It's not a good sign

Between my last post and tonight, there was nil connectivity on the BSNL network.

If we start counting from the last Sunday, we have only 3 days with internet--that is, 3 days out of total 8.

My hunch is that BSNL is field testing their 3G roll out. When we had no internet for several days continuosly I saw a lot of activities around the neighbourhood BSNL mobile tower.

Around that time, Tata Indicom also ran advertisement on newsparers featuring their Photon,which they claim to be 20 times faster than the current wireless tech.

All these things point to one thing only--imminent roll out of BSNL 3G.

But why should they switch off their DSL service to field test the coming 3G?

I think it's not a good sign.

Some kind of a record

It's a some kind of a record.

I could not log on into the BSNL network from the night of the Saturday last and it became ok only last night.

How many days?!

BTW, I'm getting the flu virus. It's a bit uneasy when we are in the midst of the swine flu pandemic.

Yesterday I was getting better. But in the afternoon, I went for nearly an hour of sun bathing.

Now, it's getting worse.

I'll be resting for some days.

Ah! The administrative route again!!

So many important beaurocrats started descending here from Delhi that it is a quite a spectacle here.They have the task of incorporating the common people in developmental process. That's what the Prime Minister said in Delhi some days is the most compelling task here in Manipur.

It's a welcome move from Delhi. We should have an active and ongoing dialogoue about incorporating common people in the developmental process.

We should start from where we stand right now.

Where do we stand now?

The ground we stand now is mostly identified as the one where there is rampant fear of the State.Nobody feels secure.Anybody can be intimidated or even killed by the State security forces on the fabricated allegation that he/she is a member of any rebel group.

If the common people is fearful of the State, how the State expect them to come forward and begin participating in the developmental initiated by it?

It is in the domain of common sense to understand that this fear of the State should be erased from the common people's mind before any meaningful initiative be planned.

This task is cut out for the political leadership both of Imphal and New Delhi. It's not the task of beaurocrats who would deploy only administrative tools to achieve the goal of incorporating the common people in the developmental process.

First, the political leadership should admit that the very apparatus of the State,the policemen, are trampling the rule of law.

Unless they do so, there cannot be any beginning of anything here.

No to twilight zone

When there was a police medal awarded to a Manipuri who works as a SP in CBI,New Delhi, the news got disproportionately large space in all newspapers here. To be fair, he was among the select 19 who got the presitgious police medals, awarded to them by the President of India.

The news came amidst the turmoil we are in, in the aftermath of the murder of an arrested person by the Manipur police commandos.

Then,came the selection of Ratan Thiyam as the VC of Sangeet Natak Akademi,New Delhi.

Did someone in New Delhi try to send a message to the general populace of Manipur?

The message--'We care'.

If this is the case, we have a lot of problem at hand. If New Delhi want to send any message,it should be within the established Constitutional norms like asking the State government what steps have been taken up to prevent police excesses or dismissing the State government itself for failure to upheld the Constitutional provisions etc.

If they choose administrative route(like awarding of police medal or appointment to an important post) to send the message,then we get another unintended yet profound message--'the general populace here should try to live with police or military exceeses as long as there is rebellion--there would neither be rule of law nor enforcement of Constitutional provisions here as long as there is rebellion here'.

We should say a firm 'no' if New Delhi try to push us inside a twilight zone where there would neither be rule of law nor the enforcement of Constitutional provisions.

BJP parliamentary team vist is a pure PR exercise.Period.

The visit of BJP's parliamentary team here is purely a PR exercise. It's laughable to hear them saying that 'they support the people's movement'.Talking of 'people's movement' is a sure sign that they are abdicating their own duties.

It's also another way of expressing their desire at their subconscious level they will wait out the present turmoil here.

Sure, they may be tagged as the BJP MPs but the words and body languages are of the ruling class of New Delhi.

The picture is very clear--it's now border provinces vs the mainland India.

That's the only reason why all the MPs cutting across party lines have been doing their bits to snub out the issue of murdering of an arrested person by the Manipur Police Commandos from the floor of the Parliament.

If that's the reason, why didn't the BJP MPs bring up the issue on the floor of the Parliament and grill the ruling party on why they did not take actions?

They are abdicating their duties.

To cover up this abdication,they planned a visit here purely as PR exercise.

It's disgusting.

Military planes

I heard it again.

At around 11.30 am, there was a roar of jet engine which was deeper and more reverberating than the normal sounds produced by commercial jetliners.

I could not see a thing.

Most tellingly, it was there for roughly 5 minutes and then it was gone. If it was a commercial jetliner, the roar would be there for some considerable time.

Then, at around 3 pm a military turboprop appeared in the skyline. It took a detour of the mountain range of what appeared to be Ukhrul area and then it cut the Imphal valley diagonally, flying towards Churachandpur side.

I watched it returning again and again. Then, I went inside for my lunch.

IMPERIAL DELHI

People stay back at homes(because of the continuing 36 hours long general strike) and read the news first in the morning.

What's the gist of the news today?

MANIPUR NEEDS MORE POLICEMEN!

People read this first in the morning told to them by none other than the Prime Minister. They are observing a 36 hrs long general strike to protest policemen murdering an arrested man and they are being told that they need more policemen. This is the height of insensivity on the part of power that be.

It's quite clear that the ruling class in New Delhi has not the DNA to connect with the people of Manipur.

I visualize that majority of the people would have thrown away the morning papers disgusted with the headline.They immersed themselves to the usual daily chores culminated in the grand partaking lunch. That is, leisurely partaking of lunch because they had so much time at hand today!

Well, then, they realized that they had lot of time at hand and no particular work to accomplished. At that point of time, they returned to their morning papers again.

Further and deeper reading of the papers revealed yet another announcement from Delhi.

DELHI WOULD GIVE MORE MONEY!

Without trying to connect with the people at the grassroot level, what would money accomplish?

EMPIRE?

In my mind, people are going through this tumult right now, not in a vacuum but instead undergoing a learning process. History teaches us that such tumults remove the smokescreen created by great imperial powers and help people see who's who.

People is learning what New Delhi is.

IMPERIAL DELHI.

We are ready military option also:India

It's increasingly becoming clear that the killing of 2 NSCN(IM) cadres at Phungyar by the Indian military was an act of unprovoked assault. There was no provocation from NSCN(IM)'s side.

There was an unprovoked assault on the cadres of a rebel group with which the Government of India is being closeted for pease talk because they wanted to send a message.

They are sending a loud and clear message to all concerend(that includes China) that they are ready for military option.

Why did they choose the cadres of NSCN(IM)?

It's because they want the message as complete as possible--'for the time being we are practising military restraint by talking, and giving much leeway, to rebel groups like NSCN(IM) but if necessary we are also ready for hard military option'.

That there needs to be messages sent to China means the complexion of insurgency in NE India has already undergone a sea change.

By the way, here is another link that reveal another facet of India-China.

Ridiculous practice

I have always suspectd that it has been BSNL's practice of resting

their DSL servers on most Saturdays and Sundays.

Even if it's a Saturday, they should not had shut their network on the

15th of August.

But I found out that they shut their networks during the entire day and

night of 15th of August. Then, whole day of the following day. I tried

to log on at around 6 in the evening but no there was no internet. I

had no moods to go near my desktop during the night.

I thnk it's a ridiculous practice.

Is this also a part of the masterstroke?

I got the news from Poknapham dated 13th of August.

The news is about china wanting to break up "Great Indian Federation".

I google the 3 words and this link comes up first in the search result list.

The article was written by Zhan Lue and published in the iiss.cn on the 8th August 09.

What's striking is that it was published on the 8th.

The photos of murder of an arrested person was published by Tehelka datelined 9th of August.It's usual for online edition to appear before the dateline.

In my mind,there seems to be a plan in bringing out the two publications almost simutaneously.

Is the same player producing the masterstroke of a strategic execution(my last post) also the inspiration behind the publication of the chinese viewpoint?

I cannot help asking this question.

Tiger in plain sight(with an apology to Tehelka)

We grew up amidst the heady cocktail of oral history or myths or
futurology or name it what you like it to be.

Consider this one story:

'In some futures to come, there will be one big day when a tiger, in
broad daylight and in the middle of the Keithel, will devour a pregnant
woman and then,such and such scenario would follow'.

In our childhood,we were mostly mesmerized by the stark imageries
thrown up by the story. In broad daylight! A tiger devouring a pregnant
woman!!

We did not give particular attention to the description of the scenario
that would follow the event. Normally,such stories describe the coming
event and the other half, the scenario that would follow the event.

Now, I cannot recollect the other part of the story describing the
scenario.

The edition of Poknapham dated 12th of August had a letter to the
editor mentioning the above story. Without reading the Pokanpham
letter, I might not have find another trigger to remember the story as
we had in our childhood.

As we have come this far,it's natural to be extremely curious about the
other part--the scenario thing. The Pokanpham letter mentioned the
scenario as:'the authentic clues would come up' and 'the true picture
would emerge.

I'm not sure if this is the scenario that we had heard in our
childhood.

But the line-'the true picture would emerge'-is extremely intriguing.

Of course, I have a theory!!

It's a foregone conclusion that Tehelka has neither the will nor the
resouce to get the phtographas and accompanying story by itself. So?
Well,let's put in a negative sense. If it were not something to do with
the rebel groups,there would already be claims staking laurels for
facilitating the Tehelka group to carry the story and the photos.

So the facilitator comes from the eco-system of the rebels.Let's call
the rebel group throwing up the facilitator as 'x'.

Now, there was a tumult here following the publishing of the
photographs. It's not hard to imagine all of the active cadres of the
bountiful rebel groups were all participants as the agitators in the
streets.

Here, one extremely significant development comes up. All of the cadres
who are not of the group 'x'would have participated in the agitations
with the deep feelings in their hearts that their groups' leaders were
not capable of producing the Tehelka feat. 'X' group is giving the lead
and they are following--they would have surely conscious of this fact.

Now, consider the public's likely impression. Around 23rd of July, the
group 'x' got hold of the photos and they managed to plug any leak of
the existence of them,even when the State Assembly was in session.
Now, the photos reached Delhi and the Parliament was also in session.
Here again, they managed to persuade Tehelka to carry the story and the
photos,still plugging any leak. Delhi's ruling would be very hungry for
such a leak!

Manipur State Assembly's session ended with the end of July. Still no
leaks. The Chief Minister was to lead the state delegation to meet the
officials of the Planning commission on the 2nd August. The news of the
photos was carried by the cable news in the evening of 1st of August,
thus giving the Chief Minister only the night of 1st August to react to
the development. Only when he reahed Delhi did he relaized the gravity
of the situation.

It's the masterstroke of a strategic execution.

The public is impressed by this masterstroke. And, the rebel cadres
have to admit to themselves that they are following group 'x'.

Then,isn't it the case the group 'x' getting the mandate from the
public?

So, the scenario line should run like this--'the true picture(of the
public giving the mandate to the group 'x' and all the other groups
following the lead the group 'x') would emerge'.

This theory of mine is amazing. Isn't it?

The flicker of hope

It must be surely more 100 men and women there. May be, touching 150 mark. They were lining up to use the lone SBI ATM in Paona Bazar!

Passing them by, I said to myself--'If so paople start thronging up a lone ATM,they are murderng the essence of an ATM--convenience!'.

But...but, that number paled into insignificance when you had a glimpse what's going at the SBI branch at Paona Bazar.

The branch was not yet open for business. But the queue spilled out from Paona Bazar itself and emptying out itself on to the street beside the flyover.

It was the longest queue I have ever seen in my life!

Is everybody after cash? Or, what? I'm still confused.

But when you reached Khoyathing police point, it was literally what you call the case of 'all hell breaking loose'. The area was so packed with men,women,cars,motorbikes,cycles,cyclerickshaws that you could not find a space to put one 0f your feet a little forward.

It was madness.

I felt pity for the 2 dozen or so traffic police and MR troopers whe were trying to manage the madness.

I freed myself from the mad rush and walked into the Thangal Bazar street. There I found the cars bumper to bumper right upto Sani mandir. I again escaped from there towards Nagamapal Road, thinking that it might be better there.

But there also,there were cars bumper to bumper going in a snail pace all throughout the lenght of the road.

I was walking along the foothpath and I found out that it was a rare chance of seeing all the faces of drivers and riders of so many cars in such a short stretch of a street.

All the faces seemed to be very patient.

No cussing and hollering--usual in a such a traffic snarl.

Suddenly, a thought struck me. Were not the faces inside the cars the faces of men and women determined to play by rules?

Manipur Police commandos are so unruly that the rest of the population start seeing the neccssity of playing by some rules!

Is this the case?

See, we have several days of widespread agitations throughout the State. This time around,all the agitators also seemed to be playing by some minimum rules. No torching of Govt vehicles and offices.

Is this the nature such tumult we are living in right now to lift the population up a higher level of moral standard?

I'll be elated if this is the case.

Now,it's the Manipur Police Commandos's turn to lift themselves up to higher level of moral values and to start practising finer police duties.

But what about the Chief Minster?

Dear Chief Misnister, the first step in lifting yourself up to higher moral ground is to act on what you had said in front of media men of the country--the Judicial Inquiry.

Please cancel the Magisterial inquiry and take immediate steps to institute the Judicail inquiry.

This may yet be your last chance to save yourself from the widespread condemnation you would like be faced in futures to come.

Manipur Police Commandos in TIME magazine

I've just read a Time magazine report featuring Manipur Police Commandos. It was datelined 1oth August and I"ve read it as feed in my iGoogle.

Here is the link.

It was quite a scene.

I had to quickly meet a friend.

This morning,with the curfew knocking at the door from 9 am, I did indeed quickly learn that you cannot do a 'meet- a- friend- quickly' job quickly enough! There are so many a little things involved meeting up with a friend. And with the curfew there I came to learn that they took a lot of time.

It was nearly 8.30 when I managed to reach Khwairamband.Already,everybody was starting to pack up and stores to pull down shutters. I even notices Manipur Police commandos were walking randomly among the elderly women vendors, muttering quitely but with a lot of menace--'Pack up, pack up, before we are forced to snatch away your merchandise'(loisilloko, eikhoina cheikhairaktri-ngeida, loisilloko).

I needed to buy some leafy green ones!

But I was there standing with only the bunch of banana in my hands, mesmerized by the crowd behaviour.'Crisis'is the keyword and it was written largely on everybody's face.

I returned home along the Paona Bazar Road. Just then,Commando Gypsy, with their siren blaring annoyingly loudly, started coming,driving extremely slowly, down the road from the wrong direction. They were breaking the one-way traffic there with smirk faces. They were impeding the movements of people hurrying back home.

It was quite a scene.

And, I have to go without any vegetable today. That's because I am here amidst a 'crisis'.

Wishful thinking

Seeing yeterday's edition of 'Sa-ngai Express' gave me the nasty feeling that it desperately wants to wish away the murder of a citizen by Manipur Police commandos. The whole body language of the paper oozes out the message--'Let all the agitations on the streets come to an end and the developmental works start'.

I wanted to post my impressions yesterday itself but BSNL seemed to have more urgent task than giving internet to its customers all through out yesterday!

To add spice to this nasty feeling, I found a featured aricle, titled 'Are we following appropriate procedures?' by Kenilworth Yambem. This is the first time I ever read a write up by him.

I'll quote some portion of the 2nd para:

"Yes,it is common knowledge that the Ibobi adminsitration is at the morally wrong end of the equation for supposed disinformation to the public and the State legislature,but that dose not authorised the public to take the law into its own hands. That is likely to bring the public towards the morally wrong end too. Constitutional provision of peaceful demonstarations do not include abject hooliganism. The Government would then conveniently use public disorder as a premise to follow a series of repressions. Furthermore, Article 355 of the Constitution gives the Centre the right to intervene in case of internal disturbance in a State. One must keep in mind that the Government's loss of public moral support does not immediately imply its loss of legitimacy. ... "

I'm still confused by the last line above.

Towards the end of 3rd para, there is one line which needs to be quoted:

"As of now, a President's Rule declaration is not in the cards as the Constitutional machinery has not failed."

Manipur Police Commandos murdered an arrested person. The murder was documented by vivid photographs.It's to be noted here that the case is the culmination of a series of killings which were widely percieved by the public to be the handiworks of Manipur Police commandos. There was even a newspaper reporter among those who were killed. There is clearly a trend of events in which the Manipur Poloce commandos are widly percieved to be active agents in trampling of rule of law. In other words,they are widely believed to be the agents of saboteur of Constitutional machinery. All these are allowed to happen with the enouragement of the Chief Minister, who being also the home minister have the hands on knowledge of the working of the police department. Even when the photographs came out, he refused to suspend the guilty personnel. The suspension came only after the widespread protest. If it's not a failure of Constitutional machinery, what is it?

The writer seems to think that widespread anarchy as a only scenario which warrants the tagging of 'failure of Constitutional machinery'.

He concludes with this paragraph, which is quoted in full:

"To conclude with, the development of collective hysteria and it sintensity manifests the collective temperament of the public in times of crisis. At this day and age,we do not need brave swordsmen and warriors carrying meaningless sacrifice as their trump card.Rather,what we need is collective struggle with a rational constraint so that feasible demands are met with".

This is the last paragraph.

Why doesn't he elaborate a little on the anatomy of the 'collective struggle with a rational constraint'.

New thingies

Khwairamband Keithel was flush with fresh vegetable this morning.

It's a bit ironic, isn't it?

That we have been under curfew for days now should have heralded a scarcity in evrything,especially, the perishables, like, vegetables.

But I should not fail to note that there is blanket increases in prices. There is steep increase in the prices of grains and cereal also.

I bought a lot of leafy green vegetable this morning. There seemed to be a lot of those stuff there but, still,the sellers got good prices. That must be because of the fact there was limited time to purchase stuff. Everybody seemed to be in hurry.

And,another new trend is that majority of the people seem to choose to stay home out of their own volition.

When there were curfews before,they were more like extended holidays!

Everybody can see vividly what the State can do to a citizen, courtesy of the photos of Tehelka. So, they stay home and try to figure out what has just come to them.

All Delhi's men

It's increasingly becoming self evident.

The Chief Minister acted on the instructions given to him by the ruling class of Delhi while he was in New Delhi itself.

The intructions:

1. Pay lip service to judicial inquiry and buy time.

2. Suspend some Manipur police commando pesonnel.

3. After some days(when there is no agitations in the streets) say there would be judicial inquiry only after the completion of the magisterial inquiry,now underway.

If the ruling class of Delhi stoops so low,it's our legitimate right to put intoplay this conjecture:

They quitely kept in touch with the Opposition leader in Parliament and then, with all other leaders of the smaller smaller political parties.

Their main thrust: Let the Tehelka photos of the murder of an arrested man by Manipur police comandos be kept off limit from the floor of the Parliament,in session right at the moment.

Their premises: INDIA'S NATIONAL INTEREST.

The above can only explain why the Tehelka photos do not(so far)come up for discussions on the floor of the Parliament.

In case, the ruling class of Delhi dares to stoop so low, it's the sad day for India's democracy.

And here, in a box called Manipur, we are increasingly becoming the sacrificial lambs for the INDIAN NATIONAL SECURITY matters.

But what about history?

That Rome, the infallible Rome, declined and fell flat on the ground because of the moral depravity of its ruling class.

Delh's ruling class is despearately in need of some quick lessons in history.


AN ANECDOTE
----------

I was hurrying back home. I was in a state that can be best described as half walking-half running!

It was nearing 9 am when the curfew re-starts.

I was just past Friend Talkies,when I saw kids skittering into several gullys, with fear writ large on their faces.

Just then the drama began.

It must be 7-8 motorbikes. Those riding pillions had their AK rifles hung carelessly from their left shoulders while their right hands hold longist and menacing sticks.

The motor bikes rode in tandem covering the whole breadth of the street, all the while their riders hollering and swinging their sticks.

That's Manipur police commnados ways of announcing that the curfew relaxation time was over. And,it was not even 9 am when the curfew re-starts.

They swept past by me, coming from the opposite side of my walking direction.

When I reached the Paona International Market,they were coming back riding in the same fashion.

I was walking furiously on the footpath,as farthest as psooible from the edge of the street.

From behind me, someone was calling:

"Oh, dear! one of those pineapples have fallen away".

Yes! I was carrying some pineapples!! Remembering this, I turned back suddenly to pick up the fallen one.

But instead of seeing the (not)fallen pineapple, I saw the fuzzy faces of the Manipur police commandos, speeding up.

These are the voices I heard from the motor bike riding nearest to me:

"Ha, ha"

"Hee. hee".

They were making fun of me.


MORAL OF THE STORY
-----------------

Moral depravity zips down from the top to the bottom of the pyramid with a terrifying speed.

Last night

Last night I was so eager to post the day's happenings around here.

But BSNL's network was down and I waited till 11 pm to find out if there was resumption of service then.

Dreadful counting

World is so full of people who condone and support lawlessness. I thought Delhi, being an emerging player of coming global polarity, would be appalled by the Tehelka photos.

And the Chief Minister was in uncharacteristic self when he stormed out of meeting in Planning Commission office. Was it a stage-managed drama so as to enable him to stay a bit longer in New Delhi?

I've this dreadful feeling when I have to start counting so many people who are spporters of lawlessness, not less in fancied New Delhi.

Right, at the moment, I'm hearing so many sounds of explosion of mock bombs used to disperse the 'meira paibis' who are palnning a torch rally.

I've this uneasy feeling that brute force of the State would crush such agitations of the aggrieved people.

POSTSCRIPT:
Just read that the CM had instituted a judicial probe--that's in Google News. Was it the case of Delhi people forcing his hand?

Most wanted man(as the newspaper puts it).

------------------------------
CM most wanted in Delhi
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, August 03 2009: Chief Minister O Ibobi, who is presently in Delhi, is said to be swarmed up by national media paparazzis following the report and photos in Tehelka Magazine on the Khwairamband Bazar incident of July 23 .

Sources in Delhi said packs of journalists have thronged the Manipur Bhavan in Delhi in large numbers today seeking interview with the CM.

The journalists were said to have waited for the CM till late in the evening.

It was, however, a disappointment for the journalists as the CM did not grant audience with them.

Sources said he is likely to address the media Tuesday evening.
----------------------------------



It's sometimes appropriate to do a cut and paste job. The above is from a Hueiyen Lanpao report.

Reading it, I get the following impressions:

1. As far as I can remember, the Chief Minister has previuosly scheduled meetings with Planning Commission officials to chalk out the plan outlay of the State. It seems he did not attend to his duties of going there.

2. All the important people there in the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi seemed eager to get the Chief Minister confined to Manipur Bhavan. It's also likely that he was politely instructed not to meet the media.

I get this distinct feeling that the Congress party leadership in Delhi is busy checking out if the Tehelka photographs are fakes or not.

As in the previous day, I was greeted with silence from the street front(my last post). When noon came I began to hear the sounds of explosion of mock bombs used by the police to chase away crowds in the streets. It was, and still is, what the newspapers love to call sporadic sounds of explosions.

As I'm typing this out,I can hear explosions. They come mainly from Singjamei Yumnam Leikai side. Let's say, from Yaiskul side.

As I went out in the evening, the first thing I noticed was that besides the usual posse of Manipur police in duty in the street there were Assam Rifles troopers as well.

As I was going through the street of Paona Bazar, I fancied that I could notice subtle change in the faces of the people. They seemed to feel something important was in the offing.

I bought an eveninger and returned home.

The paper mainly focussed on the pitched battle in the streets of Khurai area between the bandh supporters and the policemen.

Just now, I heard police are using public address systems announcing something. Most probably, they are imposing curfew.

As the Chief Minister has already forfeited his moral right to govern, we have already come face to face a power vacuum here.

All quiet on every front!

It was late when I tumbled out of bed this morning--around 8. Dutifully, I went straight to my morning chores--toiletting, breakfasting, morning papers,showering. But amidst all thses tasks, I trained my ears towards picking up noticeable sounds from the street, which is hardly 30 feet away. Street sounds are sure barometer of how a bandh is faring. This morning I was trying to pick up one sound--that of 1000cc diesel autorickshaws. They are bandh killers. If noticeable sounds of them were picked up, the particular bandh is a failure.

This morning's decision: All quiet on the street front.

Sure enough, when I ventured out into the street in the evening, I immediately sensed it is one of those rare bandhs in which people in general responded.

When I started walking along the Paona Bazar road, I bumped into several cricket matches! That's not normal. In most bandhs, you would find cricket matches along the governor road or masjid road; but not along the Paona Bazar street itself.

But one thing made my breathing easier--there was no ploice commandos in sight. I said to myself--'Good'.

But when I reached the Uripok police point under the overbridge, I found numerous police commando personnel sitting right there, on mostly, red chairs. They parked their motor bikes right in the middle of the street.

I said to myself--' They sure descended into this world with thicker than average skin'.

I can't imagine why they don't have qualm in showing off their faces in public places at this juncture. There must be serious flaw in what they perceive to be the moral values of mankind.

They sure can have commando units in the police. But every aspiring commando should be packed off to a reputable police academy outside the State for gruel training lasting not several months but sevral years. There they should be inculcated with the idea of what constitute the rule of law, public morality, human rights, duties of protecting public property and life.

I quickly bought an eveninger and headed home.

The paper have a detailed report of how the police had the hard times in controlling bandh supporters,especially in Khurai and Lamsang. But there was not a single report on how the dissident MLAs were planning. Neither the political manouvering in Delhi.

It seems there is a deafening silence on the political front as well.

For a small man like me who have no privileged information, today is the case of "All quiet on every front".

Poor man!

The big, bad guy of Manipur

The Tehelka photos are the class in itself showing how policemen shot and killed an arrested person in cold blood. The link for the photos are here.

When I walked down the street of Paona Bazar in the evening, all of the Manipur Police Commando officers were nowhere to be seen. As I have to walk up and down this particular street several times a day, most of them are very familiar faces to me.

Today, I could see only few police commandos,all of them seemed to be new recruits. Seeing their face, I said to myself--'They seem to be blissfully ignorant of what have just hit them'.

Reaching the overbridge, I searched for an eveninger. There I found that the Chief Minsiter had just instituted a magisterail inquiry into the killing of the arrested person by the police commandos.

Reading the paper by the side of the street, I agian said to myself--'Even the Chief Minsiter himself is blissfully unaware of what have just hit him'.

In case the Chief Minister had instituted a judicial inquiry, he might have a remote chance of saving his political career.

But, now the die has already been cast. There is no turning back now.

The Chief Minsiter will always be remembered as the big, bag guy of Manipur who condoned and supported lawnlessness while still occupying the office of chief ministership.


Postscript:

I should put the following obsevation of mine in black and white.

In the morning, I went out to buy a copy of Huieiyen Lanpao. It was hardly 9 in the morning. But all the copies of the morning papers were sold out. I tried all the places I know where you can buy morning papers. Not a single copy of any newspapers was there--all sold out.Normally, you can buy newspapers even until noon.

In most evenings the usual scene under the overbridge is the gang of several newspaper hawkers standing there and trying to sell the papers to the passerbys.This evening, not a single hawker there. When I bought the paper, I had to look out for a hawker in sevral streets. Apparently, all the eveningers were also sold out.

So, the people are devouring the news.

Is 'Balochistan' the strategic shift?

I think we can say with a tone of certainty that the ruling class in New Delhi is not that naive to agree to bring Balochistan to the table without some carefully charted out gameplan.

So, what might be the gameplan?

We can look to 3 recent reports from the Eastern front:

1. The latest Sukhois are to be deployed in Tezpur airbase. Before its announcement the then outgoing Air Chief minced no words in saying that China is the enemy no 1.

2. The former Army Chief, now the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, told mediamen that there would be fresh deployment of 2 more divisions along the borders with China. I think putting in another 2 division along the border(for that matter, any border) is a big decision.

3. India's main battle tank, T72s, has just been deployed along the borders with China in the Sikkim sector. This is a huge decision. India has such a urgency in deploying the tanks that the Border Road Organization(BRO) had had to put in 'a monumental work'to make the mountainous Sikkim roads tanks-ready. For such a service one personnel of the BRO has been awarded with the highest militaty galantry!

So, India is definitely building up military capabilities in the Eastern front.

Viewed from this angle, we can say that agreeing to bring Balochistan to the table definitely sends the clear message to the Pakistanis that, from now on, there would be more cordial talks in the Western front while there would more urgent military build ups along the Eastern front.

It's also likely that there is also a message for the general populace of Pakistan: now, the lay Pakistanis have the rooms to see that if 'big brother' India insists on talking about Kashmir, they are also ready to talk about Balochistan as well. It's likely to make a soothing effect on the people to people relation of the two countries.

So, Balochistan means 'talks' in the Western front while there would be urgent military build ups in the Eastern front.

A definite strategic shift.