The July 23rd killings and the looming war

We are witnessingg several momentous events.

First,the Chinese general,who is some sort(their official designation
is little confusing) of deputy Chief of Staff of the People's
Liberation Army of PRC visited New Delhi.

Second, the Chinese general who is headquartered in Llasa and who is
managing the soldiers directly facing the Indian soldiers along
Sikkim-Arunachal sector is currently on a visit to the Eastern Command
in Fort Williams in Kolkatta.

These two seems perfectly routine if we don't consider a press release
by the PRO of the Indian Army.It was carried by PTI dated 5th DEcember.

It said the Indian Army was given a very short time by the political
leaderships to get prepare for war. It went on to say that within that
time constraints it was now ready for the war.

It's true--Indian military is gearing up for a war with China.

So,they are not just routine visits by the Chinese generals.They are
meant to be the face-to-face sizing up of an opposing compabant with
whom a fight would soon to be joined.RIGHT?

Now, I'm coming to the most crucial part:

IF my last post is TRUE,then we must return to the events in Imphal to
understand why there should a war at all.

We must remember that New Delhi specifically instructed the Chief
Minister to hold talks with the agitationists to end the current
political turmoil.

As intsructed, a ministerial team began talking with the agitationist
in right earnest.

After the first meeting, the agitationists dropped a bombshell when
they withdrew their demand--the removal of the Chief
Minister--and,instead,settled for 'very doable' demands like suspension
of some more policemen and the expansion of the current judicial
inquiry to a 3 member one.

Reading the headlines that day, everybody was elated in thinking that
the end of the current impasse was in sight. It's because everybody
thinks that the removal of Chief Minister is 'less doable' and that one
demand was responsible for a such long impasse.

But most surprisingly,it was followed by a deafening silence on the
Chief Mibnsiter's side.

After several days,we heard the news the Chief Minsiter himself chaired
a twin meetings in a single day discussing the 'doable demands'.

Reading the news that we got the implicit message from the Chief
Minister that he was waiting for some signals from the agitationists to
start talking again.The implicit message was publicly stated by the
Chief Minister in a public meeting held during the coming bye election
Yaiskul Assembly Constituency.

REALLY?

What had happened to the already working mechanism to get in touch with
the agitationsits(which enabled several rounds of talks)?

Why the volte face?

The only plausible explanation is the New Delhi now instructed the
Chief Minster to go slow with the talk.

Why the surprising volte face by New Delhi?

The only plausible answer is that New Delhi is testing China's
resolve.They are testing if China can risk going to a war(for which New
Delhi is already ready) for its support to the Manipur's political
developments in the aftermath of the July 23rd killings by the State
policemen,which in my humble opinion,should be supported not only by
China but also by all peace-loving and justice-seeking nations of the
world.

When we come this far,it's now profitable to look back and say with
some confidence that my last post is increasingly proving to be TRUE.

It's the July 23rd killings

I'll start with a lot of questions.

Is it a mere coincidence that MHA summoned the Manipur Chief Minister around the 20th of this month and made him stay there until around 24th?

Is it also another coincidence that the Prime Minister was in Washington around the 24th of this month to announce publicly his perplexity at the recent 'assertiveness' by China?

24th of this month is the birthday of Manipur's oldest rebel group.

I still have this feeling that everybody expected that China would formalize its 'interference' in India's 'internal security' by giving its support to the rebel group on its 45th birthday.

But that didn't happen.

That it didn't happen leaves us with only one stream of reasoning to make sense of the recent 'assertiveness' by China.

In my mind, the July 23rd Khwairamband Keithel killing is the provocation that lead to the 'assertiveness' by China which was mostly likley facilitated by inputs from the rebels here in Manipur.

We can see how I arrive at the above conclusion from 2 perspectives.

1) New Delhi itself is making a tactical retreat when it asked the Chief Minister to talk with the agitationists. They not only demanded the talk with the agitaionists but also struck down the NSA detentions of 10 leaders.

It's a tactical retreat in the sense that they are not now aiming for crushing of the ongoing agitation here.

They are now not aiming to crush the ongoing agitation, which New Delhi perceives to be 'engineered'by the rebels,who are again perceived to be in the periphery of the society--raoming around in remote mountains which are more or less all no man's lands. Now the rebels, by 'engineering'the agitaion,landed right at the centrestage, which is until now, is absolutely not acceptable to New Delhi.

Now, they are accepting the 'unacceptable' meaning that they are sensing that the July 23rd killing is everything to do with the recent 'assertiveness'by China.

2)The rebel group itself, in its birhtday message which was widely published ina ll the papers stated that the July 23rd killings acknowledged all over the world and international support would be forthcoming in due course.

It also mentioned in a very authoritative tone that the Zhan Lue article propounding the breaking up of 'Great Indian Federation'is a true official thinking of the Chinese state.

All these factors make me think that the July 23rd killings is the real cause of the recent 'assertiveness' by China, which was, of course, facilitated by the rebels here.

New Delhi strikes back-II

The ruling class is currently sitting on the process of reviewing/amending the Armed Forces(Special Powers)Act,1959. If anybody starts making noises about the draconian nature of the Act,they would answer that it is being 'in the process'of under active review. But they would keep sitting on the 'process'and make loud noises at appropriate times.This is totally Chanakyan!

I've written down my thought in the post entitled 'New Delhi Strikes Back'.

Just now,they have started yet 'sitting on the process'episode.They now say that they would remove the Chief Minister of Manipur at around 2nd week of December and in the meantime, a 5 member All India Congress Committee would look into it.

Ever heard of an AICC committee looking into the matters of removing a chief minister?

Something sure is afoot.

In the post entitled 'New Delhi Strikes Back',I've already written down that they are deliberately sitting on the 'process'of reviewing the Armed Forces(Special Powers)Act,1959 because they anticipate that China might start expressing concern at the draconian nature of the Act.

As they now start a new episode, it's reasonable to deduct that they start anticipating that China might start expressing concern at the incident that warrants this starting of the new episode.

The incident--the July 23rd police killing and the consequent demand for the removal of the Chief Minsiter.

Would China do that?

This a world-shaking question.

THE RIGHT QUESTION-then and now

Actually,I planned a post to appear on the 1st of this month so that the organizers of the meeting at BOAT on the 2nd by one of the powerful student body might read it and then,cancel the meeting the meeting altogether!But the power supply was shut down most of the daytime fo that day.

In my head,I even gave a name to the planned post:THE RIGHT QUESTION.

The gist of the post would be to say that that student organization failed to ask the right question as dictacted by the 'conntext'we are living with. If they don't start with the right question,there is no possibility to come to the right answer.

So, waht's the right question?

WOULD THE STOPPING OF THE ONGOING CLASS BOYCOTT EFFECTIVELY KILL THE LARGER AGITATION FOR GIVING PUNISHMENT TO THE GUILTY POLICE COMMANDOS AND THE REMOVAL OF THE CHIEF MINISTER?

The uncomfortable answer is YES.

CAN WE AFFORD TO KILL THE PRESENT AGITATION?

The answer is a big NO.

The reason why we cannot afford to discontinue the present agitation is that the July 23 police killing is not handiwork of some wayward policemen.On the contrary,it's the well-rehearsed and well thought-out plan by the Indian State to snub out our spirit to stand on the edge,our spirit to probe the uncertain,our spirit to rebel.

Once that spirit is killed off, we are finsihed as a people,as a society.

In trying to defend the attempted murder of that spirit if we were to lose a full academic year,it's not even a worthy trade off.

Then, the next question crop up.

WHY DON'T WE CONTINUE WITH OTHER FORMS OF AGITATION WHILE STILL KEEPING THE STUDENTS IN THEIR CLASS ROOMS?

In answering this question, we need to study the 'context' we are living with.

1) THE POLITICAL CLASS.

The political classes both in New Delhi and here, in Imphal are betting on the idea that the agitators,in particular and the general populace,in general,would tire down after 30-40 days of active agitation.

They are determined to shield the Police Commandos.

2) WE ARE BOTTLED UP

The Indian State has so assiduosly bottled us up that we are effectively living outside the normal gamut of humanitarian, social and political relations with other societies of the globe. That sinsiter effort has been actively continuing for the last half century.

If we read this with my (1) point,it's becoming quite clear that 'tiring down' popular agitations is an extremely potent tool in the hands of both the ruling classes.

If we consider a hypothetical scenario whereby MK Gandhi himself descended right here and take up the mantle of the agitation, he cannot sustain it for than 30-40 days. We are in such a dire strait.

3) THE INDIAN STATE IS PSYCHOTIC.

The Indian State is psychotic in the sense it not only refuse to ackwoledge the 'histories' of the other smaller societies but also actively strives to 'homogenise' them with the 'mainstream' one as derived from the Vedas and Puranas.

It is blind to the reality of the 'histories' of other smaller societies,just like ours. It's the main reason why the Indain State always sees the hands of the rebels in all the popular agitations here.

The psychosis of the Indian State has so dragged it down to such a low level that the present scenario is like this:

-if the rebels say 'punish the police commandos' we will shield them at any cost.

-if the rebles say 'the CM should resign' we will put him in the chief Minsiterial chair at any cost.

If we consider the above 'context'.it's quite clear that the ongoing class boycott is not only legitimate but also appropriate.

China has opened a new front.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman accused the Dalai Lama of being wilfully working to hurt the Sino-Indian relationship.

Although the accusation is hardly surprising,it marked the subtle change in tactical approach by the Chinese to the already heated up Sino-Indian relationship.

But what's truly remarkable came the next breath when the same spokesman accused India of wilfully blocking movements of Chinese employees of Chinese corporate entities operating in India.

In my mind,it marks the begining of Chinese efforts to open new fronts in engaging India.

And, what's another front which is accurately anticipated by New Delhi? It's,of course,the Arm Forces(Special Powers)Act,1959(my last post). New Delhi anticipates that china may start expressing concern at the draconain nature of the Act, which is being selectively enforced in NE and JK only.

If that scenario becomes a reality,who is one person who will come to intense international spotlight?

Irom Chnau Sharmila, who is on fast for 9 years now to protest the said Act.

Then, is it only a mere coincidence that one new Civil Society Organization,named Sharmila Kanba Lup sprang up from nowhere and started relay hunger strike for the last 280-290 days?(I can't remeber the exact number of days--but it must be in the region of 300 days).

In trying to answer that question, it becomes quite clear that some very sophisticated group of people here in Imphal have been trying to project Sharmila in anticipation of the Chinese move.


UPDATE

I forgot to mention in the post about what transpired in the national meeting of sleuths in Shillongs some days back.

2 unusual voices came out of the meeting:

1) some top brass of some intelligence agencies expressed their views that Armed Forces(Special Powers)Act,1959 sort of outlived its purpose in Manipur. ( This should be read together with my post titled 'New Delhi Strikes Back')

2)The insurgency in Manipur has become a theatre for foreign interference.

4pm 7th Nov

New Delhi strikes back

We can see the first few signs that signal that New Delhi has started the diplomatic strike back.

First,some Tibetan official in Dharmasala, who demanded anonynity,told the news agency,AFP, that the Dalai Lama would statrt his Arunachal Pradesh visit from the 7th of November.

What's the neccesity of remaining anonymous in announcing the date of the proposed visit?

That answer came only a few days back when the newly elected Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister announced that MEA was yet to clear the Dalai Lama visit.

Someone was leaking the date and another one was telling that it had no official sanction--this is the fine arts of keeping things ambigous.

What would China do in such a situation? Is it proper to protest a visit based on news leaked to a news agency by someone who demanded anonimity? Again, would it be foolish to sit back and not to protest when some provincial official told the media that it had yet to be cleared by MEA?

Then came the more significant move.It came as an absolutely uninteresting news yesterday. To be honest, I had found it as the headline in a single Imphal-based daily(Naharolgi Thoudang). I read most of the papers yesterday but no other papers did not even see it to fit as a minor news item. Was it because it was so uninteresting?

The news was that the Group pf Mimisters reviewing the Armed Forces(special Powers) Act 1959 had submiitted its recommendation to the Prime Minsiter for the final decision.

Is it a diplomatic move by the Governemnt of India?

I think it is.

To understand this, we have to move back a few months in time. Then, Union Minister, Pallam Raju was addresing a CII leaders meet in New Delhi. During that address he told the audience that if China started to interfere in internal security of India, India would retaliate.

In plain language,he was telling China that their initial moves were noted with grave concern and they should desist from continueing further moves.

If any foreign country start moves that are seen by Indian as interferences in its internal security, the moves sould be initiated by the conditions in either the North East Region or Jammu and Kashmir.

In both the places, India can say the followings to deflect any foriegn country's consern:

1) In both the places there was full fledged democracies.

2)Even if there are cases of human rights violations or State terrorism, they are the responsibilties of the provincial leaders, who are agian elected by the local populace in free and fair elections.

So, what is the one single element which is indefensible in both the places?

Naturally, it's the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,1959.

Now, Union of India can announce to the world that the Act is under review by none other than the Prime Minsiter of the country.

Isn't it a good move?

No 3G for Manipur:BSNL

The news was datelined Kohima.

The General Manager, BSNL,North East Circle II,Mr Arjun Singh was inaugurating the 3G services in Kohima on the 24th of this month.

Speaking during the function he specifically was quoted as telling that there was no plan to offer the service in Manipur.

The reason?

Because, he was quoted as telling the gathering, Manipur is so full of rebel activities!

BSNL is playing the big brother part so naively!!

It is a fact that BSNL officials won't go that lenght without explicit instruction from the bosses in Ministry of Telecom.

So, the big questions is:

Are all the Minsitries in Delhi start withdrawing the 'carrots' for Manipur and the Manipuris?

If the answer is yes, then,it is reasonable to guess that the 'sticks' are probably right around the corner.

Beware, everybody!

I'm sure proud of our Ni-ngol Cha-kouba

Ni-ngol cha-kouba is a real show stopper. Everything has to wait for
its grand and smooth passage. I mean everything, be it the Ibobi
govt,the protest against the ghastly acts of psychotic Indian State or
the world-shaking strategic rethinking by the Chinese towards the
peoples of South Asia.

I know it would raise a lot of eyebrows if I start putting beautiful
adjectives in front of my own culture. But can anybody think of any
festival which have no nationalist or religious ingredients in it? We
can make a checklist of global peoples,be a huge one like Indian or
Chinese or the tiny ones numbering a few millions and try to pinpoint a
festival which has no nationalist or religious ingredients in it. I bet
it would be a pretty difficult task to pinpoint a single such festival.
And, we learn from history that nationalism and religion are the two
most dreaded human artifacts which lead to conflicts and wars. We can
make a huge lists for the necessity for nationalism and religion but if
we come towrds the likely causes of conflicts and wars,they are the
real culprits.

And, I'm sure proud that our Ni-ngol Cha-kouba is one of the rarest
human artifacts which have no nationalist or religious ingredients in
it.

For my part, I started to make preparations exactly three days ahead to
receive Ni-ngol Cha-kouba. I dusted off every conceivables articles in
my house. I cleaned my yards spotless!

On the grand day, I jumped out of my bed well before 4 in the morning
and rushed in evrything to make the paste to make the chicken for at
least one hour. For every chicken or meat dish I cook I had found out
that I could not find that crucial one hour to marinate the meat. And,
I was determined to find that one hour on the grand.

Inspite of jumping out of my bed well before 4 in the morning, I barely
made it. When I finshed making the paste, cutting the meat and savoring
the moment when I started the actual marination, it was already 9.30
am!

Gosh, it took such time to cook according to prescribed protocol!

But I was rewarded. Everybody seems to agree that it was best chicken dish cooked in the family--I mean, so far!!

Joseph Hmar and the psychotic Indian State

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of Communist Party of China, made it a point to comment on the 'hegemonistic' designs of India towards the peoples in South Asia. It must be in its edition dated either 14th or 15th Ocotber because the Hindu could report it as its headline on the 15th.(My last post). It must be remembered here that the Hindu is one of the very few papers who has a permanent correspondent in Beijing.

Within the next 48 or 72 hours, Joseph Hmar came out openly against the present agitation for giving punishment to the police officers involved in the July 23 Khwairamband Keithel killings of 2 innocents in broad daylight.

Everybody knows that Joseph Hmar is very close to Indian Military establishments.

Here it must be emphsized that the same tactics of giving license to murders to police to suppress insurgency was successfully tested in Punjab by the Indian State.The same psychotic Indian State is letting its provincial government officials in Manipur to repeat the experimnet here.

In the case of Punjab, no neighbouring countries, be it Pakistan, China or Sri Lanka came to its rescue and as a result, there was free run of police brutality. In case of Manipur now, some neighbouring countries are starting to take note of the ghastly prctices of the psychotic Indian State.

What's the response of the psychotic India State?

Their response is the desparate act of showcasing a character like Joseph Hmar and try to engineer divisions within the ranks of the activists who are spearheading the present agitation.

Now, a very important question: SHOULD THE CASE OF LAWLESS POLICEMEN WHICH RESULTS IN JULY 23 MURDERS BE VIEWED AS INDIA'S INTERNAL AFFAIRS PER SE?

I don't think so.

Every neighbouring countries has the legitmate rights to be concerned about such murders licensed by the psychotic Indian State.

Hegemony,India and China

The rebels here call a general strike to protest the 'hegemonistic' merger of Manipur by the Indian Union back in 1949 on the 15th of October.

Now, the official mouthpiece of Communist Party of China says India has 'hegemonistic' designs in South Asia.

What's most significant is the timing of the editorial in the People's daily.

The Hindu has a detailed coverages.

Back in August, during the Tehelka episode,I wrote a post titled 'Is this also a part of the masterstroke'. Now, I think it's appropriate to reproduce the whole post here:


"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."


At that time, I could not go beyond mere speculation. But this time it seems to be established that Manipur's rebels has some sort of support from the ruling communist party of China.

Still in the midst

I'm still in the midst of adjusting myself to my new schedule.

It's not as simple as making myself go to bed at 10 pm and waking up the next morning at 6.

Every tiny and mundane things in my daily life needs to be adjusted to the new schedule as well.

It's pretty challenging job!

But I'm going slow and steady.

And I'm keeping the one basic thing very simple--DON'T GO NEAR THE COMPUTER AT NIGHT!

To a new schedule.

I've been trying to shift to a new schedule. I'm trying to go to sleep by 10.30pm and wake up the following morning at around 6 am.

As I've been habituated to staying up late at night, it's really tough to get myself used to the new schedule.

It has been a lot of efforts so far--but I'm trying.

Surfing the Net!

I've been trying to install Microsoft Office.But I had to cancel the installation on every attempt because of error 1305.

I was totally flummoxed because installing and uninstalling Office is always a routine task.

And I could not go online to visit help centers and forums to get an idea what error no 1305 was because there was total outage of BSNL networks.

I've just visited a forum and got a step by step intructions to get around the error.

I'll doing the actual installation tommorow.

Tonight I'm surfing the Net!

Of India China border affairs

Temperature on the Inida China border is rising day by day. The GOC of Northern Command is visiting Leh to personally take stock of the Chinese army's movement there.

Indian Express has a news report here.

What's most intersting is the comments of the readers on the news report.

An extremely timely and illuminating write up

I've just read an extremely and illuminating write up in Foreign Policy magazine.The piece is titled "The Revenge of Geography" by Robert D.Kaplan.Below are 2 excerpts dealing with India specific conditions:

"The Indian subcontinent is one such shatter zone. It is defined on its landward sides by the hard geographic borders of the Himalayas to the north, the Burmese jungle to the east, and the somewhat softer border of the Indus River to the west. Indeed, the border going westward comes in three stages: the Indus; the unruly crags and canyons that push upward to the shaved wastes of Central Asia, home to the Pashtun tribes; and, finally, the granite, snow-mantled massifs of the Hindu Kush, transecting Afghanistan itself. Because these geographic impediments are not contiguous with legal borders, and because barely any of India’s neighbors are functional states, the current political organization of the subcontinent should not be taken for granted. You see this acutely as you walk up to and around any of these land borders, the weakest of which, in my experience, are the official ones—a mere collection of tables where cranky bureaucrats inspect your luggage. Especially in the west, the only border that lives up to the name is the Hindu Kush, making me think that in our own lifetimes the whole semblance of order in Pakistan and southeastern Afghanistan could unravel, and return, in effect, to vague elements of greater India."

....


"The Taliban constitute merely the latest incarnation of Pashtun nationalism. Indeed, much of the fighting in Afghanistan today occurs in Pashtunistan: southern and eastern Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. The north of Afghanistan, beyond the Hindu Kush, has seen less fighting and is in the midst of reconstruction and the forging of closer links to the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, inhabited by the same ethnic groups that populate northern Afghanistan. Here is the ultimate world of Mackinder, of mountains and men, where the facts of geography are asserted daily, to the chagrin of U.S.-led forces—and of India, whose own destiny and borders are hostage to what plays out in the vicinity of the 20,000-foot wall of the Hindu Kush."

The link for the whole write up is given in the left bar titled 'Now Reading'.

Changed times and the time-changers!

How time has changed!

Catching the seasonal flu virus was such a routine part of every day life--so mundane.

But in the times of swine flu,it's such a big deal. It makes me extremely uneasy when I caught the seasonal flu virus a week or so back.

I've been resting since then. I think I'm out of the virus cycle now.But I'm taking no chances. I'll be resting for yet another 2 days.

When I say 'rest' I'm still into my daily chores. And I came to realize during the last few days that shopping is one of most energy sapping chores. There are always so many things to buy.

When I went shopping this evening,I saw a Reva car. It was so tiny! Even if it's a 2 seater,it looks so good on the samll roads of Manipur.

Electric cars,like Reva should be the future. I like it. New products like Reva should be time-changers!

The problem of blank monitor solved

That I had so many days without internet made me tinker with my desktop.

My first attention was drawn to the problem of the monitor. The problem is it remain blank,showing nothing even if the computer booted up perfectly normal.

I even took the monitor to the computer hardware store on two ocassion. They billed me for the suposed repair they made on it and the monitor remained blank after 2 or 3 days after I brought it back home.

The key idea is here that it worked for 2 or 3 days immediately after I brought it from the hardware shop. Then, it returned to its noraml state--remained blank.

So, shifting the location of the monitor made it work?

Is it something to do with place where I put my desktop on?

Finally, I came to think that it must be the magnetic field that interfered with the cathode ray.

The woofer which I placed next to the monitor housed a considerably-sized magnet. Then, the cfl bulb which I placed just above the monitor has also a in-built surge controller, which again means a magnet. Finally, the power supply of the router of the dsl has also an in-built surge controller.

Did the 3 among themselves built up an over arching magnetic field that disturbed the cathode ray of the crt monitor?

I removed all 3 of them and now, the monitor is working.

My only regret is the cfl bulb. If you placed a cfl just above a crt monitor, you get an extremely good glare killer.

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.

Drought related?

I thought it was it's the fallout of normal grid maintenance.

I'm talking about day-long power cuts.

It started at around 6 in the morning and lasted all day long. The power supply resumed at around 6 in the evening.

When we got it in the evening it was in such a low voltage that we had had not the heart to fire up my desktop.

It has been continuing for some days now.

This makes me think that it's somehow connected with the drought we are in.

Most of the big power plants in the NE Region are hydro based. When we have drought there is no enough water to continue producing power. So, all the power plants started cutting down on the production.

Is this the right scenario?

The Chief Minister has opened a new chapter

The Chief Minster had just said it.

It's always true that the unspoken outlooks of the political establishment towards the rebels here is--'Kill them all'.

But it was never publicly spelled out.

Their public posture seen in the rhetoric like--'let's talk','rebels are our beloved brothers-but mislaid' etc etc are just rhetoric. Nothing more , nothing less.

Now, the CM had publicly spelled out in the floor of the State Legislative Assembly that there was no alternative but to kill them all.

Two other points also came out.

1. The rebels are only after money. They have no any other agenda.

2. Talks with them would follow the 'Mizoram example'. The CM himself quoted the number--20,000 of Mizo rebels killed by Indian military. Only after this the rebels are forced into talks.

It's becoming clearer by the day that the rebels are way too keen of easy money. Regarding this point the CM is expressing what's in the mind of the majority of the populace.

But the second point is scary. He seems to be welcoming of the making of another killing field here. Who likes a re-enactment of another killing field of Cambodia? NOBODY.

The CM, by publicly spelling out the political establishment wish list, has opened, wittingly or unwittingly, a new chapter in the history of insurgency here.

Heavy showers and the blue sky.

At around noon, there was a heavy showers. It was just like a good old rainy days of July.

But,by 2 pm, we were again greeted by blue sky. There were only a scatterings of cloud.

It was again quite sunny.

By now, it is quite unmistakable that we are in the midst of a drought.

The cases of vanishing fruits

It's not good to be an alarmist to count little changes in my immediate environment as results of climate Change.

But changes do happen.

Let's take up the cases of vanishing fruits!

In my experience, succulent plums from Mao normally start out at around Rs 30/- a kg. As its season matures the qunatity of the plums available in the market increases. Thus, price tend to climb down to around Rs 10/- a kg.

This time around when it first started its appearance in the market,it takes its normal course when it cost Rs 30/- a kg. I decided to wait for the time when the price would come down to around Rs 10-15 while I continued buying cheaper(at that point of time) fruits like papaya.

But the prices of the plum never did come down from Rs 30/-.

What's alarming is that the plums vanished from the market quickly at that price point.

The same thing happened in case of blueberries. Normally, we can buy blueberries in the market for at least a month(that's because we have no cold chains).

But this time around,it's hardly 1 week when we could buy it in the market.

And, I suspect the trend is discernible in passion fruit right at the moment!

We can only hope that all these changes do occur because of reduced rainfall which can be counted to be normal if we apply the metrics of a drought once a decade.

Socio-political impact of 1000cc autorickshaws

Will there ever be a more or less spontaneous bandh?

While reading the book, 'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian', there was a little episode which caught my attention.

In that episode, the author was chased down the streets of Calcutta by bandh supporters.

The bandh was called against the British Government. It was called by none other than Mohandas Gandhi.

Then, I asked myself---'Bandh supporters chasing people around in streets even during a bandh called by Gandhi?'

In Manipur's case 'bandh supporters chasing around people' constitutes half the picture. Add to this another important half--'reluctance of bus owners to take the risk of doing business on bandh days'.

These two factors mostly present a semblance of a succesful bandh.

Bus owners appear so meek because of the fact buses are, and will always be, sitting ducks when confronted by bandh supporters or arsonists.

Now, enter the 1000cc diesel autorickshaws. They can carry more 10 people and at the same, can be driven almost like motorbikes. Their owners are not so meek as the bus owners because they can flee when confronted or given chase by bandh supporters. They can flit through the little used lanes and by-lanes avoiding the bandh supporters.When not carrying 10 people they can haul some women vendors with all their merchandise.

So, we have bandh killer in hand. This was widely evident in the just concluded mega bandh(see my post'mega bandh').

In this sense, 1000cc diesel autorickshaws would have their impact in the socio-political framwork of the society.

Woolen cloth in Tamil Nadu-no rain in Manipur!

Another of my chirpy niece phoned me from Coimbatore--'Mamo, it's so cold here-we are pulling out woolen cloths from the closet'.

My heart sank.

People start wearing woolen cloth in mid July,that too in a town in Tamil Nadu. Climate change,isn't it?!

Here, I'm a bit edgy because of the way too wayward monsoon. To make matters worse, now I'm hearing that people start wearing cloth in mid July in Tamil Nadu!

Did I miss something? I've always equate Tamil Nadu with sweltering heat even during winters.

She continued--'Mamo, people here say it's the first time in recent memories when it's so cold in July'. She is new there,just getting her admission.

My heart sank furhter. First time in recent memories? That signifies the onset of the long-predicted climate change!

I hope I was totally wrong in saying all these things.

The 3rd day the truncated mega bandh

I even stepped out of my house this morning! That's after more than 70 hrs of continuous holing inside my house!!

I went out to buy some meat. My regular butcher was in his usual self--bandh or no bandh.

Most of the bigger stores pulled their shutters down. But street vendors were in their businesses.

Even after getting the news that 5 of diesel auto rickshaws were burnt by bandh supporters, many were seen plying in the streets.

The way of making the announcement of forming of a faction of a rebel group(it was done in a press conference on the 14th to appear on the frontpages of the 15th, on which the mega bandh had begun) and the way the bandh was truncated on the day the faction was announced on the frontpages mean that one party was making a retreat. It might be a tactical retreat, though.

It's to be noted that the news of the formation of the faction did not appear on the 15th might mean that the parent rebel group exerted pressures on the media houses not to publish it. On the 16th all paperes failed to hit the newstand presumably because of the wrangle of the two parties.

This round goes to the conspirators.

Will there be another round?

We had heard phrases like quality education, academic atmosphere, wilful targeting of memeber of a minority community etc etc in the aftermath of the assasination of Prof Islamuddin; but this morning's papers cleared all the smokescreens--Prof Islamuddin just happened to a sacrificial lamb.

The poor professor.

2 days into the mega bandh

If you the have the eye for it, you won't have a chance to miss it--Imphal is in the throes of a nail-biting political thriller!

It's most likely that the conspirators(my last post) are not from within the estblishment of Government of Manipur. But they have taken side to toe the line of the conspirators. After initial dismay at the ghastly killing of Prof Islamuddin,the actors of State Government machineries quickly grasped the possibilities thrown up by it to malign the rebel groups operating here.This must be one of the reasons why the chief Minister told the State Legislative Assembly that the time had not yet arrived for disclosing the charges levelled against the students. It must be noted that the students have now been arrested for nearly 60 days and the lone guy who really pulled the trigger in shooting down the Prof was also in the police custody. If they have got 60 days for investigation they should at least tell the State Assembly the charges levelled against the students.

For the ruling class in New Delhi, the conspirators are like the proverbial Manna from the sky.

Manipur has too many rebel groups and too much vigorous competitions amongst them. This fact gives the ruling class in New Delhi the opportunities to capitalize on the potent competiotions and to sow discord amongst the rebel ranks.

Now, the moves to capitalize on the potent competitions have moved on to an impressively subtle level and it turns out that most of the recent such moves are beyond some of the rebel leaders.

Today's ongoing mega bandh is the direct result of such moves and response from the rebel leaders who seem not able to fully grasp the subtelity of the move in the first place.

Viewing from another perspective, the ongoing bandh can also signify the start of a churn within the rebel ranks. This churn may, as the ruling class New Delhi has calculated, either result in the wholesale sinking of all the rebel ranks or, prove to be the proverbial test by fire for some of the more able rebel leaders.

From my personal life, it's a bit scary to come to terms with the fact I had not stepped out of my house for nearly 60 hours now! 50 hours!!

As I gathered from house which is only few feet from a street, life seems to be paralysed for the second straight day. I can do it from the sounds of the street!

At around 1 pm a military turboprop was encircling the Imphal valley. And it continued to do so fro nearly one hour. I could see it from my windows!

Mega bandh

We are facing with a mammoth bandh--120 hrs to be exact!

It all started with the killing of Prof Islamuddin inside the campus of MU itself.

It's TECHNICALLY right for the student body which called this mega bandh to claim that they have nothing to do with the killing and so, their cadres, arrested in connection with the killing, should be released.

But, in politics(or, in students politics) TECHNICALITY does not count.

It's all about LEADERSHIP and MANDATE.

To get an idea how TECHNICALITY does not count, lets' consider the following scenarios:

1. I'm not saying that this particular student body has links with the rebel group which openly claimed to have undertaken the killing of the professor; but, let's club together all the rebel groups with all the 'active' student bodies to label them as the seekers of mandate for 'change'.

Looking from this perspective, they are all 'fellow comrades'.

Most importantly, the 'poor,ignrant mass' understands that they are all 'fellow comrades' and that must be one reasons why the 'demcratic struggles'(for which the mega bandh is supposed to be the grand finale) to demand the release of the students dose not elicit any response from the 'poor, ignorant mass'.

In fact, the students are in jail because of the 'bad decisions' by some of their 'fellow comrades'.

2. On the opposite side, let's club together the State Government, the Government of India and the Gang to label them as the seekers of mandate for the status quo.

The Gang,which is behind the rampant killings of migrant labors,is fast becoming a favorite tool for the Government of India in its counter insurgency operation here.

Would the seekers of the mandate for 'change' have the remote chances of getting it?

The answer---absolutely NO CHANCE, as was demonstrated by the level of leadership thrown up when faced with the crisis leading to the killing of the professor.

In my mind, it's absolutely right when the rebel group,which killed the professor,claimed that it was a conspiracy which egged on the prof to openly defy it.

What they did not spell out is that the conspirators, in egging on the Prof, was actually egging on the particular rebel group to take the extreme step of shooting the Prof in broad day light inside the university campus.

In effect, the conspirators were testing the level of leadership of the particular rebel group when cornered with a conspiracy.

So, what's that level of leadership?

EXTREMELY POOR LEADERSHIP QUALITY.

We can use whatever term we like--be it, the mass, the people etc--but one thing is certain--they are not dumb and WOULD NOT hand over any mandate to that LEVEL of leadership.

So, what shall we say about this mega bandh?

The fact that we are facing with this mega bandh tells us the seekers for the mandate for 'change'are in fact beating about the bush when they should have a collective soul searching regarding that extremely poor leadership quality.

To put it more succinctly, if the current crisis started out with a conspiracy, they need to sit back, start using their brain and devise a game plan to check mate the conspirators.

To be blunt, it's fairly easy to comprehend that calling a '120 hrs bandh' would not constitute any part in the making of such a game plan.

I have a working computer, now!

Two weeks back, I hauled my computer to neighbourhood computer repair shop. My intention was to install a new windows.

But I found out that my hard disk was a complete wreck.

For the last 2 weeks, they were searching for a used 40 gb harddisk.

My old computer does not even support a 80 gb one!

They could get hold one this evening.

Now, I've a working computer!

Millet, millet!

I bet it would be a little irritating for the 'novice'to hear the lectures by my sis and her husband about the virtue of meditation.But if you are a little into wellness, like me,you would be able to understand their enthuasiasm.

It's heartening to find out that they are starting to question the traditional kitchen and they are actually acting on some newer ideas of how we eat.

But all my remaining three sisters in Imphal are firmly moored onto the traditional kitchen.

In my mind, we need to start questioning the traditional kitchen. Traditional kitchen is desperately in need of newer ideas.

We talked a lot about the practice of wellness and of breaking away from the traditional kitchen.

On one such occassion, I just mentioned in passing that millet is the best staple food but it's not availbale here in Imphal.

After several days, my sister was there at my house with the millet!

She asked around and found a shop selling millet.

I tried making porridge of millet and found out that it's okay.

I'm going in for corn and millet as soon as my stock of peas exhausted itself in a few days time!

My sis and Ima Keithel

My sis returned to Delhi today.

I'm not sure of her but her kids considered Delhi their home. They were born and raised up in Delhi. So, this is natural for the kids to feel Delhi their home.

Several years ago, the whole family came down here. The two kids stared at us and said aloud, like calling out a name-- 'Manipur'. There was something about it that was funny but at the same time thought provoking.

Did the word 'Manipur' a challenge to their to their notion of 'rootedness'in Delhi?

This time the kids are busy in their school and college. Inspite their absence, my sis seemed to devour every minute of her stay here.

She made a point to visit every family member--both from our paternal and maternal side.

My house served as a strategic launching pad to spin out in every direction for visting the family members! One day she returned to the 'pad'visibly excited. She sat down and started her story.

I was there with two of other sisters.

She told us that she had just returned from visting an aunt. This aunt happened to be the one to whom our grandma gifted the one 'shop space'( Is this the correct term?) in Ima Keithel. She told her that she would take that 'shop space' to start her business when she returned from Delhi.

This made me laud out aloud. It's a little hard for me to imagine my sis among the womenfolk in Ima Keithel tending her small business!

But, my other two sisters got animated about hearing it. RIGHT! WE SHOULD TAKE BACK THAT 'SHOP SPACE'.

Isn't it an eyeopener?

All the dazzles of Delhi seem incapable of snapping the primordial ties of Manipouri women with Ima Keithel.

Military activities in the afternoon sky

During afternoon, there was a lot of military activities in the sky.

Choppers were flying around. And real,snub-nosed military turbo-props were also seen flying.

As I saw them, they were flying towards Churachandpur and coming back again.

I have no idea if the activities were something to do with the reported rebellion within the ranks of a major rebel group operating.

The scene of the rebellion is reported to be along the Burmese border.

It's now official:DROUGHT

It's now more or less official now.

We are in midst of an emerging drought.

But we may have still hope for July.

Come rain--July is waiting for you!

Two stories

I went to a marriage yesterday. When I received the invitation card, there was no mention of 'Heijingpot'. I thougth there must be some disagreements with the bride's side and all the rituals and ceremonies would be a groom's side affair.

When I went there it surprised me to find out we were going to bride's place.

Marriage without 'heijingpot'.

I think it's a good sign that people start accepting such practice. If some people want marriage with 'heijingpot' it is also ok. But if some poor people want their marriage with less pomp like the 'heijingpot' it should also be acceptable to the society.

I mean if some members of society want to go with the bare basic of marriage ceremony it should be broadly acceptable.

In related matter, my soster told this story.

In Delhi, recently, one of her relatives decided that going to Imphal for would unnecessarily burn a lot a cash. Like maony spent on painting and decorating both the houses of the bride and groom. So, they decided to ask their parents to come to Delhi instead.

Now that Delhi has a sizable Manipuri population also helps. There are people for attendance in the ceremony and so, only the parents are needed!

The moral of the story is that they save a lot of money!!

Which class?

Is June 18 AMUCO's legacy?

Again, is June 18 UCM's legacy?

The answer to both question is an empathic NO.

June 18 is one of our Society's brightest legacies.

Nearly 10 years after the historic event, our society's mandate, at the moment, to any NGO, be it AMUCO,UCM etc, is to guard this bright legacy.

Here, we need to go a little further back in time when AMUCO decided to break away from UCM, which at the time was an umbrella body of around 10 NGOs. In the sense AMUCO represents the interest of a particular class (as do other NGOs represent their respective interest of various classes in our society), it is quite understandable for AMUCO to start working for this particular class, once the historic necessity for the continued existence of UCM lapsed. But(THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) AMUCO should rise above its class interest to guard this bright legacy of our society.

This is AMUCO's historic responsibility.

Why guarding this legacy?

Becasue we need still to learn extremely important lessons from June 18.

Lesson like understanding the particular interplay historic currents that propelled the formation of UCM,which, though briefly, truly represented the united will of Manipuri society.

Lesson like coming to grip with our capability to again letting the united will of the Manipuri society flower to a full blooom according to the demand of our time.

But at the moment we find ourselves in the midst of hectic deployment of precious time and money to consciously entrap the populace in AMUCO vs UCM meme. This means we are actually starting to take steps in the opposite direction of 'guarding this bright legacy of ours'.

That said, it's not the time for finger pointing.

We need keep our cool heads and try to emperically answer this big question:

Which class of society is proving unequal to the task of guarding 'the bright legacy of ours'?

Relief today!

For several days, my sister from Delhi have been telling us that today she would have a must-attend schedule.

Today at around 9.30 in the morning, she would be going to the place in Senapati district where Dr Kishan together with his two subordinate staff were murdered.

From what she had been tellng us we gathered that it was planned for a private function for family members for Kishan to erect a memorial stone at the spot.

Yesterday, she told me to expect her late in the afternoon.

But she didn't turn up.

I suspect their plan had gone awry. They planned it as puely private function. But then they found out that everybody wanted to attend with probably full attendance of State's media.

So, it might turn out to be an elaborate function.

That she didn't turn meant other sisters also didn't come. That means I was relieved of palying host to her sisters today!

But for the coming days it would be my must-attend duty to play host to my sisters late in the afternoon. Until she returns to Delhi on month end!

My little niece and the dress code

When the little daughter of one of my sisters first saw her eldest aunt just coming down from Delhi,she quitely went to mom's ear and whispered-- 'Would you ask this 'che che' to bring a pointed shoe for her?'

She thought her eldest aunt was a 'che che' because my eldest sister was in a salwar Kameez.

She was properly imprinted with the idea that all the married women should be either in a phanek or a sari(half-sari,isn't it?).

The scene with me little niece was hillarious but it made me think about the state of dress code for married women in our society.

What's the use of this code?

Do people expect the woemnfolk here to bring out an aura of 'class' when they strictly adhere to their dress code?

This is the only reasonable ground for the dress code,if one is forced to think out one.

Otherwise, the dress code only serves to supress womenfolk by male-hierarchic society. Suppression. Period.

Dr Kishan and my family

I came to know of it only yesterday--Dr Kishan was a very close relative of my sister(last post) from her husband's side.

In fact, Dr Kishan started his education in DU from the small rented room of my sister. At that time my sister was saving up to buy her current apartment.

My sister was telling us the story as if Dr Kishan was just a small boy, who also insisted on helping her in the kitchen. I suspect it was because Kishan was a little childlike.

At that time, my sister was so heavy into saving that they were eating PDS rice! On most days, when she returned from her work, she would found Kishan wafted clean the heavily adulterated PDS rice, cooked it with a hot and steaming 'chamthong' to go with it. But that made my sister mad because she wanted him to turn his undivided attention to his study.

When Kishan planned to quit his teaching job in Delhi to appear for Civil Services exam in Manipur, my sister and her husband were the first to steadfastly oppose it.(You know, I don't like this part of the story--why should everybody be so passionate of 'don't go Manipur' meme---even though Kishan's case is extremely tragic).

Yesterday, my sister still looked genuinely disturbed that Kishan refused to listen to them.

Sweet chit chats

I got a phone call at 8 in the morning today.

I said 'hello' and, to my surprise, my eldest sister was at the other saying she was at my gate.

At my gate?

She is my sister who is residing in Delhi!

After her, all other sisters started arriving.

This is a rare when all four sisters and the lone brother meet together.So, all lot of chit chats went on well late into the evening.

That's a good and sweet experience but all my normal routine went haywire.

But I still all those chit chats!

An anecdote by Mr Niketu Iralu

When I entered the auditorium, a lady was just finishing her question to Mr Niketu Iralu. There were apparently several questions raised by other persons before the lady's turn.

Mr Iralu tried to present a single answer to all the questions.

As a way of presenting that, he told this ancedote to the gathering.

He was from Khonoma village near Kohima. Khonoma is made famous because it's the birthplace of AZ Phizo.

About 4/5 years ago, forest in and around Khonoma was depleting. The main cause was the logging by local youths to make timbers for sale in Dimapur market.

Village elders gathered and passed a resolution that logging should be stopped.

But the youths from the village just laughed at the resolution and just continue the logging.

That was a completely new thing to the village and, more particularly, to the village elders.

Because in the Naga tradition and customs, elders and their resolutions are never laughed at.

So, something was terribly wrong.

Another meeting was called, this time Mr Iralu included. They wanted to find out what went wrong with the youths and the valued Naga tradition.

The meeting came up with suggestion that it might be due to the intra-Naga killings in the village in the height of Naga Rebellion. Then, they pin pointed 21 killings in the village by their very brethren in the same village. They created small groups which copuld sensitively approached the families where the feuds situated.

After time consuming approaches, they facilitated asking for forgiveness by the family members of those perpetuated the killings(the actual killers were long dead) and the smooth granting of forgiveness by the family menbers of the sufferers.

After this acts of asking for forgiveness and being forgiven, Mr Iralu said, the village is now normal course of Naga tradition.

Slowly, youths began to obey the elders' resolution of stopping logging.

Now, Khonoma has one of the best forest reserves in Nagaland.

I think it should be an eye opener for us living Imphal valley as well.

New Delhi's decision

The Central Buereau of Investigation had got the go ahead from the highest court to produce the killer of Dr Kishan before a Delhi court. In normal process of law he should be produced before a court in Ukhrul where the FIR had been lodged.

The attorney of the CBI, in submitting his prayer to the supreme court, painted a picture that depicted that there was already a communal flare up between the Meetie and the Tangkhul in the aftermath of the murder.

But there was no such a flareup.

The attorney sounded like the communal flareup between the two communities was his most cherished wish list!

Another very significant aspect is that there was appaently a deal between the NSCN(IM) and the Home Ministry in Delhi that the killer should never be produced in a Manipur court.

If he is produced before a court in Manipur there is just a possibility that all the behind the scene activities of the murder might come out.

I'm pretty sure that Hopson Ningshen did not act alone. There was a very active partner in Imphal valley.

Home Ministry in Delhi has already decided that the active partner in Imphal valley should be all cost.

Now crisis, and then, deadend?

If we are in crisis(my last two posts) because of our tiny population, are we in a deadend?

Do we have not a hope for the future?

To my mind, the tiny-sized population like us should look forward to the ubiquitous connectivity that's coming up in the next few decades.

In that environment, there might be just and rightful working spaces for small communities like us.

We must try to be optimists and see no deadend for us.

Is this our common crisis?

Our common criis? (See my last post).

Let's take up an easily verifiable example--the world of cinema.

Normally, people want their cine stars to be little distant, may be, even a little mysterious. But when our society produces its cine stars everybody quickly grasps up the who's who--from which leikai, whose son or daughter etc.

It's because out society is so tiny.

But, to satisfy their yearning(ie, the aura of distance or mysterious of cine stars) people start looking to Korea! They love Korean stars!!

The very fact that our society is so tiny makes people feel it normal to search for cine stars outside of our own society. In many societies, its the exception to have some overseas stars--I mean, it's an exception not the rule.

So, our society is facing a crisis in that its people is reluctant to accept the cine stars produced homeground.

We can expand this example in almost all other fields.

In politics, any political leader worth its salt should be in New Delhi. Every politicians starts looking to New Delhi for political leadership.

In religious mmatters, people start looking Vrindaban, Mathura or Chaityana's birthplace for the 'light'.

Actually, we are facing crises in every spheres of our society.

I'll repeat again---the very fact that our society is so tiny makes its people feel it normal to look for cine stars, political leadership or religious delverance outside of our own society.

In my mind,it's the common crisis facing the similarly sized society like those of Nagas, Mozos or Manipuris.