BJP’s victory in Assam should be a foregone conclusion. Why is it not?

The political chessboard this time is arranged very differently from 2016, and key regions of the diverse state are in unpredictable ferment.

Among the states going into assembly elections in the coming days and weeks, only one voted for a BJP government the last time around: Assam.

The BJP in Assam is led by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his senior cabinet colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma, a man with a reputation as a master of the cloak-and-dagger art of forming governments even when the numbers are stacked against the BJP and its allies. As the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, Sarma has demonstrated this mastery more than once while propping up minority governments in states such as Manipur.

The only person in the Assam opposition who was viewed as capable of countering Sarma’s political maneuvering, at least within the state, was Tarun Gogoi, a veteran Congress leader, former chief minister of Assam and Sarma’s former boss. Gogoi died last year at the age of 84 after contracting Covid. With the opposition fragmented and lacking any chief ministerial face, and the BJP comfortably ensconced in power both at the state and centre, the results of the Assam poll should have been a foregone conclusion. Oddly enough, that does not appear to be the case.

The Assam legislative assembly has 126 seats. In 2016, the BJP fought the election in alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad, a party with a strongly Assamese identity, and the Bodoland People’s Front, a party with a strongly Bodo tribal identity led by a former militant leader, Hagrama Mohilary. While the BJP won 60 seats, the AGP won 14 and the BPF 12. Thus, although the BJP by itself was short of the halfway mark, the alliance was in an unassailable majority.

This time, things are different. The BPF is no longer in alliance with the BJP, having been dumped in favour of a new Bodoland-based party called the United People’s Party Liberal. More importantly, the opposition Congress and the All India United Democratic Front led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal are in alliance, along with other smaller outfits, including one called the Anchalik Gana Morcha that has a strongly Assamese nativist identity.

In order to understand what this implies, a look at the geography of Assam is necessary.

Most states of India are mini-Indias within themselves, encompassing varieties of language, communities, castes and tribes that typically inhabit distinct areas and regions. Few are as diverse as Assam.

The state has two main river valleys – the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys – surrounded by hills. The Brahmaputra valley is predominantly Assamese in character, with upper Assam (corresponding to the upper reaches of the river) as the Assamese heartland. Lower Assam has a large Muslim population of East Bengal origin whose ancestors were encouraged by British administrators to settle in the Brahmaputra floodplains as cultivators of rice and jute in the early 1900s.

To make it more complicated, the population on the north bank of the Brahmaputra is different from that on the river’s south bank. The north bank is dominated in large part by plains tribal populations such as the Bodo and Mishing, while the south bank is more Ahom and Assamese.

The Barak valley is different from both upper and lower Assam, being dominated by Sylheti-speaking Bengalis, both Hindu and Muslim, who have been at odds with one another for many decades. In addition to all this, there’s also a number of hill ranges, each with its own dominant tribe, such as the Dimasa and Karbi.

The politics of Assam is different in each of its sub-regions, which all have their own dominant local communities, leaders, and internal dynamics. This time, the political chessboard shows a situation where the arithmetic of the Congress-AIUDF alliance overwhelmingly favours their candidates in the seats with large Muslim populations. Assam has a 35 percent Muslim population that decides outcomes in at least a third of the state’s 126 seats, mainly in lower Assam and the rural areas of Barak valley. The Congress-AIUDF alliance will be looking at picking up most of these.

The Bodoland region, which has 12 assembly seats, may also slip away from BJP. Last time, the BPF contested 13 seats and won 12. This time, it will be fighting to defend its turf against the UPPL, BJP and allies. It will also support Congress candidates in 28 seats outside Bodoland.

The situation in upper Assam is also not as rosy for the BJP as the last time. Although the Citizenship Amendment Act has receded into the background as an issue, it is still there in the political discussion. The BJP in Assam has consistently tried to wish it away but the party’s political compulsions in neighbouring West Bengal have forced it back into the headlines. The BJP and its ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, face nativist Assamese disenchantment over CAA and aspects of the Assam Accord which has catalysed the formation of two new parties, Assam Jatiya Parishad and Raijor Dal, led by former All Assam Students’ Union chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi and activist Akhil Gogoi, respectively.

The BJP alliance also has a problem with a community that, after decades of voting for the Congress, backed it solidly last time around: the descendants of plains tribal workers from Central India brought during British rule as tea garden labour, who are now known as the tea tribes of Assam. They number around 65 lakh out of Assam’s three crore population. Since the tea gardens are concentrated in upper Assam, that is where most of them live.

The tea tribes have been agitating for long for better wages and Scheduled Tribe status. They haven’t got either. A recent Gauhati High Court decision putting a stay on a proposed Rs 50 per day hike in wages has further infuriated many of them. The Congress campaign in upper Assam, led by Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and his team, has smartly capitalised on this. It could have an impact on at least 40 seats.

In short, barring a few predictable seats, the situation appears fluid in most sub-regions of the state. This is the case for all parties including the opposition. Issues of angst over ticket distribution have led to bitterness in both the BJP, which is internally divided into two camps, and the Congress-AIUDF alliance. The BJP has been forced to expel 14 leaders who are contesting as independents after being denied tickets. Most of them are from the Barak valley and upper Assam. In Silchar, the principal town of the Barak valley, sitting BJP MLA Dilip Paul, who won by a handsome margin last time defeating Congress leader Sushmita Dev’s mother Bithika Dev, is the rebel now.

For the Congress and AIUDF, the ticket angst is greater in Muslim-dominated areas of lower Assam. The two parties will be contesting against one another in “friendly fights” in at least five seats. The BJP, meanwhile, has given eight tickets to Muslims candidates, some of whom may win because of local factors. In the end, it will be richly ironic if these seats save the day for them.

Finally, there is of, course, the mastery of Himanta Biswa Sarma in propping up minority governments. Should the BJP-AGP alliance wind up short of the required numbers – an increasingly likely scenario – Sarma will be a man much in demand. He will then be well placed to follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dictum of turning crisis into opportunity.

 

Source: newsLaundry

India looks at armed drones for US-style unmanned bombings

A $3 billion deal for the purchase of 30 armed drones manufactured by US company General Atomics is likely soon. If the deal goes through the army, navy and air force will get 10 such combat drones each.

By Abhishek Bhalla

A General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper drone

Drones are changing the face of modern warfare. Aerial attacks using drones loaded with missiles and laser-guided bombs capable of destroying targets deep inside enemy territory could soon be a reality for the Indian military looking to boost its unmanned warfare tactics.

A $3 billion deal for the purchase of 30 armed drones manufactured by US company General Atomics is likely soon. If the deal goes through the army, navy and air force will get 10 such combat drones each.

Surveillance, reconnaissance for intelligence gathering and even carrying out combat missions behind enemy lines, without risking pilots or soldiers on the ground in tough mountainous terrains, would be the key objectives of these unmanned aerial vehicles. So far, the Indian military has been using drones, which include Heron Surveillance drones and the Harop loitering munition, for surveillance purposes only.

The MQ-9 Reaper, also called Predator drone, can detect targets using its inbuilt sensors and radars. It has an endurance of more than 27 hours and carries payloads up to nearly 1,700 kg with a range of 6,000 nautical miles and a flying capacity of up to 50,000 feet. It can carry deadly hell fire missiles and laser-guided bombs, making it a potent weapon.

The Predator B armed drones have been used by the US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.

These high altitude long endurance (HALE) drones would be critical for the Indian military for operations in higher reaches of Kashmir, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim in wake of the growing threats from China and Pakistan.

China is a big player when it comes to drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but Pakistan is also looking at using armed drones with Beijing's help. China has invested a lot of effort in developing civilian drones and the same has been translated into them developing combat drones. China is also one of the leading countries when it comes to R&D concerning drone technology.

Officials said the features of these drones can vary based on the requirements of the navy, air force, and army.

While the plan is to have 30 of these drones—10 each for the army, navy, and air force, the orders can be split and purchases made in batches to have some of these available to the forces at the earliest.

Discussions in the security establishment on the purchase of these drones have taken place ahead of the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin next week.

Defence deals worth $18 billion were signed with the US in 2007.

Indigenous options being explored

Unmanned vehicles are considered the future of warfare, and India is also exploring indigenous options. It is important to note that drones have helped win numerous wars in recent times; the latest being the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict where they proved immensely effective against armour and artillery.

Indian Army chief Gen MM Naravane while speaking at a webinar recently also asserted how the use of disruptive technologies like drones is the future of warfare. Underlining the use of drones by Azerbaijan recently in Idlib and Armenia, he said the offensive technology has challenged the traditional prima donnas: the tanks, artillery, and the dug-in infantry.

Private Indian companies and public sector units are working on such platforms that will be the key in military combat in years to come. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) unveiled a blueprint of their plans recently to bring in such platforms during the ongoing Aero India show in Bengaluru.

Modeled on US project Skyborg, HAL has started work on an ambitious project that will allow teaming up of unmanned aircraft and vehicles with manned jets.

Combined Air Teaming System or CATS will have a mother vehicle -- a fighter jet operating 700km away and strike enemy targets through unmanned warriors. The fighter jets guiding the unmanned drones can remain 150km behind and control and give directions to four unmanned vehicles called the CATS Warriors.

The drones are expected to be integrated on Tejas and Jaguar fighter jets. The first prototypes are expected to fly in the next three to four years. Capable of evading radar detection, its stealth capacities will make it even more potent.

Myanmar Regime Troops Shoot 8 People Dead in Mandalay Night Raid

Eight people were shot dead and more than 30 were injured when police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds during a raid on residential areas in Mandalay on Sunday night.

The shootings followed a deadly confrontation between security forces and anti-regime protesters earlier in the afternoon.

Including the night raid fatalities, 249 people have been killed by the military regime as of Sunday night during crackdowns on peaceful pro-democracy supporters.

Local said security forces opened fire with automatic weapons in Aung Pin Lae in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi Township. Rescue groups and locals said the shooting continued until midnight. In a video filmed by a resident, the sound of gunfire can be heard.

A 16-year-old teashop waiter was one of the victims of the violence, along with a 43-year-old member of a charity group who died after being shot, according to a local charity group. Security forces also broke into homes and beat residents.

Earlier on Sunday afternoon, police and soldiers also fired live rounds while cracking down on a protest by residents in Aung Pin Lae.  One man was killed after being shot in the head and at least six people were severely injured.

There were also reports of the military opening fire on anti-coup demonstrations in the Shan State capital Taunggyi 

 

source: By The Irrawaddy

Fungi Based Clothing

Designer Stella McCartney unveils mycelium-based clothing

By Emily Chung

A model wears clothing unveiled by British designer Stella McCartney on March 18, 2021. It's made with Mylo, a leather substitute grown from fungi, which can be treated to have different leather-like colours and textures. (Bolt Threads)

This past week, British fashion designer Stella McCartney unveiled a black "leather" bustier top and pants made not from cow hide, but mycelium — which is grown from fungi. 

Up until now, if you wanted leather that wasn't made from animals, you've probably had to settle for plastic "pleather," which comes with a different set of environmental problems.

But a number of big brands, including Stella McCartney, Adidas, Lululemon and Hermes, in partnership with biotechnology startups Bolt Threads and MycoWorks, say later this year you'll be able to buy more products with leather made from another bio-based material that's grown by recycling waste.

Mycelium is already on the market in the form of styrofoam-like packaging, "un-leather" handbags, flooring and sound-proofing acoustic panels. It's also been experimentally used to build larger structures such as benches, coffins, composting toilets and even buildings.

But manufacturers are now aiming to scale up the products and applications made from mycelium, which they tout as a more sustainable substitute for petroleum-derived plastics such as styrofoam and vinyl, leather made with harsh chemicals from water-guzzling, methane-belching cows and even other bio-based materials such as cardboard and wood.

In the future, they say it could even be used to make advanced materials such as transparent "paper" or construct buildings that can be triggered to automatically biodegrade at the end of their useful life.

What is mycelium?

Mycelium is made of fungi. While you may think of them as plants, they technically aren't and are more closely related to animals. (Fungi and animals are in different "kingdoms" but the same "supra-kingdom," while plants are in a different supra-kingdom.)

You might associate fungi with mushrooms, but mycelium is a different part of the fungus — its fast-growing network of roots, rather than the compact fruits we know as mushrooms.

What makes mycelium more sustainable than the materials it replaces?

Those who use mycelium tout its low environmental footprint as its biggest advantage.

Dan Widmaier, CEO of California-based Bolt Threads, said that among the brands that work with his company, 70 per cent of their environmental impact comes from the materials they use.

"Broadly speaking, those materials have to change if there's going to be eight billion of us and counting on the planet," Widmaier said.

Bolt Threads says its mycelium-based leather, Mylo, emits fewer greenhouse gases and uses less water and resources than animal leather.

Dan Widmaier, CEO of Bolt Threads, folds a sheet of Mylo. (Ashley Batz/Bolt Threads)

Alexander Bismarck, a professor of materials chemistry, and Mitchell Jones, a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Vienna, have studied the sustainability of fungi-derived leather substitutes. 

They note that in nature, fungi help soils capture and store carbon through their symbiotic relationships with plants, making their growth "effectively carbon neutral." When grown to make mycelium-based materials, they can upcycle waste such as food and agricultural residues without the heating that's usually required for manufacturing processes.

That's in contrast to raising cattle, which is known to consume and pollute water, use lots of land and generate greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change at a higher rate than most other domestic animals. With leather, lots of potentially harmful chemicals and energy are also used to tan the hides. 

Bismarck said compared to such animal-based materials — as well as plastics — mycelium-based products provide "a significant reduction in CO2 or greenhouse gas."

Mycelium has even been suggested as a replacement for other bio-based materials, such as cardboard, wood or bioplastics. Jones said even many of those have negative environmental impacts, such as the need to cut down trees or limited biodegradability. "The fungi doesn't really have that downside."

Mycelium packaging has been marketed as a green substitute for polystyrene. (Mushroom Packaging)

What can you buy now that's made of mycelium?

Over the past decade or so, biotechnology companies have launched a small number of mycelium-based products such as:

• Packaging, designed to replace styrofoam, from New York-based Ecovative Design. It's now produced by manufacturing partners in the U.S., U.K., Europe and New Zealand. Dell Technologies and IKEA are among those who have committed to using it.

• Coffins made by Dutch startup Loop that are not only biodegradable but also help biodegrade the bodies laid to rest inside.

• Flooring and acoustic tiles, which are sold by Italian interior design products firm Mogu. 

• Leather. MYCL, based in Bandung, Indonesia, partnered with local apparel brand BRODO, to launch sneakers, sandals, wallets, luggage tags and watch straps made of its mycelium-based leather Mylea last year.

Two U.S. competitors aim to make mycelium-based leather more widely available this year. 

• Bolt Threads (which licensed its initial technology from Ecovative) was supposed to deliver its first product made of Mylo, the Driver bag, to Kickstarter backers late last year, but delivery was delayed after the batch produced by its manufacturing partner didn't meet quality standards. The company also announced in October that it would partner with Adidas, Kering, Lululemon and Stella McCartney to launch Mylo products in 2021. (The items unveiled by Stella McCartney this week aren't yet available for sale.)

• San Francisco-based MycoWorks announced earlier this month that it had partnered with luxury brand Hermes to make a version of the Victoria bag that will be the first product using a mycelium-based leather called Sylvania.

How is mycelium produced and turned into new materials and products?

Step one is obviously to grow it. That can be done either in a nutritious liquid or on a bed of solid materials. Either can include waste products ranging from blackstrap molasses to sawdust from furniture production.

What's suitable depends on the fungal species, which can be found in different habitats in the wild, said Joe Dahmen, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture, who has been working with mycelium-based materials for several years.

For example, oyster mushrooms, which he works with, grow on hardwood trees but not conifers. Some of the materials used commercially include cotton fibres or hemp hurds, the inner cores of the stems.

Mycelium is cultivated in bags on the left side of this greenhouse before being molded into different shapes. (AFJD)

The fungi also need water and nutrients, and they're generally kept in humidity- and temperature-controlled environments to prevent them from producing mushrooms — a completely different material that can also generate potentially irritating spores. Fruiting typically happens when the fungi think it's autumn, Dahmen said. 

Fungi are fast-growing — it takes just a week to grow mycelium for Mushroom Packaging and two weeks for Mylo, their manufacturers say. They're often grown with high levels of CO2 to encourage them to grow outward in search of oxygen.

Once ready, the mycelium is usually dehydrated and processed with machines and chemicals to improve the density, strength, elasticity and texture.

All that means mycelium-based materials generally aren't pure mycelium, but a "composite," Bismarck noted. They contain the material it was grown on along with anything added during processing.

Widmaier said that's part of the "secret sauce" for Mylo. "We start with the mycelium, and then we do everything from making sure it doesn't rot to making sure it's finished appropriately and it's got the right colour."

Bolt Threads was supposed to deliver its first product made of Mylo, the Driver bag, to Kickstarter backers late last year. But delivery was delayed after the batch produced by its manufacturing partner didn’t meet quality standards. (Bolt Threads)

Is the fungus still alive and can it keep growing within products?

For most commercial products (except for coffins), the mycelium is heat treated long before it reaches the customer in order to kill it, maintain the product's intended form and eliminate the risk that it could form mushrooms and allergens such as spores.

Oyster mushrooms grow out of bricks molded from mycelium. They were used to build a wall for an art installation created by AFJD, the design studio of Joe Dahmen and his wife, Amber Frid-Jiminez. (AFJD)

That said, some designers, such as Dahmen and his wife, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Canada Research Chair in Design and Technology at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, have experimented with living fungi.

"As architects and designers, we were really interested in the idea of a material that might aggregate and continue to grow once it was in the shape or form of whatever it was we were designing to," said Dahmen, who has a design studio with Frid-Jimenez called AFJD.

They once built a wall at the Museum of Vancouver that consisted of individual mycelium bricks that were left alive and eventually fused together.

"So you could imagine a kind of building technology that can kind of evolve and continue to grow, you know — sort of magical, in a way," he said.

In 2016, they created benches made from mycelium that included a space in the middle for mushrooms to fruit. They remained in use on campus for several months.

Generally, in normal indoor or outdoor conditions, they dry out and become inert. "But that doesn't mean they can't reawaken later," he said.

This mycelium bench created by Dahmen and Frid-Jimenez was alive and had holes in the middle for the mushrooms to grow. (Krista Jahnke)

That means it might be possible to engineer a building made with inert, mycelium-based materials that can be triggered to decompose or self-demolish at the end of the building's useful life. "In the right conditions, they might reawaken and start digesting the materials and finish the building." 

What else could mycelium be used for in the future?

Both Dahmen and Bismarck say it has a lot of potential as a building material — to replace foam insulation, for example.

Its insulating abilities have prompted Dahmen to use mycelium to create a biodegradable composting toilet for refugee camps that traps heat to speed up decomposition by heat-loving bacteria. After use, it can simply be buried. Dahmen is even playing around with integrating seeds into it so "basically you're kind of converting the excrement into a flower bed at the end."  

Bismarck and Jones have been experimenting with ways to make more advanced materials from mycelium. For example, they have found that by growing it in a mineral-rich environment, they can create mineralized, fire-resistant insulation panels.

Mycelium can also be used to make new advanced materials, such as these transparent, ultra-strong paper-like sheets. (Alexander Bismarck)

While most current mycelium products are composites that include agricultural or wood fibres, the researchers are also trying to create "nanomaterials" with pure fungi selected for their extra-fine fibres.

Those can be processed in a blender with some chemicals into interesting materials such as transparent, paper-like sheets. The mycelium paper can be made 10 times stronger than regular paper or designed to filter viruses or heavy metals from water.

One of the applications they're testing right now is mycelium-based wound dressings, which can help reduce bleeding, keep bacteria out and accelerate healing.

"It's simply incredible what a fungus can do," Bismarck said, adding that there are an estimated 5.1 million types of fungi out there, many with untapped potential. "It's still a vast space of biology that can do something for you."

China Makes It A Crime To Question Military Death Toll On The Internet

 

By Emily Feng

A paramilitary police officer talks next to a screen showing frontier soldiers of the People's Liberation Army during an event at a primary school in Wuzhishan, Hainan province, China, on Feb. 22. On the screen are (L-R) Qi Fabao, who was seriously wounded in the border clash with Indian troops in June last year, and four who were killed: Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran.

BEIJING — When China acknowledged this year that four of its soldiers had died fighting Indian forces on the two countries' disputed mountain border eight months prior, the irreverent blogger Little Spicy Pen Ball had questions.

"If the four [Chinese] soldiers died trying to rescue their fellow soldiers, then there must have been those who were not successfully rescued," he wrote on Feb. 19 to his 2.5 million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social media site. "This means the fatalities could not have just been four."

The day after, Qiu Ziming, the 38-year-old former newspaper journalist behind the blog, was detained and criminally charged. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to three years.

"Little Spicy Pen Ball maliciously slandered and degraded the heroes defending our country and the border," according to the annual work report published by the country's chief prosecutor office this month.

A contrite Qiu, sitting behind bars, called his actions "an obliteration of conscience" in a taped statement aired on the state broadcaster's prime-time news show on March 1.

Qiu's is the first case to be tried under a sweeping new criminal law that took effect March 1. The new law penalizes "infringing on the reputation and honor of revolutionary heroes." At least six other people have been detained or charged with defaming "martyrs." The government uses the terms "revolutionary heroes" and "martyrs" for anyone it memorializes for their sacrifice for the Communist Party.

The detentions typify the stricter controls over online speech under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which have deterred nearly all open dissent in the country. The new law even seeks to criminalize speech made outside China.

Such is the case of Wang Jingyu, 19, who lives in the United States and is now a wanted man in his hometown of Chongqing, China. The authorities accuse him of slandering dead Chinese soldiers after Weibo reported him for a comment questioning the number of border fight casualties.

"This is killing a monkey to scare the chickens," Wang says. "The Chinese state wants to show others that if anyone wants to be like me or relay the truth, then you will be pursued."

A 2018 law allows police to investigate speech defaming martyrs. Several people have been detained as a result, according to an online spreadsheet kept by a free speech activist, but such behavior did not carry a jail sentence until now.

"Cyberspace is not outside the law," the Chongqing public security bureau said in an online notice after it declared Wang would be "pursued online" for his comments. "Public security organs will crack down on acts that openly insult the deeds and spirit of heroes and martyrs in accordance with the law."

It's unclear how authorities plan to apprehend Wang. A police officer who contacted Wang, asking him to turn himself in, did not answer calls and texts from NPR.

China's ruling Communist Party is hyper-sensitive to challenges of its rule. One of the newer threats it has identified is "historical nihilism" — that is, rejecting the party's official version of history and its pantheon of revolutionary heroes and martyrs.

The four Chinese soldiers who died during the border clash last June are the newest members of this canon. They were killed high up in the Himalayas, where hundreds of Chinese and Indian soldiers armed with nothing but stones and batons beat each other bloody, with each side accusing the other of alleged encroachments over an unmarked border line. Days after the incident, India said 20 of its troops died in the brawl.

China refused to confirm fatalities on its side until this February, when it released the names of four soldiers killed and a fifth who was critically injured in the disputed Galwan Valley area. State media ran extensive footage of their service and the last hours of their lives.

The sudden media blitz infuriated Wang, he says. He had closely followed China and India's border tensions and questioned the initial lack of fatalities reported by China. He wondered about the families of the soldiers who he suspected had died, left to grieve silently in the absence of official recognition.

In late February, as he sat in the backseat of a friend's car in Europe, Wang went back and forth for half an hour over whether to write anything online. He currently lives in California but his parents remain in the Chinese municipality of Chongqing, where they worked for two state-owned firms.

"I knew if I mocked these soldiers, it would bring a negative impact on my parents," Wang says. "But I was just too angry." He pressed publish on three comments under a news item lauding the four Chinese troops.

The People's Liberation Army soldiers "deserved to die," he wrote, and the Indian forces were within their rights to confront their "offenders." Wang now acknowledges the comments were offensive, but he says he deliberately crafted them to push the bounds of speech in China.

His comments went viral and were aired on China's most-watched evening news program. Shortly after, Wang says his parents were questioned for hours by police officers.

Chongqing's police department did not respond to a request for comment.

In the days following his social media posts, Wang says his mother and father were kept under effective house arrest in their Chongqing home, where they were able to call Wang twice, briefly, under police watch. He has been unable to reach them since.

"They told me they support me, and they are proud of me," Wang said.

Amy Cheng contributed research from Beijing.

As the Chinese embassy in London prepares to move into its new location...

Councilors voted to consider naming roads and buildings in the surrounding area of the site Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road, and Tibet Hill.

Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court: Tower Hamlets plans name changes in solidarity

As the Chinese embassy prepares to move in, councillors vote to support the ‘freedom and diversity of our borough’

The Royal Mint building on Little Tower Hill in London has been purchased by the Chinese government to house its UK embassy. Photograph: Nigel Bowles/Alamy

By Haroon Siddique

At the handing-over ceremony for the site in the East End of London where the Chinese embassy is to be relocated, the ambassador boldly proclaimed that it would “write a new chapter for a China-UK golden era”.

Three years later, before the redevelopment has begun, those hopes appear in tatters after councillors in Tower Hamlets voted to consider naming roads and buildings in the surrounding area of the site Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and Tibet Hill, to assert “support for the freedom and diversity of our borough”.

In a move that is likely to infuriate the Chinese government, the councillors said they welcomed the relocation of the embassy from the West End but “we must continue to make clear where our own standards and principles apply”.The motion was passed after months of campaigning by opposition councillors for the local authority to issue a statement about human rights abuses by China, in light of Beijing’s purchase of the Royal Mint site in the borough for its embassy. The repression of Uighur Muslims is particularly sensitive for Tower Hamlets, which has the highest proportion of Muslim residents (38%) of any borough, according to the latest census.

The motion states: “This council resolves that Tower Hamlets council investigates whether roads or possibly new buildings near the location of the proposed Chinese embassy could be renamed appropriately as acts of solidarity with historic symbols or placenames of Chinese significance; for example Tiananmen Square, Tibet Hill, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and/or Xiaobo Road (in memory of Liu Xiaobo).”

Liu, a Nobel laureate and democracy campaigner, died in Chinese custody aged 61 in 2017, having been sentenced to an 11-year jail term for demanding an end to one-party rule.

The motion also notes that the Chinese embassy in the UK has written to a number of schools in the area to explore opportunities for potential collaboration, and calls for the nature of this to be ascertained to ensure it reflects the borough’s “proud history of standing up for each other as one community and celebrating our differences”.

It extends a welcome in the borough to Hong Kong residents taking up British citizenship under a new visa scheme and says the council will investigate what other actions it can take to show solidarity.

It is a far cry from the March 2018 handing-over ceremony for the historic Royal Mint site facing the Tower of London, when China’s ambassador Liu Xiaoming said the embassy would become “a new landmark in London” and the Tower Hamlets mayor, John Biggs, said the move showed the borough was “an open and dynamic place to live and work”.

Since then China has faced international condemnation of its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uighur people and clampdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

There have been heightened tensions between China and the west of late. Last year the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, condemned what he called “gross and egregious” human rights abuses in China’s western Xinjiang region, and last week he accused China of breaching the legal deal over the governance of Hong Kong.

The Liberal Democrat councillor Rabina Khan, who proposed the council motion, said: “Tower Hamlets has a unique history of welcoming people and at Wednesday’s full council meeting politicians unanimously came together on the amended motion that whilst we welcome the proposed relocation of the Chinese embassy, we also stand up against the CCP’s [Chinese Communist party’s] human rights violations.”

The motion assures the borough’s constituents that there will be no financial cost to them associated with the naming of the roads or buildings.

Last month council officers raised concerns about a separate issue in relation to the embassy: the impact on views of the Tower of London.

In a previous statement to the Guardian, the Chinese embassy in the UK said the new building would be a symbol of a “robust relationship” between the countries and that people should “stop using human rights as an excuse to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.

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Women greengrocers plan to dump vegetables on Manipur streets

 By Iboyaima Laithangbam

Imphal, Mar 18:

The move was to protest the failure of the government to allot market places after the all-woman markets were shut down last year in the wake of COVID-19.

Thousands of women who have been selling all varieties of vegetables in the markets in and around the Imphal city have planned to dump their vegetables on the streets.

A woman retailer, Binasakhi, said that the move was in protest against the failure of the government to allot market places to them after the all-woman markets in Manipur were shut down in March 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police have beefed up security measures to ensure that the women do not strew the vegetables in the streets.

Saytabati, another woman retailer said, “In Manipur women sell vegetables and other kinds of consumer items to run the houses. All these months we could not earn anything. We could not send our children to schools. It was quite a struggle to arrange two square meals a day”.

The women leaders told reporters that the government had closed down the markets in an attempt to contain the pandemic. However, they could not understand the government’s logic of allowing greengrocer bubbles to do thriving business a little away from the markets. The women greengrocers at lanes and small fields in some localities do not observe the standard operating procedures, including the use of face masks.

Recently, Chief Minister N. Biren had reopened the three women’s markets in the Imphal city. He said that during the closure of the markets loans were given to the women retailers. However, most of the women greengrocers and street vendors were not given any place to do their business.

 

Uniting Clashing Tribes With Sports, Manipur NGO Improves Attendance of 500 Kids

How Recognize Rise and Empower Association (RREA), a non-profit in Manipur, delivers quality education and is ending clash of the clans through sports. Their Sports for Social Development programme in Kamjong district is significantly improving students’ attendance, too.

By Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk

Last March, while the rest of the country was in lockdown, two villages inhabited by the Kuki and Thankgkul Naga tribes, respectively, in Kamjong district, Manipur, were suffering an ordeal of another kind. The Kukis from the Chassad village and the Tangkhul Nagas from the Sampui village have been engaged in a violent feud over decades-long land dispute. This resulted in armed attacks, burnt down jhum fields, homes and looting of household goods.

Such clashes capture the hostility that has existed between both tribes since colonial times. Suffice it to say, these hostilities revolve primarily over land rights, and more importantly, these clashes in the state aren’t limited to these two tribes or communities. In such a context, it does beg the question, what possibilities can sports create in a region which has historically witnessed different ethnic conflicts, bloodshed and violence?

Mathanmi Hungyo, the founder of Recognize Rise and Empower Association (RREA)—a non-profit which is working towards delivering quality education in Manipur’s border villages—and Rohit Agarwal, a programme director with RREA, explored that possibility in early 2018.

After all, this is a state which has consistently produced elite athletes ranging from Ngangom Bala Devi, the first Indian woman to become a professional footballer who currently plies her trade at Scottish giants Rangers FC to champion amateur boxers like MC Mary Kom and Dingko Singh, and weightlifting legends like Mirabai Chanu.

Tapping into the sporting potential of the state, RREA started an initiative called Sports For Social Development in 2018. They piloted the initiative by collaborating with Tata Trust to launch Manipur’s first grassroots football centre in Kamjong High School. The intention behind this centre was to create a space for children to come and play.

Speaking to The Better India, the 27-year-old Mathanmi Hungyo, who identifies as a Tangkhul Naga, remembers growing up in Imphal city as a minority.

“At school, you could feel the tension and hostility that existed between different communities in terms of how we sat together in class and how we made friends. But on the field, where I loved playing football, we would unite irrespective of which tribe or community we came from. Our only objective was winning and playing the game. Taking note of my personal experience and thinking about our people, who love playing sports, we felt this could be a medium to strengthen our sense of fraternity. A lot of our personal experiences went into developing this programme because we could see how sports could unite us by offering us spaces where we can come together,” notes Mathanmi.

“The pilot programme in 2018 created a monumental impact on developing children’s interest in sports. Many children started participating at the centre. Aside from marginally improving student attendance and enrolment, the most interesting outcome of this initiative was that children from different tribes started playing and interacting with each other. Leaving aside their identity-based differences, which have roots in historical clashes between different tribes in the strife-torn region, sports became a tool of conflict mitigation and peace-building among the students,” claims Rohit.

The Kamjong High School football team.

Breaking barriers through sports

Upon seeing the positive impact of their grassroots football centre at Kamjong High School, over more than one and half years, Mathanmi and Rohit felt a more comprehensive approach was required in their Sports for Social Development initiative. One which would encompass other aspects of children’s education.

Thus, in early 2020, the RREA expanded its grassroots football programme to other government schools—Phungyar Higher Secondary School and Kasom Khullen High School—and included other sports like volleyball, badminton, table tennis and even carrom for those interested in outdoor games.

Funded by the Kochi-based Anaha Trust, the programme also covered elements like developing play spaces in schools. This employs a more participatory approach where school, children, and community become equal participants in developing play spaces. Apart from this, the program intends to increase children’s attendance in school, support their learning competencies and enhance the scope for personality development. It also supplements RREA’s Teach For Northeast Fellowship program.

“These schools are located in places driven by underdevelopment, insurgency, conflict and violence. Therefore, the value of sports is very high. Children from poor and marginalised backgrounds undergo different mental health issues, social dysfunction, and many other issues which affect their ability to learn. In such a context, a mediator like sports can actually ensure children’s right to quality education. The influence of sports on character formation and social cohesion has direct bearing on peaceful attitudes. It also helps children to better express themselves in the process. Self-awareness is an important life skill which children often develop through sports,” argues Rohit.

These elements evidently have a bearing on achieving peace between different communities, an essential objective for any initiative seeking social change.

“Sports offers a platform where children from different ethnic groups participate together to play and interact. This has led to building peace amongst each other. These children would otherwise remain in their own social groups when inside a classroom. But with the advent of our sports programme, their interest in playing with each other has grown. Sports has helped break these social barriers and encouraged children to interact with each other,” he adds.

Girls at Kamjong High School during football training.

Inspiring youth, inspiring generations

Driving the RREA’s initiative in these schools are 14 members of the organisation and sports educators, who have left behind good opportunities to return home and make a difference.

Take the example of Viso Shimray, a certified All India Football Federation (AIFF) ‘D’ licensed sports coach, who has previously worked with the Baichung Bhutia Football Academy in Delhi. Viso has come back to Manipur to be around his community in Kamjong and help the children through Sports.

“These educators are passionate youth who come from local communities. The idea is to invest and build capacity of the local youth so that the intervention remains sustainable. Also, these youth can inspire and become role models for the children as they would be able to relate with the local people more than someone from outside,” says Rohit.

The educators are qualified to conduct sports training and have prior experience in the field. They are both graduates and hold a masters degree in physical education. One of their educators, for example, completed his Masters degree from National Sports University.

Sports educator Viso Shimray coaching students.

“Sports sessions at these three schools extend for three-four days in a week, although earlier it was for all school days. But our sports educators felt that students needed regular breaks for physical recovery. Today, these sessions last for about 1.5 hours after school. They are coached for an hour and then play for another 30 minutes. Besides football, there is volleyball, badminton and table tennis. For those not interested in outdoor sports, we give them facilities to play games like carrom board. These students can choose whatever sport they want, but most girls and boys love football. Our project schools also participate in local sports tournaments. One of the schools, Phungyar Higher Secondary School, will host the upcoming inter-district sports competition,” says Mathanmi.

Recently, the Kamjong High School boys football team were awarded the ‘Best Team’ in a district-level school tournament thanks to their fine performances on the pitch. The team is now getting invitations for other tournaments organised at the State level.

Assisting the RREA is the district administration, which has extended their full support.

“We have received total cooperation from the district administration, but no monetary aid. For the recent Border Area Development Programme, a centrally sponsored scheme implemented by the State government, the local district administration has sent a proposal to better equip indoor badminton and basketball courts at these schools. Although the proposal hasn’t been approved yet, they have expressed a genuine desire to help us build the necessary sports-related infrastructure for these schools,” adds Mathanmi.

Students exercising

The boys and girls who love football

Hanminao Malung, a student of Kamjong High School from Bungpa Khullen village, talks about how football has become a genuine medium for self-expression. Before the initiative took shape, she talks about how girls would mostly roam around the corridor or talk amongst their groups during their free time in school or recess. But thanks to educators like Viso, she found a platform to express herself through sports.

“One of the best things about sports in our school is our sports educator. Viso Sir provided us with all the necessary equipment and guidance to play sports. He also teaches us the health benefits of playing sports which no one told me before. Before our new sports educator, we were very hesitant to play sports. We felt that only boys would play sports like football. But our sports educators have also made girls play football. I like it when he brings together both boys and girls into mixed groups to play sports. Besides raising my confidence, the best part of playing football is the friends I have made,” she says.

Mangjalen Haokip, a 13-year-old boy from Chassad village, has always devoted himself to football. He was among the first students to join the sports programme at Kamjong High School in 2018. Prior to it, he played on his village playground without any guidance. Much to their credit, his parents have really encouraged him to pursue his interest in the sport.

“There have been various improvements in me personally and socially after attending the sports sessions. I am more open, confident and motivated. Thanks to sports, I have made many friends from other tribes, which I think helps the larger society,” he says.

Besides technique and skill, Mangjalen says that the football programme has taught him good manners, how to maintain a positive attitude and respect for punctuality.

“One of the biggest impacts of our initiative has been that children from different tribes started playing and interacting together. Children from different tribes are getting along well with each other and communicating in English. Before it was very common to see children interacting only with students from their tribes and speaking in their respective dialects. Also, during these sporting activities, it has been observed that children are now more supportive and accepting towards appointment of captains/other leadership positions towards students from other tribes. This change in the mindset of students and positive behavior development is the most rewarding impact of our initiative,” says Mathanmi.

Another significant impact has been improvement in school attendance. According to the RREA’s own findings, as a result of their intervention across the three government schools, 484 students (240 students – Phungyar High School, 170 students – Kamjong High School, 74 students – Kasom Khullen High School) who would earlier attend class less than 40 percent of the time now have attendance levels averaging over 80 per cent. Meanwhile, for the upcoming academic year, there are 200 students looking to enrol in Phungyar High School alone thanks to their sports development programme.

“The openness of these sports programmes encouraged school-going children to participate in the sport of their choice irrespective of their individual skills and talent levels. Apart from the three project government schools with around 500 direct student beneficiaries, RREA’s sports program is also supporting close to another 500 children from other community schools through sports. In total, we are impacting close to 1000 children. These 500 children are part of other community schools that also come to participate in the sports program. The number of these community schools varies in the range of 12-14 in number with a mix of private, government aided and government schools,” says Rohit.

“Any child who does not have access to play spaces lacks the opportunity to develop holistically. Thus, creation of play spaces in schools provides children with an opportunity to network, socialise and interact with each other. They are now able to establish positive relationships with their peer groups and students from other tribes. In addition, children are able to form a positive self-image, thereby allowing themselves to accept the way they are. This gives children a better understanding of values like empathy where they are no longer judging others. Instead, they are cooperating and supporting each other,” says Mathanmi.

 

 Source: thebetterindia.com/