More than 30 days of non-event

It was more than 30 days of non-events here in my blog. For one thing, it's becoming harder to find time but I'm trying.

Still, I managed to time for visiting a theatre!

I was (and,still is) impressed by the movie, Nobap.

After I returned from the theatre, I sat down and wrote a review of the moviw.

It was published by the Imphal Free Press on the 24th of January 2010.

As all of the Imphal daily papers do not (yet) have dependable online edition, I can't find a link of the review.

After several weeks later, I again submitted the same review to Epao(www.e-pao.net). I told them that it was already published by the Imphal Free Press but I still wanted them to publish as Epao has a distinct set of readership.

(It took me several weeks to submit the review to Epao because of peronal problem which prevented me from going online for several weeks at a stretch!).

Here is the link to the review.

Dramatic turns of events

It's now clear that a division bench of the Guwahati High court considering a prayer through a PIL(Is it by the mother of Sanjit?) ruled that the case of the killing of the killings of July 23 be investigated by the premier agency,CBI.

The State government acted quickly. The State Cabinet noted the High Court ruling and quickly transferred the case to CBI.

These two developments robbed the agitators's right to continue the ongoing class boycott as it would go against Judicial and Constitutional conventions.

In my mind, the Court,wittingly or unwittingly, provided simply provided a hiatus to the prolonged political stalemate.

My point: the stalemate is here and very alive.

These dramatic turns of events catapulted the issues of July 23 killings to a newer ground whereby it would acquire a brand new player--New Delhi.

For the last 5/6 months the issues are between the agitators and the State Government of Manipur. Now, that the killings are to be investigated by CBI, New Delhi is already dragged into the matter as CBI is directly under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

My point: now, New Delhi can bring justice to the July 23 killings and booked the killers. Or, it can go the Sopore way.

In my mind,the recent track record of CBI in investigating the rape and killings of twp Kashmiri girls by the personnel of the Indian military is patently POLITICAL.

If new Delhi decides to go the Sopore way, the future players in the July 23 struggle would be New Delhi and the motley group agitators here in Manipur.

The July 23 killings is poised to have a far greater impact on the political scenario in South Asia and beyond.

Is it the countdown to war?

The PTI on a news datelined 2nd Jan 2010 informed us that the Defence Secretaty of India together with a high ranking military officers from the Eastern Command may visit China on the 6th.

We have to note the qualifying words 'may visit' in the above sentence.

6th of January is not even a week to go but they are still using the qualifying words.

Is it normal not to confirm a State visit by such a high ranking officials of a sovereign country when the it is only 4 days to go?

Does it even keep up the essential minimum protocol between two sovereign countries?

And, the date 6th of January is astonishing because the last date for filling up of exam forms for 10th and 12th standard students here in Manipur ends on the 7th.

We have remind ourselves that 5 months long class boycott is continuing.

In such a scenario, the government is forcing the exams by fixing the last date for from fill ups on the 7th of this month.

Naturally, the showdown between the government and the agitationists should come around the time the forced exam commences. I've heard that last date for form fill up is 7th but I've no idea when the actual exams commences.

So, the question:

Is the Defence Secretary's visit to China startegically timed to coincide with the coming showdown?

It may sound silly trying to link the State visit of such a high ranking official with the ongoiong class boycott by students here. But we should not forget the unheralded State visit by the Vice President of China to Burma some weeks back. And, inside Burma there are formidable fighting forces of the motley of insurgent groups. These groups may well launch a definitive attack on the Indian forces to coincide with the forced exams.

Was the visit of the Vice President of China to Burma aimed at facilitating such a definitvie attack?

If the answer is 'yes', we may well understand that the count down to war is just round the corner.

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.