themselves with the hope of finding a common strategy. However, it appears that they have not been able to reach a consensus on presenting one single political demand.

The UPF and KNO, constituted by over 20 armed groups, have two different political objectives. The UPF demands an autonomous hill state, or a state within a state under Article 244-A of the Indian constitution. The KNO demands the creation of a separate Kuki state.

Another challenge to the solution of Kukis political demand is on the question of competing demands. The Nagas, who form another major ethnic group in Manipur state, also claim the same geographical areas in four hill districts. The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) claims Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul as their own territories in their quest for greater or southern Nagaland.

New Delhi has had several rounds of political dialogue with the Nagas, particularly the NSCN-IM. These competing demands of overlapping areas have given rise to severe insurgency problems for the past many years.

Knowing the potential consequences of political dialogue between the Kuki armed groups and the central government, the Manipur state government inserted a clause in the initial tripartite agreement, that is, the territorial integrity of Manipur cannot be disturbed.

In light of the recent creation of Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh despite a strong opposition from the state government, many begin to think that it is not an impossible task to carve out a Kuki state from Manipur.

However, it is important to understand that the Kukis and the Nagas have to reach some sort of understanding, if not agreement, on the question of competing demands in overlapping territories.

Whatever the outcome it might be, it is important that the central government keeps its earlier promises and begin political dialogue with the Kuki armed groups. There has been enough frustration of extending SoO for the past eight years, without achieving any substantive result.

A leader of the UPF in a recent statement said, “There is no point keeping on extending the Suspension of Operation (SoO) every year without engaging in political dialogue...the cadres will get frustrated if this thing continues for longer.”

There is a general feeling among the people of Manipur, including the Kuki armed groups, that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance coalition government would take a pro-active approach to address insurgency problems through political means.

The demand for a Kuki state comprising all the Kuki inhabited areas of Manipur was first submitted to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on March 24, 1960 by the Kuki National Assembly, a political body formed in 1946.

However, history would not do justice unless the present leaders of the Kuki armed groups formulate a practical strategy by setting aside personal and ideological differences.

Nehginpao Kipgen is a political scientist whose works have been widely published in five continents — Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America. He is the author of “Politics Of Ethnic Conflict In Manipur” published by SAGE from the United Kingdom.

A Conversation and ‘Burma’

By Tungshang Ningreichon

My friend Seth Shatsang is a dynamic young man in his early 30’s but looks older and pretends to belong to the ‘wise’ age generation. He is a student activist, an aggressive campaigner and sometimes comes across as a country bumpkin and a shrewd politician. He has an accent that he seems to have acquired while his scholarly time spent down the South of India so for “we” you would hear “ve”. But he is a good conversationalist and his charm lies in his ability to converse about politics in simple language, drawing examples and relevance from his day-to-day interactions with people from different walks of life. He is conversant about anything and everything under the sky of Ukhrul- Senapati-Kohima. He knows a bit about Bangalore too but he does not know too much about Delhi and that is one area I can boast to have over him.

Here, I am not interested to talk about his life, his bad romance and his failed love life. He will not want me to talk about such matters either. One rainy day he happened to come over to my place. Since he came without a vehicle or an umbrella he stayed on and the conversationalist that he is he went on tonramble over endless cups of black tea. His story about his trip to Somrah village in Burma fascinated me and I know I am killing half the fun of the story by attempting to write about it.

In the north of Ukhrul district the last village to mark the India- Burma border is Tusom, which has about 400 households. As you go further a Naga village in Burma called Somrah greets you. Somrah is also a sub-township with roughly 300 households. It is about 13Kms and a little more than an hour bike ride from Tusom village. The road to Somrah from Tusom is jeep-able, but monsoon will spell disaster. The people of Somrah are dominantly Christians but wave of Buddhism is subtlety felt and slowly children are joining monasteries.

As a child who spent considerable time in my mother’s native place, Chingai; a sub-divisional village that serves as a convergence point for many neighbouring villages including Tusom and Somrah, it is not new or strange to see travelers from Burma. They pass by Chingai to go to the district headquarter, Ukhrul for education, medical care and for basic things like clothes, kerosene, candle, salt and other daily requirements. They bring fowls, dogs and piglets in exchange for clothes or money. Interestingly both Rupee and Kyat are accepted in many of the border towns and villages. People from the two countries at the borders are not strangers to each other as they share similar if not the same culture as Naga people and trace their origin to common ancestors. The consciousness as natives of two separate nations is prominent when soldiers in uniform are seen patrolling along the border. The Burma side seemingly is more strictly manned and it requires creativity to cross the border.

As for Seth, he went to attend the youth festival; ‘Ho-Se Krenbu Twei’. Since he went on the invitation of the youth group at Somrah villages who had asked him to come and celebrate with them he did not require a permit to enter the village. In fact he and his friend enjoyed special immunity and received a royal treatment. According to Seth the popular “gifts” to carry from India are cigarettes (preferably Wills Flake), soap and salt. These are the entry tickets and can absolve you from army interference. If lucky it can also earn you an uninhibited tour of the local places. Truly, these items earned Seth some recognition and he got to pillion ride a motorcycle to few places he wanted to see. Motorcycle by the way happens to be the most popular mode of transport in villages on the Burma-side and only few can afford the same.

Seth had also carried few bars of soap. He had ensured that it was not too heavy for his ‘activist’ budget and he was lucky to have found ‘buy three get one free’ offer on, in one of the shops in Ukhrul town. He carefully separated the set lest it leaves signs and marks of the packet being tampered with, and got each bar wrapped nicely. The ‘inexpensive’ soap bar was a hit and those whom he gifted got to smell soap ‘made in India’ and those who did not get, atleast liked the idea of receiving one the next time round and enjoyed the whiff of it anyway. Seth had also carried sachets of table salt which he apparently must have collected from his travel or his visits to some restaurants. He generously gifted

some of these to the army officer posted at Somrah. It acted like magic and roused the curiosity of the officer and even days after he left, Seth got profuse messages of thanks from him. The officer either did not get the time to open the packet or was shy to ask what it contained. Later he got curious and wanted to know what was in the sachets. The message was relayed to Seth through the phone and the climax of Seth’s narration lies in his response. His message to the officer was that “it is special salt to be used for special occasions when special friends and guests come over to dine”. What a great gift! He is being invited to Somrah again and next time everything would be on the house.

I asked Seth how he communicated with the people there. He said many of them speak and understand Tangkhul or Nagamese. Some of the students who have the opportunity to study in places like Delhi and Bangalore can speak in English (Oh yes they go to these places for higher education). As for the elders whom he cannot communicate with, his friends interpreted for them. However, many a times communication was also without language but they could understand each other. ‘Without the use of words?’ I asked. ‘Yes, without words. So long as there is love and bonding people understand’, Seth stated beautifully.

Truly, communication has no barriers. It does not recognize borders and boundaries and our hearts must follow suit. And like Seth said, ‘so long there is love and bonding a connection is established’. No words!

**Tungshang Ningreichon is a happy mother from Langdang and writes occasionally for the love of stories, histories and memories.
04 August 2014

Time To Say Cheers?

After 17 years of being a dry state, Mizoram is relaxing its curbs on alcohol. Ratnadip Choudhury explains how the booze ban was a bane in the Christian-dominated state

By Ratnadip Choudhury
Risky gamble Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla (centre) is counting on the new liquor law to help him gain popularity in the state, Photo: UB Photos
Risky gamble Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla (centre) is counting on the new liquor law to help him gain popularity in the state, Photo: UB Photos
James Pachuau, 23, takes out his Royal Enfield motorcycle every late afternoon and zips down the roads of Mizoram’s capital Aizawl, towards Lengpui on the outskirts, where the state has its lone airport. He parks his bike with several others lined up on the roadside. Hundreds of Mizo youth in their 20s and 30s are gathering in front of a group of shacks where Zu, Mizoram’s locally brewed liquor, is sold. Bootleggers hover around, making discreet deals for foreign liquor, sold at three times the MRP and often spurious. They earn in lakhs and it is anybody’s guess that they cannot be operating without taking Excise Department officials and policemen into confidence.

It’s an everyday affair in a state where alcohol has been banned for the past 17 years. And in this period, more than 1,700 people have been treated for alcoholism by the Department of Psychiatry of the Aizawl Civil Hospital. Worse, at least 70 people have died after consuming spurious liquor.
“The world is changing fast and Mizoram cannot be immune to change,” says James. “The booze ban has done no good. You can get any IMFL (Indian-Made Foreign Liquor) brand from the black market if you can pay for it. And if you can’t afford it, you can always go for the cheaper Zu. The problem is, you can’t be sure of the quality and many have died because of spurious liquor.”

Zu is often adulterated with methyl alcohol, which makes it toxic. Moreover, an investigation by the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the Aizawl Civil Hospital found that a kind of yeast called BEDC, found in plenty in Myanmar and smuggled into Mizoram, is used in making spurious liquor that resembles IMFL.

“The locals usually brew the liquor in jungles and under unhygienic conditions since it is illegal,” says Lalringthanga, an engineering student from Mamit district.

However, all this could change in a few months. On 10 July, the Legislative Assembly passed the Mizoram Liquor Prohibition and Control (MLPC) Bill, which will replace the existing Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition (MLTP) Act, 1995. This move comes after nearly half-a-decade of debate in the state over the pros and cons of prohibition.

The new law, however, does not lift the ban on alcohol totally. “It is a modification of the earlier Act and incorporates a system of proper checks,” says Mizoram’s Excise and Narcotics Minister R Lalzirliana. “The previous Act did not yield the desired results and so it had to be modified.”
In effect since 1997, the MLTP Act was legislated after the Presbyterian Church, the largest denomination in Christian-dominated Mizoram, came out with an assessment in 1994 that 65 percent of the women in the state were losing their husbands to alcohol abuse. The powerful Church, whose followers account for nearly half of Mizoram’s population of 1 million, prevailed upon the government to get prohibition imposed in the state.

Even now, the Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Church are dead against any change in the 1995 law. “Total prohibition has been beneficial in ridding Mizo society of various social evils. The Church has played a pivotal role in creating awareness against alcoholism and has organised many special drives against it. It has also been involved in rehabilitation programmes. We are against any change in the 1995 Act as it would make people more prone to alcoholism. The state is already plagued by widespread drug abuse,” says Robert Halliday of the Mizoram Presbyterian Synod. “We have organised mass prayers against the lifting of prohibition and will continue to oppose any change in the law.”

But they failed to stop the Mizoram Assembly from passing the new law. Prominent civil society organisations stayed away from the protests called by the Church. Perhaps, this signals a slackening of the Church’s influence on the state’s politics and civil society. While civil society organisations in the state had once stood with the Church on the prohibition issue, there has been a significant change in their stance over the years. Now, most of them are in favour of allowing people in the state to have good-quality liquor at reasonable prices. They want the focus to shift from total prohibition to efforts at controlling alcohol abuse.
Misdirected? At least 70 people died in Mizoram due to spurious liquor during 17 years of prohibition
Misdirected? At least 70 people died in Mizoram due to spurious liquor during 17 years of prohibition
It seems the spurt in cases of alcoholism and drug abuse made the state government take a fresh look at whether total prohibition was serving the intended purpose. According to state health department records, the number of alcoholics who were treated in government hospitals in the period from 1988 to 1996 — i.e., before prohibition was enforced — was 482. Ironically, during 2002-11, when prohibition was in place, 1,686 alcoholics were being treated with serious ailments. Similarly, in the period 1992-96, before total prohibition was imposed, 282 cases of liver disorders related to alcohol consumption were reported from government hospitals. The situation did not improve after prohibition, with 520 such cases reported during 2007-11. It was clear from the figures that prohibition had failed to control alcohol abuse.

This led to the formation of a special study group with the help of the Department of Psychology of Mizoram University in January 2011. The group led by H Raltawna, a retired IAS officer, undertook an exhaustive study and submitted its report in January 2012, advocating a change in the 1995 Act.
“The state saw a rapid rise in addiction to narcotics in the 17 years of prohibition. At the same time, spurious alcohol has caused deaths and disease. The bootleggers ruled the roost. Liquor was smuggled in from Assam and Tripura and sold at exorbitant prices in Mizoram. With this new law, the government claims that the checks will be far better,” says Laldingliana Sailo, a retired Indian Information Service officer now based in Aizawl.

The government is now looking at framing rules under the new Act to control alcohol abuse even as manufacture and sale of liquor is permitted. It is also mulling over what penalties to impose on those who break the rules.

The history of prohibition in Mizoram dates back to the time when it was not a separate state; it was then known as the Lushai Hills district and was a part of Assam. It was declared a Union Territory in 1972 and turned into a full-fledged state in 1987 following a peace accord between the Centre and the Mizo National Front (MNF). In 1964, the Centre had offered to compensate the states for up to 50 percent of the excise revenue lost due to prohibition. In 1977, Mizoram was among the 14 states and Union Territories that became part of the All India Prohibition Council set up by the then Morarji Desai government.

According to Halliday, the Church wants a “pure society” and, therefore, has always considered prohibition to be non-negotiable. “The Presbyterian Church alone has over 6 lakh followers in Mizoram, and we do have the power to raise social consciousness on the issue,” he says. “But we don’t want to be party to the politics of prohibition in which the government has got trapped. The government needs to acknowledge that it has failed completely in implementing the 1995 Act, we would like to complement its efforts.”

Indeed, the Church has all along played a significant role in efforts to enforce the ban on alcohol. Civil society organisations, too, have been keeping a watch on alcoholism at the local level and raising awareness against it. They have also targeted drug abuse and helped to keep it under check to a certain extent.

“Yet, the fact remains that Mizoram is a hub of narcotics,” says Lalhmachhuana, president of Mizo Zirlai Pawl, the influential Mizo students’ association. “For decades, the Myanmar border has served as a transit route for international drug smuggling. Narcotics is smuggled into India through this route and now the Mizo youths are also falling prey to drug addiction. On the other side of the border in Myanmar, there are many warlords and insurgent groups that are involved in international narcotics smuggling. The Central government has never taken it seriously. We will soon need a separate narcotics law for our state. As for alcohol prohibition, you will find that many Excise Department officials and policemen, who are supposed to ensure its success, have themselves became alcoholics. Many of them have gone for rehab.”

Over the years, the failure of the government machinery to enforce prohibition has led to the emergence of vigilante groups that use highhanded methods to deal with alcoholics. But the influential Young Mizo Association (YMA), which has been at the forefront of long-drawn anti-alcohol campaigns, now wants a change in the law. “We have serious issues with both the 1995 law and the new one, and have already written to the government about it,” says YMA president Lalbiakzuala. “The older law could have been successful had the government been strict about implementing it. We are not sure of the new law. It will be an acid test for the government. But our mandate is clear. We will continue to act as a watchdog and our local units will try to keep a tight leash on tipplers. And the sale of spurious liquor has to be curbed.”

With the new law, the government expects that revenue will increase by around Rs 30 crore. It also feels that the move would give a big boost to vineyard cultivators in the state. A few years ago, when the government permitted wineries to operate in the Hnahlan and Champai areas, the wine brewed in the state found a ready market outside. In fact, grape orchards and winebrewing provided a means of sustainable livelihood to locals in these areas. Mizoram produces 21,000 tonnes of fine-quality grapes every year and the new law would allow the bulk of it to be used in breweries and bring in more revenue.

“But revenue is not the key issue,” says minister Lalzirliana. “We admit that spurious liquor has taken a toll and we want to control that. And in no way are we lifting the ban totally, we are only relaxing it with many riders.”

However, the main Opposition party in the state, the MNF, is firmly opposed to the idea of lifting prohibition. It has always taken a hard line on this issue and has stood with the Church. Chances are that if the new law fails, the MNF will be quick to use it for launching a big political attack against the Congress government led by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla. On the other hand, if the law is seen to be effective in curbing spurious liquor and rampant alcoholism, Lal Thanhawla would be one step ahead of both the MNF and the Church.

Source: Tehelka
01 August 2014

Dilemma Over Influx: Is ILP A Solution?

By Patricia Mukhim

The demand in some states of the northeast India for imposition of the inner line permit regime is a means to extend the period for freeloading, which the region has done enough of, writes Patricia Mukhim

Manipur is once again on the boil even as the demand for the Inner Line Permit gets more strident. Babloo Loitongbam, the noted Human Rights activist has in a fit of anger made disparaging remarks against the 60 MLAs of the Manipur Assembly for not doing enough to push this Bill. He and the local television channel now face the prospect of being served with a breach of privilege notice by the Manipur Assembly. The disconnect between the elected and the electors is out in the open. Election promises are in the habit of being forgotten as quickly as they were made, once legislators enter the Assembly.

Increasingly, we see that the agenda of the MLAs and the ruling government is at odds with what the public want. However, the point here is whether the  Eastern Bengal Frontier Regulation (EBFR) 1873 from which flows the contentious Inner Line Permit applied in the states of Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh is the instrument to stop unabated influx from other parts of the country and from neighbouring Bangladesh and to an extent Nepal.

The three states where the ILP is applied (strictly in some states and quite loosely in others) have shown very slow economic growth. Nagaland is facing a deficit in its budget and is now hoping that the Union government under Narendra Modi would bail it out. Mizoram Government is facing a similar revenue crunch and is contemplating lifting the ban on prohibition of liquor. Mizoram has been a dry state for 17 years but it is not as if people don't drink. There are watering holes galore where the local brew is sold. The Mizoram government says it could generate a revenue of roughly 30 crore from taxes on alcohol. While the church and other civil society groups are resisting this move of the government, the choices seem limited. A land-locked state with no mineral resources and very little cultivable land must be innovative in its approach. Yet Mizoram is economically stagnated. So too is Nagaland. Whatever resources come to these two states from the Central government are spent with very little accountability. Hence the roads of Nagaland, including the important ones such as the Dimapur-Kohima highway, are in a shabby condition.

There are very few public sector undertakings in all the three ILP-bound states. If at all Arunachal Pradesh has any hopes of revenue generation it is from executing hydropower projects. The state, we are told, is capable of generating of 50,000 MW of hydro electricity. It's a different matter that nothing has taken off thus far although a slew of MOUs were signed with private companies several years ago during Dorjee Khandu's chief ministership. Whether the generation of hydro electricity in an ecologically sensitive region would have disastrous impacts on downstream inhabitants has not been adequately assessed. And until such time as hydel power becomes Arunachal Pradesh's mainstay, this state too depends heavily on Central funding. Of course the Centre might look at things a bit differently now that Chinese claims over this state are getting further traction ~ what with railways being built close to the Indo-China border just kilometres away from Arunachal Pradesh.

The crux of the matter here is our own dilemma in understanding the kind of development we want and whether we are ready to pay the price for that development. Globalisation has its discontents as Joseph Stiglitz so cogently argued in his book, Globalisation and its discontents.  He looks at the market fundamentals and how they operate and analyses why the market can never substitute governments as the distributors of social and public goods. But the point to ask here is whether people are happy to distance themselves from what is happening in other parts of the world. Are people content with the slow pace of development in their respective states and are therefore happy to lead sheltered lives away from other marauding influences from the rest of India? People from the three abovementioned states are moving out to the rest of India to look for better livelihood opportunities. No one is stopping them. So how can this be a one-way traffic? But this argument is likely to be trashed by those who believe that the ILP is non pareil. They believe in checking the movement of individuals into their states while rebuffing similar attempts by others to stop them from entering another state. We cannot have different laws governing different states without creating schisms.  The north-eastern region of India finds itself unable to catch up with the pace of development in the rest of India not just because of its remoteness from the Centre but also because it consciously chooses to remain aloof and untouched. There are enough people around who make a living by creating a fear psychosis among the hoi-polloi and who make the masses believe that they must be protected from a host of so-called adverse influences. But those who peddle these arguments about the need for protectionist policies are themselves very socially and physically mobile and enjoy the best of both worlds.

These double standards are what irritate. If people want the best educational systems and look for that in other states of India, what does it say about the development indices in those states? The best educational facilities offered by the private sector in the best locales of India have a huge population of North-eastern students. How their parents can afford to pay the exorbitant fees is another matter. But think how much revenue can be generated by these states if they had similar educational institutions within the region. Now that would mean allowing the private sector not only to come in but also to sustain themselves through easy mobility and secure in the knowledge that their investment will pay off. Can any of the seven states guarantee that private initiative will not be crushed by extortion and intimidation? So how will they generate their revenues? It is doubtful if the state would be able to depend on the Centre for all times. A tightening of belts is the need of the hour. And instruments like the ILP will only push the states into a situation where they will implode under the weight of their debt burden.

Proposing all sorts of protectionist Acts goes counter to the principles of growth and development. In Meghalaya too, the ILP protagonists have raked up the issue yet again. We will be seeing a series of agitations on this issue now that the Khasi Students Union has split and a more virulent group has been formed recently to take on the government on the ILP. With constant agitations stalling economic activities in the region, can we blame anyone for our own skewed growth and the burgeoning unemployment in the region? These are issues that the people of the North-east usually love to push under the carpet for they don't make good populist rhetoric. However, the time for a reality

check is now here. The Modi government is unlikely to continue to pour in funds unlimited into meeting the revenue requirements in the region. Enterprise is what the government is talking about all the time. The North-east must brace itself for such enterprise. We have done enough freeloading! And ILP is only a means to extend the period for freeloading.

The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com