August 25th 2014

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The Morung Express

Dimapur VOL. IX ISSUE 233

India needs high quality governance: Jaitley [ PAGE 8]

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Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom

[ PAGE 2]

[ PAGE 9]

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China targets ordinary Uighurs with beards, burkas

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Mizoram: four governors in less than two months

By Sandemo Ngullie

What if the police come and arrest us during the service, huh?

Vote on www.morungexpress.com SMS your answer to 9862574165 Are you satisfied with how the Nagaland state government has addressed the boundary issue?

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no

Others

Is the unresolved Assamnagaland border issue affecting the local market?

Yes

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Details on page 7

Nagaland Post responds to allegations Full text on Page 3

Naga history and political rights are supreme: NNC

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DIMAPUR, AUGUST 24 (MExN): The Naga National Council (NNC) has stated that “Naga National Politics and its Historical & Political Rights are supreme and have to be defended always.” This was stated in a press release from the NNC Information & Publicity Wing informing of its Central Executive Council meeting held on August 23 where it deliberated on the “involvement” of Nagaland Post in NNC “political affairs, press statements/ rejoinders/counter rejoinder not printed, twisted and distorted with serious concerned and continue to go ahead bringing out the truth for still overreacting in different ways on the paragraph of National Day Speech of truth about this Newspaper.”

While understanding concerns raised by the Nagaland Press Association (NPA), the NNC stated that whoever “started and created all these things in the past and present must be admitted and corrected the intentional mistake or mistake only then the dialogue of forgive and forget can be realised.” The NNC has appreciated the NPA’s stand on dialogue on this matter.

It observed with concern that the NNC (Parent Body) is “look down upon, undermined and insulted by individuals, organizations, different agencies especially in the homeland because of our National stand for Non-Violence.”

The NNC leadership, it stated, cannot always tolerate this. “The NNC also stand against Naga versus Naga as stated in the National Day Speech on 14th August 2014 as a policy matter of concerned for the betterment of Naga people in the Naga Homeland,” it said.

–Hannah Arendt

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ANSWFSEA demands amendment of Service Rule 1997

John Lennon’s Killer Denied Parole

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Flood affected villagers board on a country boat at Gagolmari village in Morigaon district of Assam on Sunday. Monsoon season brings rains vital to growing crops in India, but floods and landslides each year kill thousands of people and submerge hundreds of villages. (AP Photo)

‘Defamation suit undermines credibility & integrity of media’

DIMAPUR, AUGUST 24 (MExN): The Nagaland Press Association (NPA) today said it was surprised by the Civil Defamation Suit filed against four (4) Dimapur-based newspapers

by Nagaland Minister for Roads & Bridges, Kuzholuzo (Azo) Neinu, for publishing a news item of a press conference wherein allegations were leveled against him by two prominent contractors in the State.

Stating that the defamation suit seriously undermines the credibility and integrity of the four newspapers in particular and the media fraternity as a whole, the NPA said that if the Nagaland state government is sincere in its stand against

corruption, it should constitute an Inquiry Committee to probe into the allegations leveled against the Minister, R&B by the Contractors.

“The credibility of the media fraternity can only be restored after an independent

terviews and press conferences. Similarly, it is also the duty of the newspapers to publish any statement or rebuttals to news items.

The newspapers have fulfilled this by publishing the rejoinder from the Minis-

to harass the newspapers.

“This is also an attempt to suppress the fourth pillar of democracy and silence the voice of the media against publishing allegations of corruption by a person holding public office.”

The NPA pointed out that the fourth estate was a pillar of democracy and if it was unable to function freely and with accountability, the principles of democracy are under serious peril. “The NPA is committed to the ethics of honesty, fairness, truth and justice. It will continue to strive in reporting against corruption, bad-governance, nepotism, violations of basic human rights and the many other ills that plague Nagaland,” it stated.

NPA asks for Inquiry Committee to probe allegations against R&B Minister inquiry investigates into the allegations,” the NPA stated.

A press note issued by NPA Vice President H. Chishi and General Secretary Along Longkumer, pointed out that it is the duty of Media Houses to publish statements of public interest given by individual or organizations either by means of written documents, in-

ter clarifying his position against the allegations, reminded the NPA. The NPA has viewed the Minister’s action of filing a defamation suit in which the four newspapers have been made Proforma Defendants and seeking a large amount of compensation for publishing the allegations as an attempt

RALH demands immediate action One succumbs to stab wound

wokhA, AUGUST 24 (MExN): The Ralan Area Lotha Hoho has sent a Charter of Demands to the Chief Minister of Nagaland for “immediate action” in the Ralan area. This came after the RALH general meeting on the “ongoing law and order problem which arises out of the Landlords/ Landowners

and the Tenants that had triggered hyper tension in the entire stretch of Disputed Area Belt (DAB) under Ralan Area.” Copies of the Charter have been sent to all concerned Lotha legislators, Chief Secretary of Nagaland, Deputy Commissioner, Wokha and Chairman of the Kyong Hoho.

Details on Page 5

Morung Express news hospital. The police said that one man detained in Dimapur | August 24 this connection, was idenOne person succumbed to tified as Ali Akbar, from stab wounds on Sunday in Horisala village, MorigaDimapur. The incident oc- on, Assam. According to curred at the Khaghaboto Akbar’s initial statement, area on the outskirts of the police said that he Dimapur, police said. The stabbed the deceased afdeceased sustained two ter a chase, assuming he stab wounds and suc- was a cattle thief. Investicumbed to the injury in gation is on.

AIzAwl/NEw DElhI, AUGUST 24 (IANS): The Congress-ruled northeastern state of Mizoram is likely to have the dubious distinction of having four governors in less than two months.

Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayanan was Sunday transferred to Mizoram for the remainder of his term which is scheduled to end in 2017. He resigned later in the day. The successive transfers of the Mizoram governor started with Vakkom B. Purushothaman when he was transferred to Nagaland July 6.

Purushothaman resigned July 11 claiming he was not consulted on his transfer. Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal was then transferred to Mizoram after Purushothaman was moved as governor of Nagaland with additional charge of Tripura.

Kamla Beniwal, 87, assumed office July 9 as the 12th governor of Mizoram.

In less than a month, Beniwal was sacked from the gubernatorial post Aug 6. Former union home secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal, the incumbent governor of Manipur, was given additional charge of Mizoram. He assumed office Aug 8 as the 13th governor of the mountainous state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Beniwal, who had a strained relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was sacked two months before her tenure comes to an end. Beniwal was the second governor removed from her post by the National Democratic Alliance government.

Former Puducherry governor Virendra Kataria was sacked July 12.

After the Narendra Modi government took charge May 26, six governors resigned following signals from the government. They were B.L. Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), M.K. Narayanan (West

Transferred from Maharashtra to Mizoram, Sankaranarayanan quits MUMbAI, AUGUST 24 (IANS): Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, who was early Sunday abruptly transferred to Mizoram for the rest of his term, has announced his resignation. “I have sent my resignation to President Pranab Mukherjee,” Sankaranarayanan told media persons at Raj Bhavan here.

Justifying his decision, the 82-year-old Congress leader said he had “respected the Constitution” by submitting his resignation. “During my tenure here as governor, and even earlier in Jharkhand and Nagaland, I never brought politics into my functioning,” Sankaranarayanan said.

In a veiled attack on the Narendra Modi government’s decision to transfer him to Mizoram, he said: “No government is permanent, no individuals are permanent and they have to change some time.” Sankaranarayanan, who was re-appointed Maharashtra governor in 2012, thanked the people of the state for all their love and support during his tenure. He added that from Monday, he would work only as a Congressman, the party which he had joined decades ago as a grassroots leader in Kerala, and later risen up the ranks. “From tomorrow, I shall have no restrictions, I can do whatever I want, go wherever I want and speak on any topic,” he said in a cheerful and relaxed mood.

Bengal), B.V. Wanchoo (Goa) and Vakkom B. Purushothaman (Mizoram).

Earlier, media reports said the BJP-led government was pressurising some of the governors appointed by the previous Congress-led regime - including Sankaranarayanan - to relinquish office in June. Sankaranarayanan had then said he would resign if asked by “appropriate authorities”.

Octogenarian Sankaranarayanan is a Congress leader from Kerala and has held several posts including that of state minister for finance and agriculture. He was also convenor of the United Democratic Front, the Congress-led ruling combine in Kerala. He was first appointed governor of Nagaland, and then moved to Jharkhand. He was first posted as Maharashtra governor Jan 22, 2010.

Sankaranarayanan was re-appointed Maharashtra governor for the second term in 2012 by the previous Congress-led central

government. His term was supposed to end in 2017.

A Congress leader in Aizawl said the NDA government has chosen Mizoram Raj Bhavan as a “punishment centre” for governors appointed by the previous government.

“This approach and mindset would make the constitutional posts ‘babyish assignments’,” the Congress leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The Congress Sunday criticised the government for exercising its power in an “extremely arbitrary manner” over the transfer of Sankaranarayanan to Mizoram. “This government chooses to exercise power in an extremely arbitrary manner. It is like deja vu. Kamla Beniwal was transferred to Mizoram and after that, she saw it on television that she was dismissed as the governor of Mizoram. Authoritarianism is really the DNA of the government,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said in New Delhi.

SARDP Nagaland: illegal diversion of funds are being ‘looked into’

NEw DElhI, AUGUST 24 (MExN): The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, and the North East Business Development Agency (NEBDA) have discussed the need to adopt “joint management program to prevent the possible ulterior motives to sabotage” Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) Projects in the North East region.

This was stated in a joint press statement dated August 7, 2014, from the Chief Engineer (NER) Road Transport, Government of India, Sunil Kumar Verma, and the Chairman of NEBDA, I Nochet Imcha.

They reviewed the “alarming trends of press releases by unauthorized individuals and officials on matters pertaining to SARDP Nagaland.”

The press statement disclosed that “Matters on who had authorised wrong press declarations by the officials and Maytas- Gyatri; already a blacklisted defaulter are being looked into alongside manipulative activities of how funds meant for the SARDP Nagaland project were illegally diverted through manipulative methods.”

“All press notifications that have been brought out are unauthorised and without official authority,” it stated, adding, “No future unauthorised activities shall be tolerated and strong action shall be taken for violation and advice press fraternity to directly contact the Project Implementing Unit (PIU) MoRTH, Government of India before any publication.”

The two officials clarified that only authorized decisions of the PIU MoRTH CE (NER), and neither NHAI nor state officials, “carry any administrative power and authority to either issue work orders, notifications information’s; contract amendments; accept or reject sub-contractors and approve clients requests on revision of SARDP rates.”

The press note informed that the MoRTH has made “RITES, a Government of India Enterprise of the Ministry of Railways,” “investigate and revise” the project on priority. Activities “adopted to justify enhancement of funds up to 200% have been shocking as environment has been hugely destroyed by the cutting of huge mountains to justify demand of fund

revisions. Since a year M/s RITES have been its investigating on work implementation making visible and highlighting the vast damage done to natural resources.”

In bringing to light the need to adopt ‘joint implementing measures’, the Ministry, it stated, has begun “extensive measures as promised by Minister for SARDP NER which has been allocated Rs.37 thousand crores for roads infrastructure, with nearly more half already been sanctioned within a prioritized decision by the Ministry.”

The officials revealed that “the NEBDA a registered accredited organisation under RITES have been assisting its officials in work since February 2014 and have personally entered into the Mon-TamluMerangkong Road to begin the SARDP revised initiative.”

“It is the prerogative of the MoRTH to decide its Agencies partners, to terminate, cancel and need not inform anyone, except in coordination purpose. Any further information or clarification can be directly obtained through: e-maiLnebda_info@in.com,” it informed.

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Ralan: Villagers insecure, security demanded for displaced people

Wokha, august 24 (MExN): Achumbemo Kikon, former candidate of 40 Bhandari A/C in Wokha district has urged the State government to provide full security to the displaced villagers of Yanlum, Tchuchanphen, Soshan, Wochan, Lishayan, S. Wocha, Likyayan, and L. Chekayan in Ralan to return back to their respective villages.

According to him, more than one thousand villagers have been displaced.

The former candidate visited Yanpha, Old Ralan, Chandalashung ‘B’, Ronsuyan, Chandalashung New and Liphayan villages in Ralan area on August 23 and “interacted with the villagers and assessed the ground reality.” He stated that the villagers are still insecure that the Assam government will make all effort to “push” the Adivasis back to their land because the particular area is a rice bowl, and secondly, because it is a crude oil belt where the government of Assam is “interested to venture out taking full risk by using the Adivasis as a C M Y K

Achumbemo Kikon speaking with the CRPF Sector commander at Yanpha Village in Ralan area.

sacrificial lamb.” He also pointed out that Lishayan (now called Kolapani), where drilling of crude oil is presently undertaken by the (ONGC) Assam govt., is also within the ancestral domain of the Nagas.

“Hence, the entire Nagas will be benefitted if we can restore back this particular patch of land which ancestrally belongs to us.”

In a press statement,

Achumbemo also alleged that imposition of 144 CrPC along the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) is “practically” implemented only in Nagaland side of the DAB and stated “it needs to be re-examined and reviewed otherwise, Adivasis will have maximum advantage of returning back to the paddy fields with the help of Assam Police and the Neutral force.” Villagers, he added

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DiMapur, august 24 (MExN): The Kuhuboto Ghakgu Public Organisation (KGPO) has extended “wholehearted” solidarity to the employees of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in their “indefinite cease-work” over the non release of pending salaries for more than five months by the State government.

Morung Express News

The US consulate general, Helen LaFave is on her maiden visit to Nagaland.

On Sunday, she visited the ‘Medicinal & Aromatic Nursery’ located at 5th Mile Dimapur near Green Park, courtesy the Nagaland Bio Resource Mission (NBRM).

The US consulate general, who was on her way to the state capital Kohima, said she was impressed by the joint efforts of the Nagaland Bio Resources Mission (NBRM) and proprietor of the nursery, Nihokhu Chophy, in bringing about a green revolution to improve the state’s economy in the long run.

The US consulate general, in-charge of Eastern and NE India, admitted that North East India is one of the “most interesting parts of India.”

Stating that she was impressed by the agricultural practices in Nagaland, Helen expressed confidence that through the joint efforts of

US consulate general during her visit to ‘Medicinal & Aromatic Nursery’ at 5th Mile Dimapur on August 24.

the state government and the public, Nagaland would go a long way in securing food self-sufficiency. She also informed that she will be meeting the State chief minister and chief secretary on Monday to discuss on issues regarding “trafficking”, both drugs and human trafficking.

Earlier, NBRM team leader, Khroulalie Tsurho, in his welcome address

S/o. Mr. T. Kikon Date: 25th August 2014 Time: 12:00 Noon

Venue: Private Residence, near Assisi School, Naga Cemetery Colony, Khermahal, Dimapur Lt. HACHUMO KIKON (ADVOCATE)

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ST DEATH ANNIVERSARY

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Wokha, august 24 (MExN): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Wokha district unit has urged the Government of Nagaland to visit and study the ground realities of the dis-

placed people of Ralan area and give necessary relief and essential commodities on humanitarian ground.

In a press release issued by the unit general secretary (Adm.) N Nchumbe-

mo Jami, the district party workers also asked the State government to fill up the administration vacant post in the district for public convenience and good governance.

BJMM donates relief to affected villagers

BJMM members with BJP Nagaland unit officials and others during their visit to Ralan area on August 23.

Wokha, august 24 (MExN): BJP Mahila Morcha under the aegis of BJP Nagaland State Unit visited the affected villages of Ralan area and donated relief on August 23.

The relief materials were handed over to Hayithung Kikon, Chairman, Ralan Area Lotha Hoho,

informed Sanuo Ngullie, President, Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha (BJMM).

The visiting team led by the BJMM President included relief committee members comprising Rosy Yanthan, Mhalo Lotha, and Y. Bichano. They were accompanied by Vihoshe Sumi, BJP Sate General Sec-

retary (Admn), Makuran Rongmei, Secretary, BJP Nagaland State Unit, and R. Hayithung Ngullie, Assistant General Secretary, Kyong students’ Union.

The BJMM president on behalf of BJP has acknowledged the generous contributions of all donors, in cash and kind.

“The indifferent attitude and sheer negligence for the welfare of the employees by the State Government and the Health Department in particular have to be condemned by all the right thinking public of the State,” K Kakiye Zhimomi, KGPO President affirmed in a press statement. “It shows how inefficient, corrupt and irresponsible the Gov-

ernment of the day has become over the years in spite of series of agitations by different associations of Government employees.”

KGPO therefore stated “it is high time” the department concerned and the government take serious note of the "genuine demand" of the NRHM employees and release the pending salaries

immediately at one go, so as to let the patients and suffering public avail the services of health employees without any hindrances.

“The KGPO in particular shall directly shift the responsibility of any death patient, God forbid, if reported during such agitations to Doctors and the authority concerned alone,” the statement added.

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Career counselling at Fazl Ali College

FUNERAL SERVICE

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BJP Wokha urges Nagaland govt

US consulate general in Nagaland KGPO extends solidarity to NRHM employees

Dimapur | August 24

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are apprehensive because owners of the paddy fields are unable to attend to their already planted fields due to the imposition of curfew.

Further, he mentioned that the re-enforcement of SSB at Ralan area, when there is enough force of CRPF stationed at Yanpha Village, is another area of concern for the villagers because “they have been kept right in the middle

of some of the villages located in the foothill areas instead of deputing to the old Lotha Village called Kizhü-Yan (which is now called “Uriamghat”) which is supposed to be the actual location that requires neutral force.”

He also asserted that the question of rehabilitating the displaced Advasis in the paddy fields at Ralan area does not arise because “the tenants cannot come and stay in the owner’s house without the owner’s permission.” Stating that the present crisis in Ralan area is a classic example of “a fight between a servant and a master”, he said, “When the servant attempted to finish the owner with an intention to take over the fields that belongs to his master, the master has no other option but to chase the servant out of his field.” As such, he stated that neither the Assam Police nor the Neutral Force should be allowed to “push” the “Adivasi immigrants” to the Ralan area as “the owners of the fields no more require them for cultivation of their paddy fields.”

OF OUR BELOVED

As you rest in peace with our everlasting god you are remembered everyday; words cannot express how deeply you are missed and cherished.

Our lives are richer for having shared time with you. your love and life continue to inspire us.

FATHER INNO. KAWOTO SUKHALU

“To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die.”

- Thomas Campbell

LOVED ONES

briefed the US consulate general and her entourage on the various activities undertaken by NBRM since its inception in 2007.

Managing director of ‘Medicinal & Aromatic Nursery’, Nihokhu Chophy, also highlighted to the visiting delegation and NRM officials on the business of his small enterprise since its inception in 2001.

MokokchuNg, august 24 (MExN): A one-day workshop for students and alumni of Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung was held on August 23 under the theme “Envisaging your Dream Career”. Organised by the Career Guidance and Counselling cell of the College, the resource persons were Limasunep, Superintendent of Police, Wokha and Rozelle Mero, MD of the People Channel.

A press release informed that Limasunep covered a wide array of topics from competitive exam, aptitude, emerging trends of jobs in the world market, emotional quotient, to importance of intuition and the pow-

Resource persons Limasunep (L) and Rozelle Mero (R).

er of the sub-conscious mind.

Meanwhile, Rozelle Mero stressed on the importance of personality and skill development for job seekers and talked about traditional jobs as well as the less conventional ones, which she said are equally important and many opportunities are available.

The resource persons, according to the release, motivated the students and teachers alike to think out of the box and envisage careers with an open mind. Students and alumni were encouraged to register with the People Channel for future job openings and many came forward to avail the opportunity, it added.

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ANSWFSEA demands amendment of Service Rule 1997

DiMapur, august 24 (MExN): The All Nagaland Social Welfare Field Staff Employees Association (ANSWFSEA), comprising Supervisors/Welfare Inspectors, of the Social Welfare Department has sought comprehensive review/ amendment of the Nagaland Social Security & Welfare Service (Revised) Rule, 1997. As per the existing Service Rule 1997, ANSWFSEA informed that there is scope for dual entry point at Supervisor and CDPO level requiring same level of qualification, that is, a graduate degree from recognized universities approved by the Government of Nagaland with no extra qualification requirement for the CDPO which it called “unjustified and irrational”.

The up gradation of CDPO to Cass-I post in 2011, the Association added, has left “uneasy gap” as promotion from Class-III to class-I does not apply even though the guidelines of ICDS says that the next promotion for supervisor is to the post of the CDPO. “Moreover, the existing service of 1997 has become even more irrelevant and fit to be rescinded especially with up gradation of the CDPOs to class-I in 2011 as there is no article or clause to bind/ regulate their service matters.” The

Threatens to go on pen down strike for indefinite period starting September 1

department had proposed to the government for up gradation of supervisors to Class-II simultaneously along with the up gradation of the CDPO, “but it was not taken into consideration creating further administrative inconveniences in the department hierarchy.”

A press statement issued by Benjamin Sema, ANSWFSEA Press Secretary in-charge cited, “Presently there are more than 150 Supervisors in the department, including those on Ad hoc/Contract basis.

There are 22 supervisors from the senior-most batch appointed in 1992, among which 21 are directly recruited through NPSC but are still waiting for the first promotion even after 23 years of continuous service. Going by the present trend, we the Supervisors/ Welfare Inspectors are not to expect promotion before rendering at least 24 or more years of continuous service where some Supervisors are liable to retire from the same post itself.”

The Association, it said, over the years has pointed out certain loopholes in articles and clauses which

are “disadvantageous” to Supervisors/ Welfare Inspectors vis-à-vis matters of promotion, entry point and other related matters in the Service Rule, 1997.

The Association served the department with ‘Charter of demand of the ANSWFSEA’ dated July 19, 2014 to redress the demands in a stipulated period of 30 days failing which, “the association members would be left with no option but compelled to initiate other means of redress.” The demands included: Immediate review/ amendment of the ‘The Nagaland Social Security & Welfare Service (revised) Rule, 1997’ and formulation of comprehensive service rule inclusive of the below mentioned points.

Single entry point in the executive post of department from the level of Supervisors Class-III non-gazetted or its equivalent cadre.

100% departmental promotion quota to the supervisors or equivalent cadre to the next higher post, that is, the CDPO as per the National ICDS guideline and not as per the draft proposal of service rule

2012. Streamline/ rationalize the executive posts from the ministerial posts and maintain exclusively a separate seniority list for ICDS and General Social welfare and other services.

Restrain regularization of Ad hoc/Contract appointees and future appointment to the post of CDPO Class-I without requisition and recruitment through open advertisement by the NPSC, without which contravenes all established service rules and norms.

Further, ANSWFSEA executives, district representatives, advisors, consultative committee members and members held a meeting on August 8, 2014, and adopted democratic course of action to be taken, after the expiry of the stipulated period (August 20). The first course of action was to wear black arm band as a sign of protest, the second to avail mass casual leave for three days, and the third was total pen down strike for an indefinite period starting September 1, 2014.

The Association members also met the Minister for Social Welfare on Au-

gust 11 and apprised him about the grievances, rationale behind the charter of demands with suggestions for remedial measures.

The minister, according to the statement, opined that the single entry point to the executive post in the department from the level of class III Supervisors or its equivalent cadres was crucial step. He also gave verbal assurance to expedite the matter and said that in order to alleviate the plight of the Supervisors/ Welfare Inspectors, the Service Rule 1997 must be amended/ reviewed, it was informed.

The same day, the association also met Secretary to the Government of Nagaland, Social Welfare and Director, Social Welfare.

ANSWFSEA further informed that the department served a communiqué in response to its charter of demands through office memo no. SW/ ESTT/REP-2/2014/346 Dt. 14th August, 2014 “which unfortunately did not conciliate with the charter of demands of the association, which may at best be described as lukewarm, against which a counter

reply was served to the department reiterating the same demands for acceptable solution by the association Dt. 23rd of Aug 2014.”

So far, the association has observed the first and second course of action as per the resolution of the association. The Association expressed it is still hoping for some “concrete and committed assurance” from the government before “we embark upon more and more stringent course of action.”

In light of the aforementioned points and transpiring events, the association has requested the authorities concerned to seriously gauge the case and consider the grievances and the remedial suggestions rendered in the form of charter of demand “which would go a long way in strengthening the smooth and more effective administration of the department.” It has also solicited “open support” of CANSSEA, NSF, ENSF, various social reform forums, and all the right thinking individuals. Further, requesting the members to be patient “as we hope for amicable solution over the current impasse”, the statement asserted, “We know our rights and henceforth would continue to seek justice at any cost without wavering.”

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UNC to organise protest rallies on August 30

Tahamzam, augusT 24 (mExN): The United Naga Council (UNC) has informed that it will be organising mass rallies in all the Naga district headquarters of Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul on August 30 at 11 am.

The statement from the Publicity Wing of the UNC informed that the rallies will demand the Government of India (GoI) expedite an acceptable and honourable settlement of the IndoNaga issue; protest against the alleged militarisation of Naga areas particularly Ukhrul district by Government of Manipur (GoM) “with Manipur State forces in utter disrespect of the Indo-Naga cease-fire”; protest against the Government of Manipur’s disrespect for the democratic process of tripartite talk on alternative arrangement which has progressed to a ‘logical stage’; protest against the unabated aggressive policies of the Government of Manipur to encroach upon the ancestral lands of the Nagas and tribals through Laws, Acts & Notifications to subvert the protective provisions of the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (MLR & LR) Act, 1960.

The UNC informed that a joint memorandum on the above points of demand and protests would be submitted by the Tribe Hohos and frontal organisations of the respective

districts through the Government of India agencies to the Prime Minister of India and would also dispatch the memorandum through post.

In this regard, UNC has appealed to all churches, Christian leaders, frontal and regional organisations, village chiefs and councils and authorities, students and youth leaders to take up moral responsibilities for ensuring maximum participation of people in the rally. It further advised the Naga people to be vigilant against any attempt of the adversaries to discredit the peoples’ movement for our political aspirations by sabotaging the democratic civil action.

Making contentions that the social divide between the Nagas and Meiteis has become “deeply entrenched” in the state of Manipur, UNC claimed that this was acknowledged with concern by the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, in his address in the 40th conference of DGPs on August 26, 2010.

Further, broaching on the tripartite dialogue of the Government of Manipur (GoM), Government of India (GoI) and the Nagas of Manipur under the aegis of the UNC on the demand for an ‘alternative arrangement’ outside the GoM pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue, the UNC commenting that the talk has progressed to a stage where a high powered committee would

be set up by the GoI to translate the demand into a political reality alleged that the GoM under Ibobi has intensified policies and actions “to legitimise the destruction of the traditional institutions and usurpation of the ancestral lands of the tribals and the Nagas through legislations, administrative orders & notifications.”

Highlighting some of the policies and acts, which the UNC maintains are moves to destroy the Nagas and the tribal people, it cited the GoM’s move for establishment of Village Development Committee (VDC) in all villages “in the name of development.” “The VDCs are to be chosen by the general body of the village but without the involvement or endorsement of the village council/village authority, the ultimate traditional authority of the village.

Instead of strengthening the village council/village authority, a parallel body with development function is to be put in place to render the Chiefs, Khulakpas and Khunpus impotent and irrelevant,” it claimed. Adding that the village which is the primary polity of the tribal people is being pushed into a conflict and division situation, it maintained that the move is to “destroy the village republic system” of the Nagas and tribal people.

Mentioning the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms

Act, 1960 (MLR&LR Act), it stated, although the act is not applicable in the tribal area of the hills, the GoM after passing the bill for a Separate Revenue Directorate for the Hills in 2012, has notified for extending the jurisdiction of the Revenue Tribunal Manipur to Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachandpur and the District Judge, Senapati has been appointed as the Presiding Officer, Revenue Tribunal Senapati. Every Naga and tribal village have their own distinct territorial boundary and jurisdiction, it stated, adding, “The tribals have their own way of life and to them the land and the people cannot be parted as their culture, tradition and identity are interwoven with the land.

The constitution of Revenue tribunals in the tribal districts is a subtle move to get around the MLR&LR Act and legitimize the usurpation of the ancestral lands of the tribals.”

Also citing the New Land Use Policy of Manipur (2014) (NLUP) based on the Mizoram model which is being taken up by the GoM ostensibly to improve productivity and minimise demand on land resources, UNC argued that Mizoram’s experience will be universal in terms of legal implication on ownership of land as the population is 100% tribal. “In the state of Manipur, where 41 %

of the population is tribal, who owns 90% of the geographical area of the state, the NLUP is just another ploy to dilute the land ownership of the tribal people. There are no Khas lands in the Naga territory in Manipur. But the NLUP is roping in the Village Development Committees, the newly conceptualised instrument for abolishing the village republic system of the Nagas and the tribals and to encroach upon our lands,” the United Naga Council contended.

The UNC also claimed that 120 tribal villages under Saikul Sub-division of Senapati District has been included by the GoM under various police stations of Imphal East District and Thoubal District - both valley districts – and questioned why the tribal villages could not continue under the original Police stations or if necessary, why new police stations cannot be opened up in the respective Districts. “GoM seeks to control the tribals and their land through its policing machinery by tagging the above villages to Police Stations of the Imphal valley districts and by diluting the distinct district boundaries,” the UNC alleged.

“There is clear intent to alienate the tribals from their traditional land and weaken their village republics by stealth and seemingly benevolent poli-

cies and administrative orders/ notifications and to also deprive them of every opportunity. Free Prior Informed Consent of the tribals, the stakeholders are not obtained. It is an alarming situation where the tribals have to fight every steps of the way to political empowerment,” it stated.

Further, claiming that Ibobi has gone on record to maintain that there are no Nagas in Manipur and that no land belongs to Nagas, the UNC asserted, “Our identity as a people and our ownership of our ancestral land has been denied by the Chief Minister of the state clearly disowning the Tribals and Nagas as citizens of the state.”

Also criticizing Ibobi for saying that he did not understand the meaning of alternative arrangement in his Independence Day speech earlier this month, the UNC contended that as the first citizen of the state, the chief minister has declared the alternative arrangement a pipe dream. “The GoM is a party to the tripartite talk on alternative arrangement which has seen seven rounds, the last of which was attended by political representatives of the GoM. In utter disrespect of the democratic process of dialogue he condemns the very process in which his Government is a party, while at the same time adopting a double standard posture saying that any issue

can be discussed and resolved without resorting to agitation.

Outrightly disrespectful of the democratic process of dialogue, GoM advocates dialogue to maintain the status quo of suppression and political disempowerment,” the UNC stated.

On the Indo-Naga ceasefire, it commented that it was between 2 entities, without any pre-condition and has been entered into for creating the environment and space for an acceptable and honourable settlement. “Ibobi maintains that there is no Cease-fire in Manipur and under the pretext of law and order has militarised the Naga areas, particularly Ukhrul headquarters with the CrPC 144 in place for more than 40 days,” it stated and added, “This is at best, state sponsored terrorism.”

UNC questioned the logic behind militarising tribal areas where ‘suspension of operation’ or ‘cease-fire’ is in place and normal life continuing without militarisation in valley areas where no ‘suspension of operation’ or ‘cease-fire’ is in place. Ibobi has on the floor of the state Assembly even welcomed the proposal of a referendum by a valley based outlawed militant organisation, it claimed and questioned, “Can any Government, which claims to represent the people, be more blatantly communal than this contrasting testimony?”

Assam floods: 7 dead, situation grim in 2 districts Peace campaign by Shalom Meghalaya guwahaTi, augusT 24 (iaNs): The flood situation has deteriorated in Assam's Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts with seven deaths reported from the area where three lakh people remain affected, officials said Sunday.

State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) officials said floods have upset lives of people in over 1,000 villages in 15 districts of the state. Till now, seven people have died in the floods -- one each in Lakhimpur, Dhubri, Nalbari, Golaghat and Barpeta and two in Morigaon districts, officials said.

They added that floodwaters have affected crops on 90,867 hectares across the state.

The flood situation in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts worsened as Subanriri river is in spate due to heavy downpour in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh. Jiadhal river has also breached an embankment in Dhemaji district.

District administrations concerned have set up 118 relief camps, providing shelter to 95,922 people in the 15 floodaffected districts -- Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Kamrup, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong besides Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. The flood situation has slightly improved in Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong districts, officials said.

SDMA officials said the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are flowing above the danger level at

Newmai News Network Shillong | August 24

An Indian woman sits beside her sick child on a bed surrounded by flood waters at Sagolkata village in Morigaon district of north eastern Assam state, India, Sunday, Aug.24, 2014. Monsoon season brings rains vital to growing crops in India, but floods and landslides each year kill thousands of people and submerge hundreds of villages. (AP Photo

Nematighat, Dhubri and Dibrugarh and the Jai Bharali river has crossed the danger mark at Sonitpur and Kopili while Beki river has breached the red line at Nagaon and in Barpeta district. Flood waters have also entered Kaziranga and Dibru Choikhowa national parks. However, there is no report of any major damage, the officials said.

The increasing water levels in

Brahmaputra and its tributaries have also forced the Inland Water Transport (IWT) department to temporarily suspend river transportation in many places, including Guwahati, Jorhat and Dhubri.

Communication with river island Majuli was snapped Sunday following suspension of ferry services from Jorhat.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the rev-

enue and disaster management department to rescue marooned people and to speed up relief and rehabilitation process of the flood-affected people. He has also asked the district administration concerned to monitor supply of gratuity relief, medicine and other items to the affected people while directing the water resources department to immediately start anti-erosion measures.

The Shalom Meghalaya peace campaign on Saturday reached trouble torn Chokpot in South Garo Hills (SGH). About 5000 people witnessed the programme and spoke their hearts out venting anger against rising insurgency.

Chokpot is a militancy hit area in Garo hills. It has seen many untoward incidents of violence, killing and abduction. In June this year, a 35-year-old woman's head was blown off in the presence of her four minor children and husband.

A strong contingent of motorists accompanied the peace caravan from Somenpara in South West Garo Hills (SWGH) to Chokpot on Friday. At Chokpot, they halted for the night and began their campaign on Saturday morning. Torrential rains, bad road and a broken bridge at Dekku near Chokpot failed to dampen the spirit of the peace messengers.

"In the last one week, the campaign has reached about 50,000 people with the silent and invisible message of peace.

People who could never ever speak and express their anger were given an opportunity to speak out," said the Director of Bakdil, Fr. Sunny Mavelil, who is associated with the campaign.

"The situation is beyond our tolerance.

Insurgency has brought a bad name for us.

We are peace loving people. We urge the militants to stop their barbaric acts," said a young participant, Cherak Marak.

In the last three months, Garo Hills has witnessed a peak in insurgency activities, where kidnapping has become a daily affair.

"The huge response to the campaign

shows that people of Garo hills cannot take the situation for granted anymore," Mavelil added.

The campaign was flagged off on August 17 at Tura and has passed through several places in SWGH including, Garobadha,Ampati, Purakashia, Nogorpara, Rimrangpara and Gambegre.

"Militancy has affected the lives of the people leading to a state of underdevelopment, a sense of helplessness and insecurity. As prophets living in the midst of the struggles of our people, we have reflected and realized the need for ensuring peace. Shalom Meghalaya envisages to be the messengers of peace, welfare and prosperity," said a booklet titled ‘I Want Peace’.

"We have gathered to pray and pledge for peace," said an elderly Balsrang Marak who took part in the campaign at Chokpot on Saturday.

Different speakers cutting across communities spoke at length on the need to protect the fundamentals of social systems including good parenting of children.

Many also spoke for improving the primary education system, where teachers are found to be absent. "Teachers can play a very important role in guiding the youths. They should mould our children in the best possible way so that they are not misguided into joining insurgent outfits," said a speaker.

The gathering also called upon the government and public leaders to conduct themselves as responsible citizens of the land. "At this time of trouble, the politicians should not fish in muddy waters of Garo hills. They should unite and work together to bring about a change," said another speaker.

5 universities accept Tripura Governor’s fellowship plan Nagaland Post responds to allegations

agarTala, augusT 24 (TNN): In an attempt to promote national integration and ensure value-based education, at least five universities in Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka have agreed to a proposal by Tripura governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya to offer fellowships to teachers from the state.

Talking to the media on Saturday, Acharya said he took into confidence the vice-chancellors of 5 Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka-based universities. The proposed fellowship program will initially be restricted to teachers of colleges, universities and a few private schools. However, government schools can also be included later if the state government agrees.

"I shall speak to the CM and the educa- any kinship with his colleague," Acharya said. tion minister. Through this, teachers from "We should understand why our pupils other states can come to schools in remote are going to other metros even for general areas here and teach English, Mathemat- degrees. Our region has adequate infrastructure," he stated.

"I also requested these universities to begin courses on Indian tribal dialects in their institutions.

This will help them understand our region better," he said.

Sharing his brief experience ics, Science and Hindi for a month. Teach- of education in Tripura, Acharya said, "I am ers from Tripura can do the same in schools happy to see a school per kilometre of the outside the state," he said. state. At the same time, it pains me to see 15 "Unless an academician from Delhi or teachers for 36 students in one building. The Mumbai stays in a village in Tripura, Nagaland authorities should ensure that schools with or Mizoram for at least a month, he cannot feel very few students are amalgamated."

Through this, teachers from any state can teach at remote schools of Tripura for a month and vice versa

Bangladesh PM urges India to seal Teesta deal Dhaka, augusT 24 (iaNs): Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged India to seal the Teesta water-sharing agreement, media reported Sunday.

Hasina made the call Saturday when India's Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V.K. Singh paid a visit at her Dhaka residence, bdnews 24 reported. "Hasina said the Teesta water-sharing deal should be inked as soon as possible as Bangladesh needs more water in the lean period," said an official from the Bangladesh prime minister's office. "She expressed hope that the Teesta deal will be signed soon by mu-

tual understanding and the Land Boundary Agreement will be implemented," the official added.

The Teesta water-sharing agreement has featured in talks since the Awami League government returned to power in 2009. Although the Congress-led government in New Delhi went ahead with the bill, it was blocked

by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The constitutional amendment required to pass the land boundary bill is awaiting passage in the Lok Sabha - the lower house of Indian parliament.

The Indian minister was accompanied by Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, Tri-

pura's Industry Minister Tapan Chakravarty, Meghalaya's Parliamentary Secretary Kennedy Khyriem, Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran and founder president of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Matlub Ahmad. Hasina also urged New Delhi to give transit to Bangladesh with Nepal and Bhutan through Indian territory.

V.K. Singh expressed gratitude to Bangladesh for allowing Indian transports to carry rice to Tripura using the Ashuganj river port.

He said the Indian government will construct an 11-km road from Akhaura to Agartala for goods transportation. V.K.

Singh added that India was interested in creating an environment for increasing trade and investment between its northeastern states and Bangladesh.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen to visit Bangladesh and it may happen soon.

V.K. Singh, also minister for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER), led a 31-member delegation from the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to attend the IndiaBangladesh Business Conclave being held here. Bangladesh shares a 4,096-km border with West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya.

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he series of allegations leveled firstly against the newspaper beginning in the Naga Independence Day speech of NNC acting president Z. Royim Yimchungru on August 14 and also targeting the editor for involving in the internal affairs of the NNC is not only shocking, totally unwarranted but a direct threat on the editor and the newspaper.

Nagaland Post since inception, has always maintained strict neutrality in line with journalistic ethics and never involved itself in any feuds among any faction whatsoever.

Not publishing press releases does not amount to interference and as this has also occurred in the past due to various problems with various other Naga National Groups (NPGs) which went to sign cease fires with the government of India in 1997 and 2000.

When press releases are sometimes not published for want of space or non receipt etc, all other NPGs or organizations officially complaint in their own inimitable style against non-publication after which such matters are resolved.

The editor is not involved in receiving press releases, their publication etc since it is a collective responsibility of the staff.

In the case of Z. Royim Yimchungru group of NNC, there has been no complaint whatsoever that has been officially brought to the notice of the newspaper and the editor.

However, the newspaper clarifies that if there had been any non-publication of the press release, it is being looked into and at the same time express regrets if there has been any failing on the part of the newspaper.

The allegations of distortion of reports are matters of interpretation since every

matter sometimes do not find mention.

However, it is to state that there is no motive to cause any such distortions and if there had been such, the newspaper would have gladly republished the same on receiving any complaints as in past cases.

Nagaland Post has been the only newspaper during the turbulent years from 1990 to 1997 which had offered a platform to various Naga national groups at a time when publication of materials from “banned organizations” was banned and violation attracting serious consequences.

In 1991 the government sought to lock up the Nagaland Post printing press under sedition charges but through divine intervention, the law enforcement team understood the circumstances under which the newspaper had to function.

In 1992, the state government banned advertisement for publication of press releases of underground groups. This was followed by the black listing in the centre in 1993 on the same charges.

During the same period, CBI had also filed charges against Nagaland Post for reporting on various incidents that were deemed to be against national interest.

Today, the media still faces some problems from individuals but the NPGs have been most appreciative and understanding of the problems faced by the local media.

In the light of the above, it is unfortunate that the messenger is being targeted and therefore, hopes that in the end, the issue be addressed to clear any kind of misgivings or misunderstandings.

Editor & Staff Nagaland Post

4

Dimapur

public discoursE

Monday 25 August 2014

The Morung Express

The Naked Truth of Assam – Nagaland Border

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bases on a New Attitude of: A. Give & Take, B. in Mutual Consent, on the basis of: C. Ground Realities, and D. in Peace.

A Settlement between Assam and Nagaland on these Principles would provide positive incentive for settlement of Border Troubles between Assam and its other neighbors; Nagaland would have nothing to loose.

The Problem can never be decided by: • Legal Imperative or • History alone.

Assam may expect the Supreme Court would give a Judgment supporting Assam’s Stand. It may be so, but Assam cannot practically reclaim all disputed areas in the ground, a majority under occupation of the Nagas. If the Case is decided in the Court, it may for ever destroy the potential settlement on mutual consent in Peace between the two Neighboring States for all time to come.

BROADLY SPEAKING: TODAY NAGALAND HAS LOST MUCH OF THE RESPECT & GOODWILL FROM ALL OF ITS NEIGHBORING STATES! WE ARE NOT ‘WELCOME’ IN ASSAM: We are not even welcome in Karbi Anglong any more now. We purchased lands there but move to expand them rightly more often wrongly!

HOW CAN the Chief Minister REVERSE THIS TREND OF ATTITUDE IN OUR NEIGHBORS? This is very serious matter.

he ASSAM-NAGALAND BORDER DISPUTE IS UNREPAIRABLE; IT CAN ONLY BE REPLACED. Nagaland Government failed to develop any inspiring idea to pursue for the solution of the matter beside ritually blaming the Centre of not doing its share, stating its views without any conviction.

It distracted its thrust on the Border issue due to its excess love for Development mostly. The State appeared trying to postpone the Border Settlement until the conclusion of the interminable ‘On Going’ Indo-Naga Political Talk. The State woke up from its slumber only when the Centre gave an urgent wake up call.

The Assam–Nagaland Border matter is beyond Repair; it can only be Replaced ANEW, the Replacement must be of Genuine Quality, not Nakli.

Assam–Nagaland Border Dispute cannot be settled in the old conventional style of contesting and accusing each other every time the States meet. Nagaland brings a litany of Points accusing Assam for every problem in the Border. Nagaland accuses Assam with its Fore Finger; three other Fingers point at us ourselves. Assam does the same; it cannot realize illegalities can come also from their side. Traditional process of blame Game cannot bring Solution to the Border.

Solution to ASSAM–NAGALAND BORDER PROBLEM requires a NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH. It needs a completely new approach outside the commonly followed Path: The solution should be

Nagas are known for their Hospitality, Joviality, Generosity, Camaraderie, and easy to get along with.

NAGAS WERE RESPECTED FOR THEIR POLITICAL ACUMEN AND FORESIGHT. The world took the Naga a David against the Indian Goliath for Liberty, Freedom and political Rights of the underdog.

When centuries old ancient Meitei Kingdom of Manipur, the Ahoms Kingdom in Brahmaputra Valley and many others were loosing their Power at the onslaught of the Colonial Power in the 18th Century, Nagas began to developed a CONSCIOUSNESS OF A PEOPLE and began to fight for their political RIGHTS. NAGALAND started the EXAMPLE of State Creation in the North East; other States took the cue and states like Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura got their Statehood with domino effect from Nagaland.

And armed Naga Groups gave the incentive to many Separatists Movements in the North East.

Nagas Militants sold Arms and gave Trainings to Militants from other States. These armed Militants carried on Terrorist Activities in their own States.

Nakedly Speaking, Naga armed Groups were the Mother of all Militancy in the North East.

After the emergence of Nagaland as a State: it became proud and turned away from humility. There are numerous instances of Unruly Acts of trigger happy Nagas, while passing through Assam.

Convoys of NLG Vehicles from Nagaland often misbehaved in Assam, sometimes they did target shooting at Dogs, Birds, domesticated or not on the Roadside. Speeding Nagaland Vehicles often injured maimed helpless pedestrians in Assam.

Then Nagas started Economic Blockades; lately, unacceptable Taxations, Harassments to Transporters, Commuters and Abduction for Ransom on Traders from outside the State.

These activities and Incidents created ill will in our Neighboring Assam and Manipur: Nagaland lost the Goodwill from most of its Neighboring States.

So much so that today, unnecessary checking harassment of Nagaland Vehicles passing through Assam, arrest of Nagas in disputed areas under this or that allegations, violation of Rules, ECONOMIC BLOCKADE OF NAGALAND put upon Nagaland. But consider: Nagas Blocaded Manipur for 100 days!

Many Nagas think Assam is encroaching into Nagaland; the truth is Assam has not intruded into Nagaland even by a square Inch of land.

Assam has not encroached inside the Official Map of Nagaland.

This is how it happened: Tuensang-Mon was earlier only an AREA, no District or Territory, of NEFA – North Eastern Frontier Agency adjacent to Naga Hills. The Tuesang-Mon Area had clear Boundary differentiated from Naga Hills District.

Naga Hills also had a clearly defined Area of a District. Then Naga Hills and Tuensang/Mon Area were amalgamated together to form NHTA

businEss Infosys co-founder Shibulal Idea Cellular launches donates Rs.36 cr to charity mobile wallet service

Kochi, August 24 (iANs): Infosys co-founder S.D. Shibulal and his wife Kumari Shibulal Sunday announced a donation of Rs.36 crore to their charitable institutions Sarojini Damodaran Foundation and Advaith Foundation which support underprivileged children.

“Compassion is something I have watched my mother practise when I was a little girl growing up in a village in Kerala. Someone would come to our house and ask for food. My mother would either share from her plate or starve to feed another. I made a promise to myself that I would do the same,” Kumari said. Shibulal and his wife have been involved in philanthropic activities through their foundations for the last 15 years.

The Sarojini Damodaran

Foundation (SDF) was launched in 1999 to extend educational support for underprivileged students.

Under the SDF scholarship programme, thousands of students have completed their higher education in engineering, medicine, nursing and polytechnic training.

In all, SDF has supported 3,306 student years till date and in the current academic year, it is supporting 617 students. This year, 164 students have been awarded scholarships. The SDF, in partnership with Vidya Poshak, placed 1,127 students in jobs. Free school supplies were given to 10 government schools at Alappuzha. The Advaith Foundation was registered in July 2004 and is based in Bangalore. It provides opportunities to underprivileged children.

LEISURE

Simple Rules - There is just one simple rule: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.”

SUDOKU Game Number # 2975

WHO OWNED THE LAND INITIALLY? Nagaland has other stands -confidential ones- too not necessary for publication here and now.

In Assam condition, all Lands belonged to the Ahom Raja initially; subsequently the Colonial Power took over Assam in 1826 by the Supplementary Treaty of Yandaboo.

In Nagaland condition, the Land belonged to the People, long before the Colonial Administration, it is today too; areas under the jurisdiction of the Community belong to Land Owners.

On Boundary Settlement Issue, the Government have all the Authority to Settle the Boundary in Assam: In Nagaland the Government may settle the Boundary only in Consultation with the Community or the Land Owners. The Government would do well to take this into account when officially the Two States hopefully and mutually settle the Issue.

When everything is said and done, IT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF NAGALAND AND ASSAM THAT THE BORDER ISSUE IS SETTLED ON THE BASIS OF: I. GIVE & TAKE, II. ON THE BASIS OF GROUND REALITIES, III. IN PEACE, IV. MUTUALLY, V. OUTSIDE THE COURT. And let Nagaland have Friendship with all the Neighboring States for all time to come.

Thepfulhouvi Solo

A record 1.53% qualified in Nspmt exam 2014 conducted by Nbse

New Delhi, August 24 (Pti): Idea Cellular has launched a mobile wallet service Idea Money which allows customers to conduct transactions like prepaid mobile recharges, DTH recharges, utility bill payments and money transfers.

The service was launched in Mumbai in July and it will be expanded across the country in a phased manner, a company source said. The source, however, refused to share a timeline for the availability of the service across pan-India.

Mobile operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Tata Teleservices are already offering such mobile wallet services. As per the company’s website, Idea Money is a semi-closed prepaid payment instrument offered by Idea Mobile Commerce Services Limited (IMCSL), which has got a licence from Reserve Bank of India to offer this service.

“Simply put, it is a prepaid account which can be accessed using your mobile phone or the Internet for conducting a variety of transactions like prepaid mobile recharges, DTH recharges, utility bill payments, money transfers & more,” Idea said.

_

(Naga Hills-Tuensang Area). This NHTA was not a State or a Territory, it was only an AREA but it had a clearly defined Boundary.

This NHTA then consequently became NAGALAND, 16th State of India by AN Act of NAGALAND passed in the Parliament of India. Thus NAGALAND acquired the Boundary of NHTA. The Boundary of erstwhile NHTA became the boundary of NAGALAND. They are the same.

The Map now used in ALL Government Official purposes is the Map of Nagaland and the Boundary in the Map is the Official Boundary of Nagaland. Assam has no claim of any land inside this constitutional boundary of Nagaland.

The official Area of Nagaland is 16,579 Square KM; the claimed area included, the area of Nagaland would be much more than the Constitutional Area of 16579 Square KM. Based on History and Tradition, Nagaland claims the Areas in the foothills beyond its Map boundary and has occupied land outside Nagaland Map in the so-called Disputed Areas.

This disputed Area consists mostly of about 10 RESERVED FORESTS; the NAGAS CLAIM AS THEIRS. The Claim the Nagas make may be impertinent in the Constitution, it is not lawful in the Eye of Assam but the Naga Claim is Not for Nothing: Long before Nagaland Claimed the Area, before the Colonial Power took Assam, before the Colonial Administration covered them, the Naga Tribes owned the Land! The Fundamental Question in any land claim is:

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hrough this column I would like to mention the recent All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) Exam which was conducted on 4th May 2014 where none of the bonafide candidates from Nagaland could secure the qualifying minimum mark percentage. The Government of Nagaland then decided to conduct the Nagaland State Pre Medical Test (NSPMT) on 9th August 2014. Altogether 713 candidates applied for the said Exam against 56 seats (46 MBBS seats and 10 BDS seats). However, when the results/ marks were displayed in the NBSE Office, it is learnt that out of 713 candidates only 11 Naga candidates were able to secure the qualifying marks which means that only 1.53% of the candidates qualified. This pass percentage is a record in the history of NBSE since its inception. Then

these questions arise. Were the candidates weak? Were the questions out of the syllabus? Were the questions set by just one institution? Did the students of HSSLC (Science Stream) qualify in the HSSLC Board Exams 2014 without actually learning? Are the students’ organizations even aware of the future of the Nagas? Or who do we blame?

The Government notification NO DTE/TECH-A/17/2014 Dated Kohima, the 23rd July 2014 mentioned that candidates securing less than 40% marks in the NSPMT will not be eligible for nomination to MBBS/BDS seats. As per the said notification, only 11 Naga students qualify the norms. So now, how will the remaining 45 seats be filled? Suppose this is done by marking up. That won’t be fair and is inviting another problem because in the last AIPMT Exam,

DAILY CROSS WORD

CROSSWORD # 2982

DIMAPUR Civil Hospital:

instead of marking up the secured marks of the selected MBBS and BDS candidates, the Government refused to nominate them to the MBBS/BDS seats for further studies and conducted the Re-exam (NSPMT). Now, keeping in mind the results of this Re-exam, the filling up of the 56 seats becomes a difficult task. So then, is the Selection Board going to leave the remaining 45 seats unfilled? Or will there be another Re-exam for the unqualified students? However, conducting another Re-exam is probably not possible due to constrain of time. Thus, the Selection Board could perhaps follow the CBSE JEE (Mains) Pattern for filling the seats which would be the most justice-able option at this point.

Khyodemo Lotha Wokha Town

STD CODE: 03862

Metro Hospital: Faith Hospital: Shamrock Hospital Zion Hospital: Police Control Room Police Traffic Control East Police Station West Police Station CIHSR (Referral Hospital) Dimapur hospital Apollo Hospital Info Centre: Railway: Indian Airlines Chumukedima Fire Brigade Nikos Hospital and Research Centre Nagaland Multispecialty Health & Research Centre

Answer Number # 2974

KOHIMA

Police Control Room: North Police Station: South Police Station: Fire Brigade: Naga Hospital: Oking Hospital: Bethel Nursing Home:

232224; Emergency229529, 229474 227930, 231081 228846 228254 231864, 224117, 227337 228400 232106 227607 232181 242555/ 242533 224041, 248011 230695/9402435652 131/228404 229366 282777 232032, 231031 248302, 09856006026

STD CODE: 0370

Northeast Shuttles

100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202

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G W O K I P P S W A G V A E E A Q A J Y

V U G P K W U S N A O P D J Z O B Z T Y

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61. Untenanted 63. Applications 64. Beige 65. Relocated 66. Untidyness 67. In order to prevent 68. Serpentine

DOWN 1. Found in some lotions 2. Delicate 3. A single time 4. Found on a finger 5. Duck down 6. Family 7. High regard 8. Stretchable 9. Fur 10. Used to see small things 11. Dim 12. Anagram of “Space” 13. God of the underworld 18. French for “Summer” 24. South southeast 25. Animal toxin 26. Wealthy 27. Dogfish 28. Small 29. Flight attendant 31. Balcony section

33. Spanish for “Friend” 34. Container weight 36. Wild goat 37. Arid 38. Historical periods 42. Better 43. Buff 45. Givers 47. A part of the small intestine 48. Like the Vikings 49. Melodies 51. And so forth 52. Bongos 54. Affaire d’honneur 56. Atop 57. Opera star 58. Eccentric person 59. Countercurrent 62. Slice Ans to CrossWord 2981

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The Morung Express

Monday 25 August 2014

State bJP defending communalism & corruption: NPcc

Dimapur, august 24 (mExN): The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee has come out accusing the state BJP of defending communalism and corruption. A statement from the NPCC Media Cell alleging that the State BJP President Dr. M. Chuba Ao has been “persistently defending” the communal activities of the RSS and the corrupt activities of the DAN government, contended that “his desperate bid to hog the limelight has made communalism and corruption a non issue forgetting that these are the two grave challenges faced by the people and the nation.”

NPCC claimed that in over 11 years of NPF led DAN rule, the state BJP is yet to utter a word on the corrupt activities of the DAN

government despite being ‘humiliated and ignored’ by the NPF led government who ‘poached’ two of its legislators in May 2009 and reduced the relevancy of BJP in state politics. “The only time the state BJP had raised some issue of public importance is when it singled out and blamed the BRO for poor road conditions forgetting that majority of the roads under state R&B (PWD) department have deteriorated and worsened to the point of no return,” the NPCC stated.

Also claiming that when the NPCC had dared the BJP to remember its promise of granting statehood to the Eastern Nagas which was made by the then party president and present union minister Nitin Gadkari on two

RALH demands immediate action

WOKHa, august 24 (mExN): The Ralan Area Lotha Hoho (RALH) has demanded some “immediate actions” in a ‘charter of demands’ to the Chief Minister of Nagaland after its general meeting on the ongoing ‘law and order problem’ in the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) under Ralan Area.

The charter, signed by RALH chairman, Hayithung Kikon, and its secretary, C.S. Ovung, has demanded the “immediate bifurcation” of SDO (Civil) and Border Magistrate i.e. the two Magistrates should function independently. The Government of Nagaland, it stated, “should not allow the displaced Adivasis Tenants to resettle at Ralan Area.” Failing which, the RALH shall not “shoulder any responsibilities in case of any eventualities or untoward incidents occurred.”

As per an RALH assessment, “the displaced Adivasis tenants can never be above 150 household whereas, the Assam Media has distorted the actual fact and claimed to be above 10,000 household, which required deeper retrospections of their hidden agendas to push all the migrants to our land.” It demanded the “immediate provision of compensation/relief to all the displaced Naga villages viz. Wochan, S. Wochan, Tchuchanphen, Yanlum, Soshan, Lishayan, Likyayan and L.Chekayan.” It also called for the “immediate revocation” of Sec. 144 CrPC “which was imposed only at the stretch of road between Yanpha village to Liphanyan Village (Governor’s Camp) since 12/08/14.”

The RALH demanded the deployment of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and Nagaland Armed Police (NAP) at the displaced villages of Wochan, S.Wochan, Tchuchanphen, Yanlum, Sochan, Lishayan, Likyayan and L. Chekayan to “help/assist them or to provide security to the displaced villagers to resettle at their respective villages immediately.” The RALH has also demanded the deployment of the Seema Shastra Bal (SSB) at Wochan, S. Wochan, Tchuchanphen, Yanlum, Sochan, Lishayan, Likyayan, and L. Chekayan and not at the villages viz. Yanpha, Ronsuyan and Chandalashung “where they are already enough security forces to protect the Public lives & properties.”

It demanded the “immediate withdrawal” of Assam Police (AP) stationed /posted opposite CRPF Camp at Liphanyan (Governor’s Camp).

different occasions in May 2012 and Dec 2012, it stated that the state BJP is now ‘desperately’ trying to skirt the issue by talking about development deficit in Eastern Nagaland and the political will of the NDA government to bridge this gap.

On the Naga Political issue, the NPCC maintained that the “uniqueness of Naga history” has been a matter of pride for all Nagas and for which a heavy political price has been paid to defend this identity. “If the state BJP wants to keep blaming the UPA govt for its inability to find solution to the Naga political problem for the past ten years, then they are also equally guilty of stalling the peace process during their six years in power from Mar

Dimapur

5

MEx FILE

Special Branch seize liquor

1998 till May 2004. Therefore, instead of indulging in passing the buck, the state BJP should rather concentrate on convincing their leaders in Delhi to bring about a logical conclusion to the Naga peace talks since the BJP with a majority in Lok Sabha is not saddled with the compulsions of the coalition politics faced by UPA in two terms,” the NPCC stated.

Arguing that the “communal and divisive” RSS remains the political mentor of the BJP, it questioned the state BJP advising NPCC to keep religion out of politics, commenting that such advice “can come only out of ignorant minds who are unaware of the BJPs political history that has been nurtured by polarizing the nation on the basis of reli-

gion.” “Unless the BJP severs its ideological ties with the RSS and other militant religious outfits who have no regards for other religious minorities, it can never escape the ignominy of being labeled as communal party,” it stated.

With regard to the MGNREGS allegation leveled and as challenged by the BJP, the NPCC will be taking a legal course of action to unearth the truth, it informed and added, “Since the state BJP claims to have evidences to defend itself, it should also include evidences on the legislators from The liquor which was discovered in a godown at Murghi the ruling NPF who are in power Patti, Dimapur.

Morung Express News for the past 11 years, otherwise insulating the ruling DAN govt Dimapur | August 24 exposes the doublespeak of BJP on issues of corruption.”

The Special Branch, Dimapur on Sunday seized an assortment of illicit liquor from Murghi Patti. The liquor, around 70 cases of IMFL, was found concealed in a godown, the Special Branch said. No person having connection to the liquor could be arrested. The owner was suspected to be a crats, Foreign Policy and International ‘distributor’, who managed to give the flip. Efforts are on to Development experts, and Model Unit- track down the individual, it was added. The seized liquor ed nations Trainers with numerous in- was approximated to be worth around Rs. one lakh across ternational experiences and specialized the inter-state border in Khatkhati. in the theme of the conference.

NEIMUN calls upon Colleges, Universities and Schools to nominate students to apply and be part of a life changing threeday conference The last date for the first phase of applications is the August 31. The KOHima, august 24 (mExN): The Gorkha Public second phase will open strictly based on Panchayat, Kohima is organizing ‘Balidan Diwas’ in assoavailability of seats. Interested schools/ ciation with all Gorkha NGOs in memory of Veer Saheed colleges or individual delegates inter- Maj. Durga Malla and Veer Saheed Capt. Neikezhakuo Kenested in attending NEIMUN 2014 are en- guruse including other martyrs at Gorkha Public Panchayat couraged to contact the secretariat at sec- Hall, Opp Government Printing Press, Chandmari, Kohima gen.neimun@gmail.com, call us at+91 on August 25 at 4:30 pm. A press release from the Publicity 9774241224 /+91 9089057844 or check Secretary Rajeev Rai informing that Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Home Commissioner, Temjen Toy, our website www.neimun.in. will grace the occasion as Chief Guest, has invited all to join the celebration and pay tribute to the martyrs.

Model uN invites students for NeiMuN 2014

sHillONg, august 24 (mExN): The North East India International Model United Nations invites students between the ages of 15-25 years (open to all Nationals) currently enrolled in an educational institute or a recent graduate/PG to NEIMUN 2014. The threeday event will be convened at Shillong, Meghalaya from October 24 to 26.

NEIMUN 2014 is hosted in collaboration with Government of Meghalaya and United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan. Best Delegate, a Model UN Company based in the US is the Lead Training and Content Partner; The North East Today, the Magazine partner and; Eastern Chronicle, the National Print partner.

A press release issued by Jiedine Irene Alexandria Phanbuh, Secretary-General, NEIMUN 2014 stated that this year’s Conference would allow delegates to participate in the simulation of the UN General Assembly, and the World Conference on Indigenous People at the NEIMUN Second Session. The theme of the conference is “Post- 2015 Development Agenda: Setting the world Stage to end Poverty”.

Last year’s edition at Kohima, Nagaland hosted in collaboration with Department of Youth Resources and Sports, Government of Nagaland and UNDP brought together 200 participants from 69 schools and colleges from across the country. NEIMUN 2014 will host UN Officials, Legislators, Bureau-

Gorkha Public Panchayat to celebrate Balidan Diwas

Hornbill Music Festival & International Rock Contest 2014 DEO Phek notifies

Dimapur, august 24 (mExN): The organisers of the Hornbill Music Festival have expressed delight in announcing the preparations for the 2014 edition of the Hornbill Music Festival & International Rock Contest, the biggest music competition in the subcontinent.

“We, Nagaland Outdoors’ Club (NOC) and Sky Entertainment, are delighted to announce to you the edition, and pitch you a package of excitement, fun and celebrations that we are specially preparing. We are readying a memorable experience just for you,” a press release from Al Ngullie, Media & Publicity

Manager, NOC & Sky Incorporated, Hornbill Music Festival stated.

Saying that the Hornbill Festival will not only bring a week of customary festivities from December 4 to 10, Ngullie added that it would also bring “a celebration of music that pays tribute to artistry and class at par with international sensibilities, anticipation, and presentation.”

Reaching out to musicians, Ngullie urged them to brush up their skills saying, “You will be fighting for your musical life thanks to inflexible competition that bands from across North East India, India, and abroad, will offer you. You will be vying for the biggest prize cache in the country’s music world.”

He added that the details for registration, audition season, and rules and regulations will be announced very soon.

Announcing the prizes,

Ngullie informed that the winners of the Rock Competition will pocket INR 10,00,000, the runners up INR 5,00,000 and the second runners up INR 3,00,000.

Winners of individual prizes will pocket INR 30,000, Ngullie added.

Saying that an experience of a lifetime has been readied to add to the celebrat ions, Ngullie informs that besides the competition – which has attracted competitors from fellow Indian states Delhi to all the way from Australia – “there will be two rock legends whose momentous works have yet to be experienced live in this side of the Atlantic: British greats Smokie and American guitar god Vinnie Moore.” He adds, “They will be talking to you too, dear bands and fans.”

The Music Task Force (MTF) of the Government of Nagaland has selected the management of NOC and

Sky Entertainment to manage the Hornbill International Music Festival and Rock Contest for this year, the release informed.

Mentioning that the joint management consists of highly experienced social entrepreneurs, businesspersons, media professionals, and event managers who have not only made a mark in their respective fields but also in entertainment and show business, the release added that updates would be made through the media. One may also check for updates on the Facebook page ‘Hornbill Music Festival & International Rock Contest’ (www.Facebook.com/hmfirc).

The organisers have appealed to every musician and music fan, well-wisher, and the state’s media community to come and partner with them to make the event a success and a memorable experience.

pHEK, august 24 (mExN): The office of the District Education Officer, Phek has informed all Senior Graduate Teachers, Sub Inspector of Schools and Supervisors under Phek District that the tentative regular Graduate Teachers Seniority list as on November 30, 2013 has been released to respective SDEOs. A press release from Nuchisalu, Deputy District Education Officer, Phek, has directed all concerned Regular Graduate teachers, SISs and Supervisors to check their name from the list from their respective SDEO office at the earliest for any rectification and inclusion, for final compilation which is to be done on August 30, 2014. Those Graduate Teachers whose names are not included in the list are to submit all the Educational Qualification Certificates and other necessary documents for final compilation, the release stated and added that the Department will not be held responsible for any individual who failed to comply with the notice.

Committee on Public Accounts meeting

KOHima, august 24 (mExN): Toyang Changkong Chang, MLA, who is also the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts has convened its first meeting of the newly constituted committee on August 28, Thursday at 11 am in the Committee Room of Assembly Secretariat to take stock of the unfinished works and also to chalk out the programme for 201415. A press release from A. E. Lotha, Secretary, has requested all concerned members to attend.

Public SPace

H

Modi: Whose Prime Minister?

aryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda was booed and heckled by BJP workers in Kaithali during an event attended jointly with Prime Minister. Maharashtra CM Prithiviraj Chavan and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren faced the same boos and heckle at other functions. Prithiviraj Chavan having had embarrassed once in function with Modi on the dais in Solapur decided to boycott Nagpur function in which Modi is to perform “bhumi-puja” for the City’s metro rail project. Hemant Soren of JMM was embarrassed by BJP’s workers in Ranchi despite his prior request to the PMO that he would not be put in an “embarrassing” situation in la Hooda. He has decided not to share dais with Modi anymore.

Bickering over politicisation has become a daily affair between BJP and Congress. The Congress has come out officially as stated by AICC general secretary Ambika Soni that the BJP’s ploy in government functions where CMs were heckled by BJP’s workers was “Orchestrated” and “Well-planned conspiracy”.

Congress alleged BJP of vast conspiracy to use such public events – which ought to be politically neutral – to play dirty politics. The Congress is said to be convinced that BJP’s workers attempt to humiliate the CMs. BJP also tried to bully Omar Abdullah, J&K Chief Minister at a function jointly attended with Modi. AICC general secretary alleged that “Modi is trying to show Chief Ministers from Congress and other non-NDA parties, especially in the election-bound states, in poor light”.

However, the allegation is not proven because no hard evidence of such “engineering” and crowds at any Modi’s rally, official government business or otherwise, tend to be raucous. India Today reported that in Kaithali, the Prime minister ‘waved urging them to maintain

composure. However, the crowds were in no mood to pay heed and continued to interrupt the Chief Minister during his speech, which was completely inaudible’. BJP is arrogant in defence of the supporters. Throwing rebut at the Congress, Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson justified, “Chief Ministers faced sloganeering as they were ‘non-performing’”. Congress’ allegation may be without hard evidence but a question worth in questioning the BJP leadership including Modi is, are they doing enough to avoid such heckle from its workers?

Congress CMs decision to boycott sharing dais with Modi may not be politically correct from a party that has ruled India for decades. Such political move no doubt set an unprecedented trend in India democracy. Boycotting Prime Minister for rowdiness of his supporters does not merit the grievances of the Congress but whose responsibility is it to sooth the ruffled feathers. Surely, it is the responsibility of BJP leadership including Modi.

Doing little or nothing to stop such boo to non-BJP Chief Ministers on dais with Prime Minister would only imply that BJP leadership is silently encouraging it.

Manish Tiwari’s charge on BJP, “If government functions are used for orchestrated politics” it was the case of impropriety is not without validity. The Congress stand as put by Tiwari “No Chief Minister, in his right mind, would have possibly gone this route if evidence of orchestration was not in front of us” has a valid reason behind.

Question on whether Modi popularity took the BJP to victory or was it the party popularity now seems more relevant. Presumably many insiders in BJP, though may not be vocal, does not want to attribute such accolade to one man only. Strangely such boldness came from RSS chief who said that BJP success came from all the workers and not from one man alone, though not named it surely

refers to Modi. Slogan of ‘Modi wave’ was belittled by Congress. But ‘Modi wave’ did have impact to large extent even if one wishes to deny it. Many voted for BJP to see Modi as the Prime Minister of India.

Modi surely have public appeal largely by his sheer persona and political acumen but to certain level it is perhaps a stage-managed show by party workers as we saw in the run-up of elections of supporters waving or chanting ‘har har Modi’.

Modi’s ability to touch the crowd with his skilled oration is known and yet again he showed it in his debut Independence Day speech at rampart, Red Fort. Even Congress spokesperson, Abhishek Singhvi did not hesitate to laud Modi for his well crafted speech apart from criticism on omission on some issues and politicking that opposition parties will wait to see if Modi will translate his words into action. Unlike old tradition, Modi gave an extempore speech and without a bullet windshield. Modi is seen as a leader with difference as for now.

Being popular is a gift. But being a popular leader also demands responsibility. Modi is today a Prime Minister to all political parties. No political party can criticise Prime Minister Modi for being popular and his supporters going hysteria with cheers and chants in public functions. But the BJP’s workers behaving unruly with boo and jeer at the Chief Ministers of non-NDA who share dais with the Prime Minister is cheap politics.

Contentedly BJP alone has absolute majority of MPs in Parliament with Modi as the Prime Minister: the man anointed as to be PM by BJP much earlier before the elections, the man with flare of speech to boost party image, the man who mince no words, the man saw to be decisive in decision, and the man who draw crowds towards BJP in the run-up of elections.

BJP leadership now has to get above the syndrome of glorifying Modi, the way they

did it to Modi as a star campaigner for BJP before the elections. Modi is a Prime Minister of India now. As said Modi cannot dissuade the cheers and chants from his supporters; he deserves it if supporters give him but he cannot afford to remain besotted in his popularity world and forget what he ought to and can be done to tell his supporters to be disciplined and not to boo or bully the Chief Ministers of non-NDA who share dais with him.

If Chief Ministers of non-NDA boycott Prime Minister from sharing dais to avoid ‘embarrassing’ situation of la Hooda, Prithiviraj, and Soren from BJP workers it would be unprecedented on their part but at the same time it is also an ‘embarrassing’ situation for PM to have been boycotted by CMs in sharing dais with him. Refusing to share dais with Prime Minister Modi by CMs of Congress and other parties may be incorrect politically but it is also reasonable for the CMs to refuse to be on dais with Modi if such boos and heckle is not arrested in time by BJP leadership including Prime Minister Modi. Modi talked of federalism with states for good governance but how can centre-state relation be better if CMs of non-BJP ruled states boycott Modi from sharing dais. Boycotting may be politically unwise but Hemant Soren’s statement has a reason, “Any self-respecting CM will avoid attending public functions (with Modi)” if repeatedly booed, bullied and heckled by BJP workers.

Cheers and chant of ‘Har Har Modi’ is fine as long as it is not at the cost of dwindling another’s ‘self-respect’ in government functions, orchestrated under wile of dirty politics. BJP leadership need to rise above the old syndrome of ‘Modi wave’ now. The nation expects better politics.

NPF Youth Wing Terms NFHRCC Statement ‘contradictory’

R

eacting to the Nagaland Foot Hill Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC) accusation against the Minister PWD (R & B) and the department on the subject pertaining to the allotment of work orders, the NPF Youth Wing asserted that allotment of contract works to the deserving contractors is the prerogative of the constitutional Department and the concern Minister in- charge whether it was done through table tender or open tender.

Terming the NFHRCC statement as contradictory, the Youth Wing observed that on one side of the coin NFHRCC demanding unwarranted removal of the Minister and on the other side NFHRCC appreciating by giving a round of applause to the Minister PWD (R & B) for allotting 27 work orders to the deserving Naga contractors irrespective of tribes within the short period of six months. The Youth Wing expressed gratefulness to the NFHRCC for coming to the reality and honoring the Minister’s valuable service and contribution for the interest of the people.

The NPF Youth Wing having deep concern for the ongoing Foot Hill Road Construction, appeal NFHRCC to come forward with more appreciative statements and develop diplomatic approach rather than making unfruitful attacks and counter-attacks if the ongoing NFHRC project is really significant and the desire needs of the people.

Meanwhile, the NPF youth wing expressed its sincere appreciation to the BJP –led NDA Government at the centre for the timely intervention and support in defusing Assam-Nagaland border issue at Ralan area under Wokha district. The youth wing thanked the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Nagaland CM T R Zeliang, Home Minister Y. Patton, MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon, BJP Nagaland unit, neutral forces, civil societies, Hohos, NSF and responsible and peace loving citizens of Assam and Nagaland states for rendering their tireless efforts during the recent unfortunate AssamNagaland border crisis by restoring tranquility.

The youth wing further appeal to the right thinking citizens to be little sensitive and conscious while giving statements over the long pending Nagaland-Assam border issue unless someone fully understood the Genesis of the problem. For general information, the present crisis was neither the law and order problem nor intelligence failure Janbemo Humtsoe Member Secy, Press Bureau B. Thohii Shuru NPF Youth Wing.

Senapati Dist. H/Q

The Morung Express is introducing “Public Space” as part of our intention to provide deliberate space for the opinions of the people to be expressed and heard through this newspaper.

Nonetheless, The Morung Express points out that the opinions expressed in the contents published in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper or the editor.

6

IN-FOCUS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express MonDAy 25 AuGusT 2014 voluME IX IssuE 233

Along Longkumer Consulting Editor

Missionaries at Work

‘W

e need to send Naga missionaries outside to spread the gospel’, is a popular assertion especially among Naga Churches. For instance, the Nagaland Missionary Movement (NMM), which functions under the aegis of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) send out hundreds of missionaries to many parts of India and even abroad. The noble ideal of sending Naga missionaries outside to spread the gospel is itself a paradox of truth when it is actually the home land that requires dedicated men and women to renew the teaching of the gospel and to make Nagaland a better place. To give a new dimension to this discourse, perhaps we should start to evolve the idea and practice of how each and every member of society can actually contribute, in their own way, towards reformation and restoration.

If we can look at the issue from this perspective, then it does not require so much the involvement of the Church, but rather of its members to be active Christians. The Church is after all only an embodiment of the individuals and the latter must become effective witnesses both inside and outside the Church. Otherwise there is no real meaning or significance as a Christian or being a member of the Church when we are unable to practice the gospel ourselves. More importance should therefore be given to ‘active Christian endeavour’ rather than our present focus on Church and religion.

Nagaland will start to improve and our people truly empowered only when we become better Christians, going beyond the four walls of the Church and standing true as Christians in our every day endeavour whether it is in our homes, work places or in the public sphere. We need not look far to actually see a successful Christian endeavour—the Dimapur based Christian Institute of Health Sciences & Research (CIHSR). As mentioned by the Chief Secretary of the State during an official programme on August 23, the CIHSR has been rated as one of the best examples of a successful Public-Private-Partnership mode in India. And as rightly noted by the Chief Minister during the same event, the CIHSR was ‘built from scratch’ and is a contribution of ‘true Christian spirit of service and sacrifice’. The CIHSR is successful not for any other reason but for the men and women who endeavour to work for a greater calling and being imbibed with Christian ethos. Yes, our work matters to God. God gave us work to do and it is our responsibility to do it well.

We need not be engaged in full time ministry in order to truly serve God. We speak of people who are in “full-time ministry” as if only they are “full-time Christians.” The point really is that work and Christ cannot be separated and it is this dichotomy that is perhaps the reason for many of the present ills in Naga society. It will be foolhardy to imagine and expect the Church alone to reform and restore our plight. Whether you are in politics, administration, business etc. each one can be a missionary in their own way, to explore and discover the powerful ideas of change and responsibility so vital for reform of our government systems, restoration of human values or for transformation of the self. Recently it was reported that the present Chief Secretary ‘apologized’ on behalf of the government for an act of nepotism. We need to applaud such gestures, people who will take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes and fix them. It will indeed be possible to have peace, progress and justice in our land if as missionaries at our respective work places we can be the shining lights of integrity, dedication, humility, service and love.

lEfT wiNg |

Interview by Isabel Lloyd Intelligent Life

Small things with great love

Melinda Gates is moved by Mother Teresa's belief in our shared humanity, and that everyone should be treated as if they matter

O

ver time, Mother Teresa has become regarded more as a monument than a person. What moves me about her, though, are the human qualities that have slowly been edited out of her story.

For almost two decades before she started doing the work for which she’s best known, she lived a quiet religious life, serving as a teacher. In Calcutta, however, she was gradually overwhelmed by the suffering of the people around her, and eventually decided to pursue missionary work. She called it her “call within a call”.

But she was always full of ambivalence. She was racked with doubt about her chosen path. She missed her spiritual life. She felt called to do more than she was capable of doing. And yet, methodically, she followed the path she believed was hers.

My favourite quote of hers asks, “How do we love? Not in big things, but in small things with great love.” Mother Teresa and her network of 5,000 sisters show that those small things add up to one giant thing: the idea that all people, no matter how poor, share a common humanity, and that something can be done to help all of us. That was her great innovation. She espoused the belief that everyone matters, which was new in a world where brutal inequalities were considered normal and unavoidable. And then she reinforced that belief for decades and decades by actually treating everyone as if they matter.

That was a brand new paradigm.

At the Gates Foundation, we don’t talk like Mother Teresa did. We talk about innovations, about technology, about global advocacy. But why do we do these things? We do them to make sure that every person has what they need—dignity, basic health and an opportunity for a better future. Contrary to the popular image, Mother Teresa proves that you don’t have to be a saint to make this kind of difference. You don’t have to be free of misgivings to do something difficult. You have to be brave, and loving, and you have to work hard. Those are qualities we all possess.

Some years ago, I travelled to India to volunteer in Mother Teresa’s hospice. A woman dying of AIDS asked me to help her see the sunset. So after she got her antiretrovirals, I carried her up to the roof. It’s hard to imagine two people whose circumstances differed more than hers and mine. But we share our humanity, we both live under the same sun, and it was beautiful and peaceful for both of us to watch that sun set. That’s what Mother Teresa taught me, and the world.

Melinda Gates, 50, is a philanthropist and co-founder of the Gates Foundation, which has an endowment of more than $38 billion. Mother Teresa (1910-97) was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian descent, whose work with the unregarded poor, sick and dying of Calcutta earned her the Nobel peace prize

THE EDIT PAGE

C O M M E N T A R Y

Joyce Dalsheim

Never again: for an education toward critical self-reflection The education system, recovering from economic crisis, increasingly obsesses itself with downsizing and rationalising, with “student learning outcomes” determined by test scores and the job market. Now, more than ever, we need to return to Adorno

“The premier demand upon all education is that Auschwitz not happen again”

T

– Theodor Adorno.

hose foreboding words, written in 1967, reflect on the possibility of life after Auschwitz and the agonizing burden of “never again”. Now, nearly seven decades after the end of that war, it may seem that this warning is no longer relevant, or perhaps no longer urgent. We have not forgotten the Holocaust or its victims. We have major museums, books, films, and countless commemorative events. Surely we need no longer fear that we are not doing enough to educate against such horror. Now, we have turned our attention to more pressing problems, practical issues and everyday questions about how to prepare young people for the challenges they will face in a changing economy. We worry that young people will not find jobs, or that they will not be competitive in the global marketplace.

But it is precisely this shift in focus that requires us to read Adorno again.

Adorno was not concerned about memorializing the Holocaust, or with remembering the victims. Like other critical theorists of his time, Adorno was concerned with how the seeds of fascism could be planted in democratic society. Like Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin, he worried about the everyday habits or taken for granted practices that could ultimately lead to the greatest of horrors that we could perpetrate against our neighbours. Ultimately, Adorno suspected that particular post-Enlightenment ways of thinking could undermine Enlightenment values. Very much like Arendt’s concerns that the seeds of fascism were already planted in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, that totalitarianism could emerge from the very principles we thought made us free, Adorno warned against the dangers inherent in the very rational thought that should free us from intolerance, and from domination by church or state.

That has not changed. Today’s pundits, politicians and educators debate the efficiency of our education system. We are recovering from a severe economic crisis. We must cut back. We must focus on teaching young people the skills they need for the ever-changing job market.

Educators are judged on “student learning outcomes” which are measured in test scores and jobs upon graduation. Administrator’s eyes are glued to the numbers. How many students graduate? How many find jobs? Do they find good jobs?

Are our students as well prepared for the demands of our high-tech economy as students in China? This debate spans our entire education system, from early childhood to college. Parents consider sending their toddlers to kindergartens where they can learn Mandarin Chinese, to ensure their babies will have a competitive edge while legislators and administrators focus on the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and maths). And everyone evaluates our education system in economic terms. Is it worth the investment we make? Will the next generation provide us with a good return?

In this great rush to become more efficient and more competitive we risk losing sight of what matters most: Auschwitz must never happen again. That phrase, “never again”, has been so often repeated that it might be losing some of its meaning. To caution “never again” means much more than speaking out against acts of anti-Semitism, racism, or other injustices. It means something other than standing strong against violent attacks. It means more than commemorating the Holocaust or teaching its history. To caution “never again” requires something deeper, more complicated, more time consuming, perhaps more expensive, and ultimately far more important. It means, after Auschwitz, that we who remember and we who know have been given the task of teaching our children how to think for themselves. We are charged with encouraging our young people to

critically assess situations, to be both open-minded and sceptical, and to follow their own moral compass, even when doing so might be unpopular.

“The only education that has any sense at all is an education toward critical self-reflection,” Adorno wrote. When we say “never again” we must not only remember the horrors and victims, but we must never forget Adorno’s simple dictum, as true today as ever.

Teaching young people to think critically, to question and analyse, is complicated work. Its success cannot be measured by multiple choice tests or graduation rates. The good news is that precisely this kind of education is already going on in classrooms all across a country like Britain. Teachers in literature, history, maths, science, art, drama, and philosophy classes are challenging their students to question interpretations of events, to consider ethical questions and analyse social and political policy as well as cultural representations. Anthropologists, sociologists and other scholars in the social sciences and humanities have always worked to encourage students to engage with new experiences and new thoughts, to question the takenfor-granted with a critical and ethically grounded eye. And teachers in primary schools who help the youngest students learn what it means to play, learn, and live together with others different from themselves are educating our children for life after Auschwitz.

The trouble is that these efforts require support and encouragement. They are fragile and the work is never complete. We must ask ourselves how we are prepared to face the universalizing tendencies of authoritarianism. Precisely now, when our cities have increasingly become the meeting places for a diverse range of peoples, cultures, religions, ideas, and lifestyles, we must ask: how do we meet with groups who do not follow the mainstream? How do we engage with minorities, subaltern groups or

those who are not willing to adopt mainstream ideas about gender, sexuality, religion or the state? How do we deal with the experience of incommensurable differences in our multicultural democracy and how will we prepare our children to resist the universalizing impulse against which Adorno warned?

We must not lose sight of the complicated work of teaching critical selfreflection as we downsize, rationalize, and use more technology while reducing teacher to student ratios, focusing always more narrowly on numbers, outcomes and returns on our investments. These returns do not come in the form of high test scores and good starting salaries. They come in the form of a better society, one where ethical decisions trump simple arithmetic, where living together well is more important than only living well in terms of higher standards of living.

Such returns come of the hard work of critical reflection that never ends to ensure that the horrors of Auschwitz remain the ghosts of a distant past.

Adorno had a great deal to teach us about the danger of instrumental reason that always lies just beneath the surface of rational Enlightenment thinking. The orientation toward bare economic reasoning, which becomes increasingly apparent during times of economic strain or crisis, necessarily contains the risk of such instrumental reason. In our rush to teach young people the skills for jobs and to make them competitive in the global market, we run the risk of producing automatons who are very skilled in technology but lack a critical consciousness. We risk losing sight of what Adorno sees as “where the threshold lies between a rational relationship to technology and the over-valuation that finally leads to the point where one who cleverly devises a train system that brings the victims to Auschwitz as quickly and smoothly as possible forgets about what happens to them there”.

War veterans planting for peace in South Sudan Adam Bemma

A

Inter Press Service

long the fertile banks of subSaharan Africa’s White Nile, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile River, a war veteran’s co-op is planting for a food secure future in South Sudan, a country potentially facing famine.

Wilson Abisai Lodingareng, 65, is a peri-urban farmer and founder of Werithior Veteran’s Association, or WVA, in Juba, South Sudan. The association is a group of 15 farmers ranging in age, with the youngest being a 25-year-old veteran’s son. This group of 15 farmers tends to a garden, located six kilometres outside Juba, South Sudan’s capital, where they grow nearly 1.5 hectares of vegetables.

“I have seven active members in the group, all former SPLA [Sudan People’s Liberation Army] troops. I call them when it’s time to weed the garden,” Lodingareng told IPS. “I visit once a day, each morning, to check the health of the crops and too see what’s ready for the market.”

Some of the other WVA members have been displaced from their homes and are now living inside the UNMISS, United Nations Mission in South Sudan, Protection of Civilians camp in Juba. Since the conflict began Dec. 15, 2013 between the government forces of South Sudan President Salva Kiir

and the rebel forces of former Vice President Riek Machar, 1.5 million have been displaced from their homes.

Three-and-a-half million South Sudanese are suffering from emergency levels of food insecurity, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Lodingareng said obtaining a plot of land along the Nile River was difficult with many international investors vying for this prime agricultural real estate. It took him almost three years to acquire a lease from the community which owns the idle land.

So far this year he has transformed the field with long grass and weeds into a garden with leafy vegetables and herbs sprouting.

WVA cultivates okra, kale, mulukhiyah (jute leaves) and coriander.

“These are short impact crops which grow quickly, within one to two months,” Lodingareng said. “Okra is harvested every three to four days.”

The philosophy behind the WVA garden is to see land as a resource not to be wasted. As Lodingareng looks around his garden he sees a future expansion into the surrounding land, also lying idle. “I’m looking at expanding to grow food crops like maize, potatoes, carrots and eggplant,” he said.

“The first year has been a struggle. The next year should be much better.”

Simon Agustino is the programme officer at Mennonite Central Committee, or MCC, in South Sudan.

“Wilson [Lodingareng] came to our office with a proposal asking for assistance. The veterans had no hope and no way to provide for their families,” Agustino told IPS. “People thought he was wasting his time with digging. But he didn’t give up.”

MCC provided him with some capital for leasing the land, the training of beneficiaries, fruit and vegetable production, farm supplies and tools as well to monitor WVA’s progress.

“Finally he got land and is now yielding and his crops which are being sold at the market.

As a sign of improvement, more veterans are considering joining,” Agustino said. According to Agustino, most SPLA veterans take to criminal activity after being de-commissioned, but Lodingareng wouldn’t turn to cattle raiding or using a weapon to rob and steal. He has a vision for the future of South Sudan. “I did my part to put my country on the path to self-determination,” Lodingareng said. “Now my approach is to work hard. Me, I will do anything that can pull me out of poverty and improve my situation financially.”

Londingareng fought with the SPLA from 1985 to 2008, and when he wasn’t re-activated into the military six years

wRiTE-wiNg

ago he began to think back to his early days as an economics student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

“I took a course and wrote a paper on agriculture economics. I was taught that land is food and that crops share behaviour traits with humans,” he said.

While Lodingareng comes from the Toposa, a cattle-herding pastoralist tribe in the southeast of the country, his wife is Nuer, one of the country’s two biggest ethnic groups, along with Dinka, in South Sudan.

“We were hunted. I hid my wife in town and with help from MCC, I took her to Uganda.” he said. “I came back to find out people had broken into my house. It was completely ransacked.”

WVA veterans come from various tribes in South Sudan. Its work demonstrates that agriculture could be a way of bringing South Sudanese together, looking past tribal differences, and planting together this rainy season.

Lodingareng believes it’s never too late to take up the cause of agriculture, even while millions are displaced and the country is on the brink of famine.

“The political climate has discouraged many from planting this season,” he said. “But if everyone planted gardens things will improve.”

MCC is looking at ways to start a peace and reconciliation programme with the help of WVA. “He has many ideas on how to end the conflict,” Agustino said.

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Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

Monday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

25 August 2014

the lAst gAndhI

O

n August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed India on its 68th Independence Day from the ramparts of Delhi's Mughal-era Red Fort. As is customary, those arrayed before him in a special VIP enclosure included the country's top politicians, among them former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, opposition Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, and ministers from Modi's own ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), elected in May with the largest parliamentary majority in 30 years. Conspicuously absent was the man Congress had positioned as Modi's principal challenger: Sonia Gandhi's son and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi's odd absence from an important national ceremony highlights a deeper problem for Congress -- the growing consensus that in its darkest hour the party's future lies in the hands of its least compelling leader. These fears (or hopes) also raise a larger question: Is the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty on its last legs?

In the nearly seven decades since Jawaharlal Nehru became independent India's first prime minister in 1947, this question has been asked before. But never, arguably, has it been asked so seriously. In Rahul Gandhi, Nehru's 44-year-old great-grandson and the dynastic Congress Party's heir apparent, the storied family may have hit a brick wall of incompetence that even the most famous last name in South Asian politics cannot overcome.

Widely seen as deficient in purpose, oratory, and vote-catching ability, the Gandhi scion risks becoming an object of derision.

Historian Ramachandra Guha says Rahul Gandhi "is the first member of his family not to command the respect even of his party men." Columnist Aakar Patel likens him to the feckless later rulers of the Mughal dynasty (1526-1857), who were "happy to sell the elephants, and to see the family silver go."

Television anchor Barkha Dutt calls Gandhi "the leader who won't lead."

To complicate matters for the NehruGandhis, 63-year-old Modi appears to be their most dangerous foe to date, a gifted politician who makes no secret of his desire to wipe Congress off the political map. With the family down and out, even some former courtiers have begun to turn on them in books and media interviews. And as a consensus forms on Rahul Gandhi's inability to face down Modi, some Congress leaders are calling publicly for his younger sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a 42-year-old housewife who has never run in an election, to rescue the party. Outside the fantasies of the party faithful, her prospects may not be brighter than her brother's.

Should Congress lose important state elections in northern and western India later this year, mutterings within the party about Gandhi's lackluster leadership will grow louder. Indeed, he may already have crossed a Dan Quaylesque point of no return as a viable candidate for higher office -- someone who inspires more mirth than awe.

Without a family member at the helm, Congress could disintegrate into warring factions, leaving the country with no viable leftof-center national alternative to the right-ofcenter BJP and what its critics see as a Hindu majoritarian agenda hostile to India's sizable Muslim minority. For the dynasty's detractors, however, their diminution is entirely welcome. Without them, India's politics will become less feudal and more democratic, and Congress will be forced to reinvent itself as a modern party where ideas matter more than bloodline.

Rahul Gandhi certainly has the lineage to succeed. He is the son, grandson, and greatgrandson of prime ministers: Rajiv Gandhi (1984-1989), Indira Gandhi (1966-1977 and 1980-1984) and Jawaharlal Nehru (19471964). Although the family is not related to the independence leader Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi, Nehru was arguably his closest disciple. (Nehru's daughter Indira fortuitously acquired her last name -- it is not an uncom-

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PERSPECTIVE NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE

A single family has dominated Indian politics since independence. One man’s incompetence is about to bring it all to an end Sadanand Dhume | Foreign Policy

mon one -- after marrying Feroze Gandhi, a Zoroastrian journalist and politician.)

In the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi's pedigree stretches back even further than it does in government. His mother, father, grandmother, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather have all headed the 129-year-old party that spearheaded India's fight for independence from the British. Motilal Nehru, the family patriarch -- a kind of Indian Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. -- was a wealthy lawyer who first became Congress president in 1919. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul's mother, has served as party president continuously since 1998, longer than anyone else in its history.

Indeed, apart from a brief interregnum after Tamil militants assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, the party has been a family fiefdom ever since Indira took power in the 1960s. Accepting this lineage as gospel is virtually the first rule of belonging to the party.

Until a few years ago, it appeared all but certain that the younger Gandhi would follow the same gilded path to power as his father, as the anointed heir of India's natural ruling party. Educated at Harvard; Rollins College, a small liberal arts school in Florida; and at Cambridge University, Gandhi spent the better part of his 20s in the West, including a stint as a management consultant under an assumed name at business guru Michael Porter's Monitor Group in London.

Gandhi returned to India for good in 2002, about five years after his mother entered politics. In 2004, a Congress-led coalition headed by Sonia Gandhi won a surprise victory against the BJP and its partners in national elections. At the same time, voters in Amethi, a family stronghold in the populous Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, sent Rahul to Parliament. Under attack from the opposition over her foreign origins, the Italian-born Sonia declined the prime ministership and instead appointed Manmohan Singh, a technocrat and former finance minister with no political base of his own, to the job. But nobody in India, least of all Singh's own cabinet ministers, was under any illusion about where the real power lay.

At the time, Singh was seen as a seat warmer for Rahul, who many people believed would duly ascend to the prime ministership once he had found his feet in politics. In the 2012 book Decoding Rahul Gandhi, journalist Aarthi Ramachandran describes Rahul's first few years as an MP as a period of gaining experience and exposure through the likes of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders' summit in Switzerland, the Bucerius Summer School in Germany, and a special dinner organized for him by Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. In the meantime, Gandhi began reorganizing the party's youth wing and student union. He disarmingly referred to himself as "a symptom of the problem," a party culture overly dependent on family connections for advancement. Armed with management insights, including an alleged belief in the so-called Toyota way -- consensus-building followed by rapid execution -Gandhi set out to ensure that the next generation of Congress leaders would rise through internal elections rather than by currying favor with party bosses in New Delhi.

At first, everything appeared to go according to script. In 2009, Congress retained power, thrashing a rudderless BJP led by the octogenarian L. K. Advani. By winning 206 seats in the 543-member lower house of Parliament -- the most any single party had managed since 1991 -- Congress revived hopes among the party rank and file of returning to its dominant position during the first four decades of independence, when it didn't need coalition partners to form a government.

In crucial Uttar Pradesh, India's most

populous state, which alone sends nearly one in seven MPs to Parliament, Congress more than doubled its seats, winning 21 and reversing a decline begun two decades earlier. The media gave much of the credit to Gandhi. One typically gushy profile announced that he had "emerged as a savvy politician, a grassroots activist with a finger on the pulse of the real India." Between a popular family and a populist program of loan waivers and job guarantees for the rural poor, Congress appeared increasingly difficult to beat on the national stage.

By the following year, however, things started to go wrong. A series of graft scandals spanning telecom, real estate, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi spurred a grassroots anti-corruption campaign led by the activist Anna Hazare and the media-savvy Arvind Kejriwal. Meanwhile, Congress's focus on handouts at the expense of growth began to hurt the economy, which slowed sharp-

ly from the near double-digit growth rates many Indians had begun to take for granted.

(The global financial crisis didn't help either.)

Though Singh took much of the blame for this, some of it naturally attached itself to his political bosses, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

Today's most common criticism of Rahul -- that he's a dilettante unsuited for public life -- can be traced to his flat-footed response to his party's declining popularity. During the height of the 2011 anti-corruption movement, when thousands of angry protestors thronged India's major cities, Gandhi went AWOL, only breaking his silence 11 days into a televised 13-day fast by Hazare. Similarly, after the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student on a Delhi bus in December 2012 sparked another round of protests, Gandhi was again missing in action. His response, an anodyne condolence message, came nearly two weeks after the incident, by which time the young woman had already died from her injuries.

Meanwhile, Gandhi's bid to revive Congress in the Hindi heartland, where the party had lost ground to the BJP and caste-based outfits in the 1990s, foundered. In 2010, he ignored conventional wisdom on the need for political alliances and boldly led his party's go-it-alone campaign in Bihar, India's third-most populous state. Congress came in an embarrassing fourth, winning only four of the 243 seats it contested. Less than 18 months later, Gandhi once again rolled up his sleeves and barnstormed across Uttar Pradesh, promising voters an alternative to the state's two dominant caste-based parties and the BJP. Once more, Congress came in fourth, a particularly harsh blow in a state widely seen as the centerpiece of Gandhi's grand strategic plan for his party.

In a normal party, such a performance would have earned Gandhi at least a reprimand, if not a sacking. In Congress, it got him a promotion. In January 2013, the party appointed Gandhi vice president, formally giving him the second-in-command position that he already held in all but name, as well as leadership of its parliamentary campaign.

For the first time in five elections, Sonia Gandhi, rumored to be suffering from cancer, ceded the spotlight to her son.

Once again, he failed to click with voters.

The Morung Express

In May of this year, Congress scraped together just 44 seats in Parliament, about a fifth of its tally five years ago, and less than half the party's previous low of 114 seats. In 20 of India's 36 states and federally administered union territories, Congress did not manage to win a single seat. Meanwhile, the BJP, securing 282 seats of its own, won the first single-party majority in Parliament since Rajiv Gandhi swept the polls in 1984, following his mother's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. Together with its allies, the BJP now controls nearly two-thirds of the powerful lower house of Parliament.

Perhaps the best way to highlight Gandhi's predicament is to contrast him with his nemesis, Narendra Modi. The difference in their family backgrounds could scarcely be starker: Modi comes from a so-called "backward caste" of oil pressers and began his career selling tea on a railway platform in his native Gujarat. He is his generation's most gifted political communicator. During the course of this year's campaign, he addressed more than 400 rallies and blanketed the airwaves with interviews. Many thousands thronged to hear him, even in states such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu where the BJP has traditionally lacked a serious presence. Modi's 5.7 million followers on Twitter and 20 million on Facebook give him by far the loudest megaphone in Indian politics.

Gandhi, by contrast, remains curiously opaque for a politician. His absence on Twitter is the stuff of newspaper speculation. You can count the number of formal interviews he's granted over the past decade on the fingers of one hand. Earlier this year, in the thick of the election campaign, TV anchor Arnab Goswami questioned Gandhi in what was billed as his first interview after nearly a decade in politics. His performance -- a strange mishmash of management jargon and what seemed like rote answers about his party's "rights-based development model" -- was bad enough to merit panning in the Financial Times. On a more routine basis, Gandhi's weird verbal gaffes alone seem enough to keep the satirical site The UnReal Times in business. He has claimed that "poverty is a state of mind," likened India to a beehive, and said that India's Dalits (a caste formerly known as Untouchables) need the "escape velocity of Jupiter" to change their circumstances.

The combination of Gandhi's curious reticence and frequent unexplained absences from India raise the question of whether he's serious about politics at all, or merely just another miserable son trapped in the family business. Over the years, Gandhi rebuffed multiple public exhortations to join Singh's government and gain administrative experience. During the election campaign, Gandhi refused to explicitly declare that he wanted to be prime minister. Since his defeat, he has declined to take up the responsibility of leading his party in Parliament.

To call Gandhi's parliamentary record undistinguished would be an understatement. According to the think tank PRS Legislative Research, in the last Parliament (2009 to 2014) Gandhi attended 43 percent of the time, participated in just two debates, and asked no questions. During that period, the average MP attended 76 percent of the time, participated in 38 debates, and asked 300 questions. Meanwhile, Gandhi's pet project, the internal restructuring of Congress to make it more meritocratic, has little to show for 10 years of effort. This year, Congress chose 15 parliamentary candidates through a new system of primaries. All of them lost.

In fact, the proportion of dynastic MPs in the party has grown to 48 percent, up from 28 percent 10 years ago.

In an earlier era, perhaps Gandhi's lineage alone would have helped him overcome his lack of fluency as a speaker, apparent lack of interest in his job, and slim record of achievement. His father, Rajiv, a former airline pilot with little administrative experience, assumed the prime ministership virtually by right. But Modi's election shows that Indians now expect more than just pedigree. They have begun to demand a modicum of performance.

Modi, by way of contrast, helped put Gujarat on the world's economic map during his 13 years as the state's chief minister. Today, Congress culture, where the Nehru-Gandhis float like royalty above the muck of day-to-day politics, to emerge at election time smiling and waving indulgently at the masses, seems increasingly out of sync with reality.

So what can Congress do? Some party leaders want Gandhi's sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, to come to the rescue. Although she projects more charisma than her brother -- comparisons of Vadra with her grandmother Indira are a cliché in Indian media -her record in public life is even less weighty.

Vadra has never run in an election nor proven that she has any serious appeal outside the small patch of Uttar Pradesh represented in Parliament by Sonia and Rahul. (Vadra has denied reports that she's about to be assigned a formal role in the party.)

At a time when corruption has become a major national issue, Vadra also carries the baggage of her husband, Robert, a Delhi businessman who has reportedly made millions of dollars in dodgy real estate deals in states under Congress rule. Panicked Congress politicians may indeed welcome Vadra as the answer to their problems. But for many others, she symbolizes the depths to which a once great organization has sunk, its future now limited by a shallow gene pool. To be sure, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has bounced back from setbacks before. Pundits all but wrote off Indira after her crushing defeat to the opposition in 1977. Three years later, she was again prime minister. When Sonia Gandhi entered politics in 1997, six years after her husband's assassination, few people gave an Italian-born neophyte with halting Hindi a chance against the BJP's popular incumbent prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Seven years later, Gandhi effectively ended Vajpayee's storied political career by leading her party to victory.

Even though Congress currently controls less than one-tenth of the lower house of Parliament, India's first-past-the-post system disguises the extent of its support. The party won about one-fifth of the vote nationwide, more than what the BJP managed when it lost the national election five years ago. Nor can one write off the raw brand recognition of the Gandhi name -- the legacy of what was for decades essentially a one-party socialist state. Journalist A. Surya Prakash has documented 450 government programs, projects, and institutions named after a Nehru-Gandhi family member.

And though the Hindu majority may have consolidated more than ever before behind the BJP, Congress remains vastly more popular among Muslims and Christians, who together make up nearly 20 percent of the population. The family's lachrymose tale of ceaseless virtue and self-sacrifice for the nation may have found relatively few takers this time around, but there's no guarantee that it has lost its appeal permanently.

For now, though, the pressure is on Gandhi. At his age, his father had already served four years as prime minister; his grandmother as Congress Party president. Gandhi can't even seem to decide whether he prefers to be bearded or clean-shaven. At arguably the lowest point for India's ruling clan -- Sonia Gandhi ailing, Rahul Gandhi ineffective, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra untested and potentially toxic -- it might be time for Congress to start thinking beyond the family. The end of the Nehru-Gandhis has been predicted many times before. But this time it may be true.

pOLL RESULTS

Is the unresolved AssAm-nAgAlAnd border Issue AffectIng the locAl mArket?

Some of those who voted YES had this to say: • Yes. This is the reason why the Foot Hill Road is so important for those who live along the Assam-Nagaland border. But our state government does not care at all. This is the problem. It is the common people who suffer the most.

• Yes, bandh call every time something happens in the border areas.

• Yes. In a way the blockades should open the eyes of the powers that be to speed up the foothill road+lazy nagas should wake up and start cultivating our fields with our own hands again.

• Yes, very much it affects the local market. Why not Nagaland and Assm govt construct boundary wall? SO that their will be no land dispute between the two state. And their goes our daily living peaceful and harmony. No tension on price high or shortage of essential commodities.

• Everything rate has gone high..very hard to manage • Yes, it is affecting much more than just the markets. It is affecting the

long standing relationship between Nagas and Ahom.

• Yes, but also ultimately affecting their whole sellers out there.

• Yes, and it's time for the wholesale guys to make hay while the sun shines.

• This is the reason why the state government should fully support in completing the foothill road at the earliest, rather than politicizing the issue.

Unless this historic foothill road is completed, we will only suffer at the hands of economic blockade.

• Yes the border issues have not been good for the Nagas. Everywhere we seem to be having border conflicts – with the Adivasis, Karbis and Meiteis and so on. I think it is time for the Nagas to take a firm stand on the border issue and try to find a lasting solution to the border problem. If not, it will only cause more problems for us.

62%

26% 12% YES

no

OTHERS

products.

Some of those who voted no had this • No, it should not be affecting the local to say: market. The economic blockade is not • Not much as local products can be sold the problem. The real problem is that our with higher profit apart from petroleum politicians and our dear government has

not build the necessary foundation for border issue escalate, the CM must the state to stock basic essential to face lead his MLAs and defend our people any eventuality. and land. Even might Kings lead their • Not really. It’s the whole-sale sellers that soldier in war to show that they are are creating an artificial shortage of basic the leader. commodities in the state.

• Economic blockade is often being • No, Because Nagas can have meal with used as a weapon by different groups just salt and hot water for soup....Nagas to show their dissent. I don’t think are not producing anything even though this is a good tactics. Those groups they are number one consumer in evwho are often resorting to this tactics erything eg:-Meats, eggs, tomato, chilly, should rethink and introspect whethpotato, onion and petroleum products er this is positive or negative in the are all imported in huge so I would like long run. to conclude that Nagas are very rich fi- • This blockade could have been nancially so if people of Assam through avoided if the state government had their Economic blockade on Nagas are intervene quickly. Instead, they waited for the situation to get worse and by themselves in heavy loss. by the time the Chief Minister intervened, the Naga position had already Some of those who voted OTHERS had become so weak. this to say: • Whether the border issue affects • The Assamese and Indian media has played a very negative role in porthe local market or not is non-issue. traying the nagas as the aggressors.

What needs to be discussed is what Without verifying historical fact and the hell our politicians are doing to the situation, they have written all solve the border issue for the last kinds of distorted stories which has three decades. The border issue excreated a very negative image of the ists till date because our politicians nagas in the eyes of the world. were sleeping all these years. IF the

Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

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Dimapur

NATIONAL

Monday 25 August 2014

The Morung Express

‘UPA pressured me to drop names President: from CWG & Coalgate reports’ ‘Tribals yet to receive full New Delhi, August 24 (Pti): In a fresh embarrassment to the erstwhile UPA regime, particularly to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai has claimed that coalition functionaries had deputed politicians to get him to leave out names from the audit reports in the Coalgate and Commonwealth

Games scams.

In remarks damning the previous dispensation, he has also claimed that UPA functionaries had roped in even his colleagues in the IAS, to which he belonged before his appointment as CAG, to persuade him to leave out names. Like some of the books that have recently hit the stands including those by the media adviser of the former prime minister Sanjay Baru, former External Affairs Minister K Natwar

Congress slams ex-CAG Vinod Rai New Delhi, August 24 (iANs): The Congress Sunday slammed former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai for saying that he was “pressurised” by the erstwhile UPA government to drop certain names from his report.

Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned why Rai did not make the revelations while he was in office. “Rai Sahib allegedly says he was holding a constitutional position hence

the silence? Was it not incumbent on him since he was holding a constitutional position to speak out if he was being ostensibly pressurised to do or not to do his duty in a particular manner,” Tewari said.

The Congress leader, in a tweet, invited Rai for a debate on “sensationalism that formed the staple of his tenure”. Rai told a newspaper Saturday that United Progressive Alliance (UPA) functionaries had sent certain

politicians to him who demanded that he not include certain names in his reports on the coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams.

Rai seconded the allegations made by former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s media advisor Sanjay Baru and former union minister Natwar Singh, who both wrote in their memoirs that Manmohan Singh did not wield real power in the UPA government.

Singh and former Coal Secretary P C Parakh that have been severe on Singh and his government, Rai is penning his views in his forthcoming book “Not Just An Accountant” to be released in October, that will be critical of the UPA regime.

Rai, who had demitted office last year after several run-ins with the UPA government and had estimated a “notional” loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore in the 2G spectrum allocation and Rs.1.86 lakh crore in Coal Block allocations, was severe in his comments to Times of India on Singh.

He said he would provide details of how fight for survival had led Singh to acquiesce to decisions which caused huge loss to the exchequer. “See the prime minister is the first among equals.He has to take the last call which sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t.Everything cannot be sacrificed only to remain in power. Governance cannot be sacrificed at the altar of compulsion of coalition politics. I have said it in the book,” he said.

On Sunday, Rai refused to meet reporters who

reached his residence and declined to comment on the report. But sources close to him said, “Each and every word in the book is factually correct. The purpose is not to tarnish image of somebody but to help in improving governance.” When asked why Rai is making these comments now and not earlier, the sources said, he was holding a constitutional post at that time and it would have undermined the status of the institution which he headed.

“Now he is free to talk about it and in the book he has spoken about every person, taking their names, who had criticised the institution and the mandate of the CAG to do performance audit,” the sources said. They said the title of the book was inspired from a Supreme Court observation in a judgement in a PIL that “the CAG is not just a munim (account).”

Rai also said it was during the meetings of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that he came under pressure from the Congress members of the Committee, who put tough and hostile questions to him.

benefits of development’

KolKAtA, August 24 (iANs): Lamenting the displacement of tribal communities due to the need to exploit mineral and forest resources, President Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said the communities are yet to receive the full benefits of development.

The path of development was faced with dichotomy, he told people after inaugurating the Daya Duar Mini Hospital at a function held in the Catholic Church of Palsanda in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

“Our path of development faces a dichotomy.

We need to exploit our mineral and forest resources but often that results in displacement and uprooting of our tribals, who are the best protectors of these resources,” he said.

“Tribal communities lag behind the general population in maternal and child mortality, access to education and size of agricultural holdings. They are yet to receive full benefits of development despite tribal sub plans under our Five Year Plans and allocation of substantial funds. “This is because of problems in our delivery mechanisms.

Lack of development leads to discontent, extremism and resort to violence. Such violence is against the spirit of our constitution and desire of god,” he said.

The tribal population in India is 104 million as per the 2011 census and accounts for 8.6 percent of the country’s total population.

He said land belonging to the tribals were “alienated” from them due to ignorance of the community

and greed of non-tribals.

“Law and order problems arise when there is a feeling that proper compensation has not been paid and rehabilitation packages provided. “The constitution guarantees that land belonging to the tribals should not be alienated but sadly it still happens due to the ignorance of the tribals and greed of non tribals,” he said Lauding the efforts of the Church at Palsanda, which is working for the upliftment of tribals in the area, he said: “It is good that missionaries are working to spread all round development and not just education.” “Christian teachings such as ‘Service of humanity is God’s service’ and ‘Love the neighbour’ reinforce India’s core civilisational values,” he said.

Skeleton of Congress’s corruption tumbling out: BJP New Delhi, August 24 (iANs): The “skeleton of Congress’s corruption” is now tumbling out, said the BJP Sunday following former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai’s revelations that he was pressurised by the former UPA government to drop names from CAG reports.

“It is now shamelessly evident that the Congress had indulged in vast loot

of public money and they tried to shield their ministers,” BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS. “The skeleton of Congress’s corruption is now tumbling out with a fresh case of their wrongdoings coming to light every day,” he added.

In an interview to The Times of India Saturday, Rai said UPA functionaries had sent certain politicians

Scientists find a ‘wonder herb’ in the high Himalayas leh, August 24 (iANs): In the high hostile peaks of the Himalayas where sustaining life is a challenge in itself, Indian scientists say they have found a “wonder herb” which can regulate the immune system, help adapt to the mountain environment and, above all, protect from radioactivity. Rhodiola, a herb found in the cold and highland climate, has led India’s leading scientists to wonder if it is the end to the quest for “Sanjeevani”, the mythical herb that gave renewed life to Ram’s brother Lakshman in the epic Ramayana.

Locally called ‘Solo’ in Ladakh, the qualities of Rhodiola were largely unknown so far. The leafy parts of the plant were used as vegetable by locals. However, research by the Leh-based Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) is exploring the therapeutic values of the herb that shows it can do wonders for the troops posted in difficult high altitude areas like the 5,400-metres-high Siachen glacier.

“Rhodiola is a wonder plant that has immunomodulatory (enhancing immune), adaptogenic (adapting to difficult climatic condition) and radio-protecting abilities due to presence of secondary metabolites and phytoactive compounds unique to the plant,” R.B. Srivastava, Director, DIHAR, told IANS. Srivastava said the herb can mitigate the effects of gamma radiation used in bombs in biochemical warfare.

“A concerted effort involving conservation, propagation and sustainable utilisation of this unique medicinal herb will surely result in rediscovery of Sanjeevani for the troops deployed in extreme climatic condition along Himalayan frontiers,” said the director.

The Leh-based lab of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the world’s highest agro-animal research laboratory, has been researching on this wonder plant for more than a decade. “While its adaptogenic qualities can help the soldiers in adjusting to the low pressure-low oxygen environment, the plant has also been found to have anti-depressant and appetizer properties,” said Srivastava.

In the barren glacier of Siachen where white is the only colour visible for miles, depression is a problem troops face. The high altitude and harsh climate also make them lose appetite. DIHAR has already developed Herbal Adaptogenic Appetizer, and Herbal Adaptogenic Performance Enhancer that improves performance in extreme high altitude conditions, and has been highly appreciated by the Army.

Rhodiola is also found in other parts of the world with other countries like the US and China engaging in research on the wonder herb. The plant has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to combat high-altitude sickness, while in Mongolia physicians prescribed it for tuberculosis and cancer.

Researchers in Russia studied its impact on athletes and later on cosmonauts. Some other qualities the plant is found to be containing in studies across the world include fast recovery after heavy workout, memory enhancement, and cardiac stress reduction.

“Our research reveals its potential for anti-aging, tissue regeneration, protecting neurons during lack of oxygen, and cognitive improvement,” said Sunil Hota, who is working on investigating medicinal properties of the plant at DIHAR. O.P. Chaurasia, ethnobotanist with DIHAR for nearly two decades, told IANS that they have successfully established a field gene bank and Rhodiola plantation of nearly two acres in the premise of the laboratory. “We are trying in-vitro propagation of the plant to increase its population,” added Chaurasia.

to him who demanded that he not include certain names in his reports on the Coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams.

Rai seconded the allegations made by former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s media advisor Sanjay Baru and former minister Natwar Singh, who both wrote in their memoirs that Manmohan Singh did not wield real power in the for-

mer United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that ManmohanSinghshouldcomeclean on the issue and explain what transpired during the 10 years of UPA rule. Naqvi said: “The UPA government, in particular the Congress, misused lot of constitutional institutions and bodies. Rai’s allegations is one of the examples of such misuse.”

He, however, remained sceptical that Manmohan Singh would make any statement over the controversy. m“When he (Manmohan Singh) was the prime minister, he had been speaking only on the direction of the super prime minister (alluding to Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi). I don’t know whether he would speak on this issue or not,” Naqvi said.

India needs high quality governance: Jaitley

An Indian artist paints an idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Hyderabad, India on August 24. The festival is celebrated as KolKAtA, August tional best practices, be it stages. For the corporate the birthday of Lord Ganesha who is widely worshiped by Hindus as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. (AP Photo)

24 (iANs): Observing that India needs to learn from international best practices in governance, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday called the corporate sector to utilise opportunities that beckon India’s economy.

Addressing a function here where he presented the 13th ICSI National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance to Companies and Company Secretaries, Jaitley said that India would have reached greater heights had there been higher quality of governance. “Governance is one area where we have to learn a lot from interna-

political or corporate governance. If India could do well with mediocre level governance, with high quality of governance this country perhaps would have reached greater heights,” Jaitley said.

Handing over the awards to the recipients, Jaitley also asserted the Indian economy was coming of age and called the corporate sector to make use of the immense opportunities that will be available once the economy attains the take-off stage. “Indian economy is coming of age, we had a few setbacks in the last two-three years but I am sure these are transient

sector, the opportunities are immense, the opportunities of forming associations, joint ventures and investments,” he said.

“Once we are at the take-off stage of the economy once again, the opportunities for Indian corporate sector are going to be immense. So it’s a challenge that we take control of these opportunities and adopt international best practices,” he said.

Contending that only the highest form of professionalism sustains the market, Jaitley called for identifying the “black sheep” and “allow the law to take care of them”.

100-year-old bridge collapses in Himachal

shimlA, August 24 (iANs): A 100-year-old bridge has collapsed in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, officials said here Sunday. Following the collapse, the road link between tourist resort Chail and Kandaghat has been snapped.

The bailey bridge, believed to be more than a century old, collapsed Saturday after a truck loaded with apples tried to cross it despite a warning that the bridge could not take such

a heavy load, Public Works Department principal secretary Narinder Chauhan said.

He said a temporary path has been constructed on the Kandaghat-Chail road near Sadhupul on the Ashwani rivulet as an alternate route for light vehicles.

However, heavy vehicles like buses and trucks cannot ply on this path.

Deputy Commissioner Madan Chauhan said traffic bound for Chail via Kandaghat should take Sa-

logra-Ashwani rivulet via Gowda link road and could also consider the ShimlaKufri route to reach Chail.

Chauhan said repair work will start soon. The hill resort Chail is known for deodar groves. It became a summer resort of the erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala. In 1891, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh built his palace, Chail Palace, there.

The palace was popularised when Aamir Khan’s blockbuster film “3 Idiots” was shot there.

Court notice to Centre over ‘trafficking’ of navy personnel

New Delhi, August 24 (iANs): The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the central government over a petition alleging that various agencies were trafficking technical navy professionals to foreign ships and making them work without proper safety and security.

A division bench of Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw sought response from the shipping ministry and external affairs ministry on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a mother who lost

her 22-year-old son after a ship with 15 Indian sailors onboard exploded off Nigeria’s territorial waters.

Filing the PIL, Kalawati said navy professionals were being illegally and arbitrarily sent to foreign ships and made to work in inhuman conditions.

She asked the court to direct the Centre to frame rules to prevent illegal human trafficking.Advocates D.K. Sharma and S.S. Gill, appearing for the woman petitioner, sought framing of rules to establish minimum liability of a foreign

employer towards Indian employees working on foreign ships either in a foreign country or at high seas or in international territorial waters and to make them liable for compensation in case of any mishap.

Kalawati’s son Sandeep died in September 2011 when an explosion took place on the ITB Jacksonville owned by a Nigerian.

Five young Indian crew members lost their lives while 10 jumped into the water and were rescued.

The woman said her son was employed in 2011

through the Noha Marine Services Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai, and a contract was signed in the name of Empire Marine Projects.

Sandeep was sent to Nigeria on a tourist visa and was compelled to work on the ITB Jacksonville, even though that ship was not on his contract. Sandeep was compelled to work in subhuman conditions without proper safety, legal and factual safe-guards and after his death, no one was taking responsibility, she said.

“The Indian crew or manpower are being ille-

gally and arbitrarily trafficked on forged and fabricated documents which are prepared for such trafficking to take these people abroad and to make them to work in illegal and unsafe manner,” the plea said.

“In case of any accident, as the one in the present case, every agency escapes from liability by weaving a web of illegalities so that even legal jurisdiction cannot be ascertained.”

The counsel told the court that the various agencies, though approved

and registered with the Directorate General of Shipping under the Indian government for employment of technical manpower on Indian ships and on foreign ships, are floating the norms, rules and regulations of employment.

The plea claimed such agencies were involved in illegal human trafficking and in a conspiracy with foreign ships and ship owners so that in case of any incident, they can go scot free and no liability can be fastened upon them.

Proposed amendment in juvenile law draws bouquet, brickbats

New Delhi, August 24 (Pti): The proposed law for prosecuting juveniles aged between 16 and 18 years for heinous crimes in regular courts have drawn bouquets as well as brickbats from jurists and child rights activists.

Amidst the debate that the present juvenile system has proved ineffective and the proposed amendment would be too harsh, legal experts’ view supporting deterrent step did not find favour with the activists who feel it compromises with the protection of minors.

Under the proposed amendment in the Juvenile Justice Act, approved by the Union cabinet earlier this month, juveniles above 16 years could be treated at par with adults if involved

in heinous crimes, like rape and murder, for which there is a minimum imprisonment of seven years.

According to the amendment, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) will decide whether cases where a juvenile is involved in a heinous crime would be tried under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act or normal trial court.

The amended bill, which is pending in Parliament, however, secures juveniles convicted for heinous offences from death penalty and life sentence.

Senior advocates K T S Tulsi and H S Phoolka, and Atul Mathur, Chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), said this step was important as ju-

veniles in conflict with law will come to know that they cannot be let off easily.

However, activists like Bharti Ali, Ranjana Kumari and Ananth Kumar Asthana countered them by saying that fixing an age limit is not the solution and sending juveniles to jail instead of probation home would prove counter productive and would hit the reformist policy.

Advocate Anup Bhambani, who is assisting the Delhi High Court as an amicus curiae in a case of ruckus caused in remand home by juveniles last year, said the present juvenile system is ineffective and required better implementation, “but the new amendment would be too harsh on juveniles and would make

them bitter”.

Ali, founder of NGO, HAQ:Centre for Child Rights, Kumari, Director for Centre for Social Research, and Asthana, a child right activist lawyer, said that categorising juveniles in such a way and trying and putting them in jails along with adults could lead to their becoming “hardened criminals”.

This view, however, was not shared by Tulsi and Phoolka, who have taken matters of children protection in the Supreme Court as they feel that government has adopted a welcome move which prevents children from exploitation at the hands of criminal gangs which specifically hire minors.

Sharing similar views,

Mathur said the current justice system was not helping in reformation of juveniles in conflict with law and this amendment was a way to tell these offenders that they won’t be let off easily for committing heinous crimes.

“We must try this amendment and give the law a chance to see if it acts as a deterrent to the juveniles committing heinous crimes. The juveniles will know that they will not go scot-free but can be kept in jail for a long time. Every law goes through a process of evolution and we must give it a chance,” Mathur said.

Kumari, however, opined that fixing an age group of juvenile offenders is not the right way to

address the issue as similar nature of crime could also be committed by a child who is a month less than 16 years.

Her view was echoed

by Ali who said that trying juveniles at par with adults would “not deter them from committing heinous offences because if it could, then incidents of crime committed by adults should have come down by now”.

“This amendment should go to the parliamentary standing committee for further discussion. No need to rush with it. Failure of the present juvenile justice system does not mean we send children to the adult justice system and expose them to hardened criminals,” she said.

InternatIonal

the Morung express

Monday 25 August 2014

Dimapur

9

China targets ordinary Uighurs with beards, burkas

AKSU, AUgUSt 24 (AP): Outside a mosque in China’s restive west, a government-appointed Muslim cleric was dodging a foreign reporter’s question about why young men of the Uighur ethnic minority don’t have beards when one such youth interrupted.

“Why don’t you just tell them the truth?” he shouted to the cleric under the nervous gaze of several police officers who had been tailing the reporters all day in the oasis city of Aksu. “It’s because the government doesn’t allow beards.”

A plainclothes Uighur policeman swiftly rebuked the young man. “Be careful what you say,” he warned.

The tense exchange provided a fleeting glimpse of both the extremes of China’s restrictions on minority Uighurs and the resentment that simmers beneath the surface in their homeland. Such a mood pervades Xinjiang’s south, a vast, mainly rural region that’s become a key battleground in the ruling Communist Party’s struggle to contain escalating ethnic violence that has killed at least a few hundred people over the past 18 months.

The personal matter of facial hair has taken on heavy political overtones in the Uighur heartland.

Also proscribed are certain types of women’s headscarves, veils and “jilbabs,” loose, full-length garments worn in public. Such restrictions are not new but their enforcement has intensified this year in the wake of attacks Beijing has blamed on religious extremists.

In a recent sweep of

Urumqi, the region’s capital, authorities last week said they seized 1,265 hijab-type headscarves, 259 jilbabs and even clothes printed with Islamic starand-crescent symbols. Officials also “rescued” 82 children from studying the Quran, the government said.

The prohibitions on Islamic attire and beards have attracted widespread criticism, with many experts saying such repression angers ordinary Uighurs and risks radicalizing them.

“It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, it’s self-perpetuating. The more they crack down on it, the more people re-Islamize. This is a pattern we see all over the world,” said Joanne Smith Finley, an expert on Uighurs at Britain’s Newcastle University. “The Chinese state has created a growing terrorist threat where previously there was none. It has stimulated an Islamic renewal where there wouldn’t necessarily have been one.”

A major thrust of the yearlong crackdown on terrorism has been a campaign against religious extremism, with arrests of hundreds of people for watching videos apparently hailing terrorism or extremist ideology. But authorities also are targeting beards, veils and other symbols of religious piety in a campaign that creeps ever farther into Uighurs’ daily lives despite official claims that the government respects religious freedom.

“At the moment, we face a very serious, intense and complex situa-

In this photo taken Thursday, July 17, 2014, a Uighur man prepares to get his beard massaged at a barber shop in the city of Aksu in western China's Xinjiang province. In China's restive western province of Xinjiang, young men of the Uighur ethnic minority are not allowed to have beards. Also proscribed are certain types of women's headscarves, veils and “jilbabs,” loose, full-length garments worn in public.

Such restrictions are not new but their enforcement has intensified this year in the wake of attacks Beijing has blamed on religious extremists. (AP Photo/ Ng Han Guan)

tion with fighting terrorism and maintaining stability,” a party newspaper, the Xinjiang Daily, said in an edict to “front-line” minority cadres in late July. Officials, it said, must also act to control weddings without singing and dancing and funerals where there are no feasts — referring to Uighur customs the government says Islamic conservatives have barred.

Young Uighur men are discouraged from keeping beards and those who have them are stopped at checkpoints and questioned. So are women who wear Muslim headscarves and veils that obscure their faces. Some public places such as hospitals bar such individuals from enter-

Iran unveils new short-range missiles, drones tEHRAN, AUgUSt 24 (AP): Iran unveiled a new generation of short-range marine missiles and aerial drones on Sunday, as President Hassan Rouhani said its military doctrine was based on deterring and countering threats from unnamed foreign powers.

The official IRNA news agency said the Ghadir missile, with a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), is designed to destroy marine targets. It did not give a range for the Nasr-e Basir cruise missile, but said it could “operate in silence,” without elaborating.

Iran also unveiled two new drones, the high-altitude Karrar-4 and the Mohajer-4. The latter can be used to generate maps for both military and civilian purposes, IRNA said. At a ceremony marking the inauguration, Rouhani reiterated that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons but said it would not ignore threats.

“We do not sit idly by with regard to threats. We do not remain calm towards plots by the enemy,” he said in a speech broadcast live by state TV, without elaborating. Iran has long accused the United States, which maintains military bases just across the Gulf in Arab countries, of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Rouhani, a relative moderate elected last year on a promise to engage the West diplomatically, said Iran’s military doctrine is based on “deterrence and effective defense.” Tehran regularly announces military advances that cannot be independently verified. But a Pentagon report released earlier this year noted that Iran’s military displays had become “less strident” since Rouhani succeeded hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Widespread publicity of major military exercises, previously the

norm, has been minimal,” the report said.

Iran launched a homegrown defense industry in 1992 that produces light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars to tanks and submarines. It has surfaceto-surface missiles with a range of about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), enough to reach Israel and U.S. military bases in the region. Western nations have long suspected Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian program, and have expressed concern about its missile program.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes and says its missiles are needed to deter attacks. The U.S. and Israel have each vowed to take military action if necessary to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.

“We have not been, we are not and we will not pursue weapons of mass destruction,” Rouhani said Sunday.

ing. Earlier this month, the northern Xinjiang city of Karamay announced that young men with beards and women in burkas or hijabs would not be allowed on public buses.

In the city of Aksu, Ma Yanfeng, the director of the city’s foreign propaganda office, said the government was concerned that Uighurs were being unduly influenced by radical Islamic forces from overseas.

“It’s because they have been incited by others to do so,” Ma said, noting that traditional dress of Uighur women is multicolored.

“Those clothes that are all black are a sign of influence from foreigners like in Turkey and have to do with extremist thinking.”

Unlike in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or parts of South Asia, veils and abayas are relatively new to Uighurs in Xinjiang, only growing in popularity in recent decades, scholars say.

Uighur historically have used “ikat” textiles with bold patterns and brilliant colors, an aesthetic they share with Uzbeks, Tajiks and other Central Asian cultures. Contemporary Uighur women, especially those in cities, dress like other urbanites though they aren’t likely to bare a lot of skin.

Uighurs have been adopting veils and beards in a shift toward more pious lives, partly as symbolic resistance to Chinese rule and partly out of a desire

for the egalitarianism associated with Islam to mend social inequalities, said Smith Finley, the Newcastle expert who has studied Uighurs since 1991.

The shift is also in reaction to dashed hopes for independence after bloody riots in 1997 and the ensuing crackdown, she said.

Some Uighurs see their current plight as punishment from God for not being good enough Muslims.

They think “if I’m a better Muslim, then the Uighurs as a whole will be better Muslims and our future, our situation, will be better,” she said.

Chinese authorities apparently make little distinction between these expressions of piety and the kind

gAZA/JERUSALEM, AUgUSt 24 (RE UtERS): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian civilians on Sunday to leave immediately any site where militants are operating, one day after Israel took the Gaza war to a new level by flattening a 13-storey apartment tower.

Israeli aircraft first fired a non-explosive rocket at the building, a sign to residents to get out, before attacking it on Saturday.

Seventeen people were wounded in the strike on the structure, which Israel

KARACHI, AUgUSt 24 (AP): On the outskirts of the slums of Pakistan’s biggest city, protesters burning tires and throwing stones have what sounds like a simple demand: They want water at least once a week.

But that’s anything but in Karachi, where people go days without getting water from city trucks, sometimes forcing them to use groundwater contaminated with salt. A recent drought has only made the problem worse. And as the city of roughly 18 million people rapidly grows, the water shortages are only expected to get worse.

“During the last three months they haven’t supplied a single drop of water in my neighborhood,” protester Yasmeen Islam said.

“It doesn’t make us happy to come on the roads to protest but we have no choice anymore.”

Karachi gets most of its water from the Indus River — about 550 million gal-

more than 400 of them children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive with the declared aim of ending Palestinian rocket fire into its territory.

Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and four civilians in Israel have been killed.

said had housed a Hamas command centre.

“I call on the inhabitants of Gaza to evacuate immediately from every site from which Hamas is carrying out terrorist activity. Every one of these places is a target for us,” Netanyahu said in public remarks at a cabinet meeting. With no end in sight to fighting now in its seventh week, Netanyahu’s tough talk could indicate a move towards bolder strikes in densely populated neighbourhoods, even at the risk of raising more international alarm.

Thousands of homes

have been destroyed or damaged in the conflict.

Nearly 500,000 people have been displaced in the territory of 1.8 million where Palestinians, citing Israeli attacks that have hit schools and mosques, say no place is safe. Israel has said Hamas bears responsibility for civilian casualties because it operates among non-combatants. The group, it said, uses schools and mosques to store weapons and as launching sites for crossborder rocket attacks.

Palestinian health officials say 2,108 people, most of them civilians and

nowhere in sight and in most instances only elderly men had beards.

Chinese officials probably are targeting outward manifestations of piety because they cannot “fundamentally alter people’s inner states,” said Gardner Bovingdon, a Xinjiang expert at Indiana University.

“I can’t make you stop admiring a more rigorous, scriptural Islam, but I can make you shave off that beard, I can make you take off that scarf,” Bovingdon said. “So that’s what I’ll do.”

The authorities’ heavy hand has reportedly sparked protests. In the rural town of Alaqagha, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kuqa, police fired into a crowd in May when villagers violently protested the detention of women and girls for wearing headscarves and Islamic robes, according to the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia.

On a recent evening in Alaqagha, rows of surveillance cameras perched atop street lights watched residents breaking their fasts at a small outdoor market. Pistol-carrying police who were trailing Associated Press journalists kept an eye on the villagers, who included women with headscarves shopping at donkey-drawn fruit carts.

“It’s the state’s way of saying ‘we don’t trust you, we see your religion as being something that’s inherently of concern to us,’” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “’We are going to treat it as fundamentally problematic behavior, not as the basic right that it is.’”

Karachi thirsts for a water supply lons per day — and another 100 million gallons from the Hub Dam that is supplied by water from neighboring Baluchistan province. But in recent years, drought has hurt the city’s supply. Misbah Fareed, a senior official with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board that runs the city’s water supplies, said that only meets about half the city’s needs — 1.2 billion gallons a day.

Karachi’s water distribution network has exacerbated the problem by forcing much of the city to get its water through tankers instead of directly from pipes. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board operates 12 water hydrants around the city where tankers fill up and then distribute. Even people in the richest areas of the city get their water through tankers that come a few times a week to fill up underground cisterns.

But criminals have ille-

gally tapped into the city’s water pipes and set up their own distribution points where they siphon off water and sell it. “I personally know some people previously associated with drug mafias who now switched to the water tanker business,” Fareed said. “Just imagine how lucrative the business is.”

Other areas of Pakistan pump massive amounts of groundwater. But in the coastal city of Karachi, the underground water is too salty to drink. Many people have pumps but they use the water for things such as showering or washing clothes.

The water shortage is exacerbated by Karachi’s massive population.

Pakistani military operations and American drone strikes in the northern tribal regions, as well as natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes, have pushed people toward a city long seen as the eco-

Netanyahu asks Gaza civilians to evacuate Palestinians inspect the rubble and salvage items from the Al-Zafer apartment tower following Israeli airstrikes Saturday that collapsed the 12-story building, in Gaza City on August 24.

The army said the Gaza City apartment tower was targeted because a Hamas command center operated from there.

The weekend strikes by Israel marked the first time large buildings were toppled signaling a new escalation in seven weeks of fighting with Hamas. (AP Photo)

of extremism that poses a threat to society.

In May, police in the county of Luntai raided women’s dress shops and confiscated jilbabs. A photo on the local government’s website showed four male police officers at a shop examining textiles while a woman in a black jilbab, likely a shop assistant or owner, stood in the background watching.

The rubber-stamp legislature in the southern prefecture of Turpan says on its website it is considering a law to impose fines of up to 500 yuan ($80) for wearing veils and cloaks in public. The legislature says the law would help safeguard social stability, cultural security and gender equality and even protect health — because, the proposal says, burkas deprive skin of sunlight and can cause heatstroke in summer.

Elsewhere, officials have been rounding up dozens of Uighur women to attend indoctrination sessions and to trade their jilbabs and veils for traditional Uighur silk dresses.

“After today’s ideological education, I now understand that the jilbab is not our ethnic group’s traditional attire, and I recognize that veils and wearing jilbabs is incompatible with Islamic culture and is a backward and bad practice,” a woman named Ayiguli Bake was quoted by a local party-run newspaper as saying in a scripted fashion.

But on the streets of Kuqa and Aksu, many women could be seen wearing headscarves that covered their necks, though black cloaks were

War Of Attrition Israel launched more air strikes on Gaza on Sunday, killing at least six Palestinians, medical officials said.

Palestinian militants kept up their rocket fire in what has become a war of attrition that has defied attempts by regional power Egypt to broker a durable truce.

The bombing on Saturday of Al Zafer Tower in Gaza City marked the first time in the Gaza war that Israel had brought down so tall a structure. It had housed 44 families. It launched the attack a day after a mortar bomb killed a four-year-old Israeli boy.

Israel’s president attended his funeral on Sunday near the Gaza border.

Egypt called on Israel and the Palestinians on Saturday to halt hostili-

ties and return to talks. But there was no sign that negotiations, last held before a ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday, would resume any time soon.

The start of the school year has already been delayed indefinitely by the Education Ministry in the Gaza Strip, and Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israelis should be prepared for the war to continue after classes begin on Sept. 1. At one U.N.-run school in Gaza where Palestinian families have been sheltering, children chanting “glory and eternity to our martyrs” stood in line for the national anthem, but no classes were held.

Scott Anderson, Deputy Director of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said although school has been cancelled, instruction could be provided by other means. “It is very important that we use our satellite channel, our Internet active learning program, the computer labs and the selfhelp material - all these lessons we learnt in Syria and they have proved to be very successful there,” he said,

referring to remote schooling during Syria’s civil war.

Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until the IsraeliEgyptian blockade on Gaza is lifted. Both Israel and Egypt view Hamas as a security threat and are demanding guarantees that weapons will not enter the economically crippled enclave. The Cairo talks had aimed to secure a lasting deal to allow reconstruction aid to flow into Gaza. The current conflict is the longest and deadliest between the Palestinians and Israel since the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) a decade ago.

Israel also faced rocket fire from the north on Saturday. Two missiles launched from Lebanon struck Israel’s Galilee. Lebanese and Israeli sources said it was not initially clear who was behind the attack, which caused no casualties or damage. At least five rockets fired from Syria landed at various locations on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli army said. All fell in open areas. It was also not immediately known who launched them.

In this Wednesday, May 14, photo, Pakistani children gather by a water distribution point, hoping for the water to come back after being cut, in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP File Photo)

nomic heart of Pakistan.

The city is trying to increase the amount of water it gets from the Indus River by building another canal — dubbed the K4 project.

But even if they were to get political approval from the capital to take more water from the river, it would take a minimum of four years to build.

But analysts say supply isn’t the only problem. Farhan Anwar, who runs an organization called Sustainable Initiatives in Karachi, said the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is horribly overstaffed and many of those are political appoin-

tees. The cost for water is also very low and the agency doesn’t collect all that it’s due, Anwar said. That’s made it difficult to upgrade the aging pipes the system does have, meaning contamination and leakages are common.

Meanwhile, Karachi residents have to spend more money or walk further and further to get water. One elderly resident Aisha Saleem said in recent months even the little water they get from the water board is salty. “Women and kids have to go miles by foot and carry drinking water every day,” she said.

Gadgets harm social skills in kids: Study NEw YoRK, AUgUSt 24 (IANS): Does your child have poor social skills? Limit his or her use of the digital screen. In the world of smartphones and tablets, social skills among children are on the decline as the kids give less time for face-to-face interaction due to their increased use of digital media, says a study. American scientists have found that sixth-graders who went five days without a smartphone, television or other digital media did better at reading human emotions than sixth-graders from the same school who spent hours each day with their gadgets. “Many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in education and not many are looking at the costs,” said Patricia Greenfield, a professor of psychology at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“Losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people is one of the costs. The displacement of in-person social interaction by screen interaction seems to be reducing social skills,” Greenfield said. For the study, psychologists studied two sets of sixth-graders from a school in southern California. The first set of 51 children lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp about 110 km from Los Angeles. At the camp, the students were not allowed to use electronic devices. The other lot of 54 children stayed in their homes with their gadgets.

The children at the camp improved significantly over the five days in their ability to read facial expressions and other nonverbal cues to emotions, compared with the students who continued to use their media devices. The findings applied equally to both boys and girls. “If you are not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social skills,” added lead author Yalda Uhls, a senior researcher with UCLA’s Children’s Digital Media Center. “Emoticons are a poor substitute for faceto-face communication. “We are social creatures. We need device-free time,” Uhls added. The research is slated to appear in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

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Dimapur

SPORTS

Monday 25 August 2014

The Morung Express

India should be at home in ODI series

Bristol, August 24 (iANs): One-day cricket is a different ball game, and the Indians should be more at home playing England in the five-match series starting here Monday at the County Cricket Ground.

After drawing the first Test and winning the second, India lost the next three, the last two humiliatingly by an innings, but India will look to salvage some pride by putting up a good show in the limitedovers format. Indian batsmen performed awfully in the Tests, especially the highly-touted Virat Kohli.

The Delhi batsman did manage to regain some form with a swashbuckling 71 in the warm-up match against Middlesex that In-

SquadS

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Stuart Binny, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhawal Kulkarni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Sanju Samson, Karn Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav.

England: Alastair Cook, (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes. dia won by 95 runs Friday night. He was well supported by Ambati Rayudu (72 retired). However, the win masked the abject failure of the other Indian batsmen.

The Indians were 211 for five at the end of 40 overs when Rayudu went off the field to give the other batsmen a chance to get a knock. The next four wickets fell for 19 runs in 26 deliveries as India were bowled out

for 230 in 44.2 overs.

The top-order was once again found wanting. Shikhar Dhawan, who seems to be living on borrowed time, did nothing to justify his inclusion and neither did his opening partner Rohit Sharma. In fact, the highest scorer after Kohli and Rayudu was Ravichandran Ashwin with 18 runs. Suresh Raina, who was not part of the Test setup, made his re-

turn to the 50-over side with a shoddy performance.

There were more worrying signs for the lefthander as the Indian management decided to send him nine-down, hinting that Raina was not a certainty for Monday's match. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Test captaincy credentials have come into question and he will have to shore up his side's

batting if he is to keep his one-day record intact.

The bowlers performed well though, skittling out Middlesex for 135 all out in 39.5 overs. The pick of the bowlers was leggie Karn Sharma, taking four wickets. All pacers were amongst the wickets, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar giving away just seven runs from his three overs.

Umesh Yadav, who is trying to stake a claim in the starting eleven, was a tad expensive but picked up a wicket. Dhawal Kulkarni was impressive and caused the opposition batsmen more than a few problems.

Dhoni has more than a few options in bowling and would be interesting to see who he picks.

(AP File Photo)

Sindhu, Saina lead Indian challenge at World C'ships Usain Bolt sets new 100m indoors best time of 9.98sec

CoPeNHAgeN, August 24 (Pti): An exuberant PV Sindhu would look to improve the colour of her medal even as a fitagain Saina Nehwal eyes her maiden podium finish when a confident Indian badminton team starts its campaign in the World Championship on Monday.

Sindhu, fresh from a bronze in Glasgow Commonwealth Games, would try to ensure that she ends up better than third, a position she managed in the previous edition which made her the first Indian to win a medal at the prestigious event.

Saina, on the other hand, is back in action after taking a break to recover from the leg injury she sustained during her Australian Open triumph in June, as a result of which she was forced out of the Commonwealth Games.

"Till the end of July, I had not fully recovered from the injury which I sustained after Australian Open. This has affected my training but in the last three weeks, I have

Saina Nehwal

caught up and feel I will do my best in this tournament," Saina said ahead of the mega-event. Seeded seventh, Saina has been handed a first-round bye and she will open her campaign on Tuesday against the winner of the match between New Zealand's Anna Rankin and Russia's Natalia Perminova.

Sindhu, seeded 11th, has also received a firstround bye and will start against the winner of the

PV Sindhu

match between Russia's Olga Golovanova and Bulgaria's Linda Zetcheri.

In men's singles, Commonwealth Games goldmedallist Parupalli Kashyap will be India's best bet for a medal. He will be up against Germany's Dieter Domke in the first round tomorrow. Among others in the fray, Ajay Jayram will face fourth seed Kanichi Tago of Japan in his opening match, while the fast-

rising K Srikanth will square off against Slovenia's Iztok Utrosa.

Another strong medal contender for India is the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa, who had won a bronze in the 2011 edition of the Championship.

The duo has got a walkover into the second round to start with. The pair is now up for a stiff fight as the fifth-seeded Chinese team

of Quing Tian and Yunlei Zhao awaits the two in the second round.

The other Indian pair in the women's doubles draw is that of Prajkta Sawant and Arathi Sara Sunil. They will fight it out against the Thai pair of Puttita Suparjirakul and Sapsiree Terattanchai in the opening round tomorrow.

The men's doubles draw features two Indian pairs. While Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra take on Yun Lung Chan and Chun Hei Lee of China in their opening match, Sumeeth Reddy B and Manu Attri will face Russia's Nikita Khakimov and Vasily Kuznetsov.

Ponappa will also be seen in action in the mixed doubles event, pairing with Tarun Kona. The pair will face local favourites Anders Kristiansen and Julie Houmann. Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan will square off against the Brazilian team of Hugo Arthuso and Fabiana Silva.

WArsAW, August 24 (AFP): Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt set a new best time of 9.98sec for the rarely run 100m indoors at Warsaw's national football stadium on Saturday.

The Olympic champion and world record holder (9.58s) eclipsed the previous best mark for the distance of 10.05 set by Namibian Frankie Fredericks in 1996. The Warsaw stadium had its roof closed for the event.

Bolt, in action as preparation for Zurich's Dia-

mond League meeting next week, said: "Above all I wanted to get through this season without any injury as I've suffered enough over the past few years. "Over the next meetings starting with Zurich I'm hoping to run ever quicker."

Bolt received various gifts after his win over his compatriot Sheldon Mitchell and American Trell Kimmons, among them pictures of his 28th birthday celebrations in Warsaw on Thursday. Bolt

had only run his first 100m of the year in an exhibition race on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach on August 17 in a time of 10.6sec.

His last competitive individual appearance at the 100m came in Brussels last year while at last month's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow he was part of the victorious Jamaican 4x100m relay team. Bolt will compete in his final Olympics in Rio in 2016 before calling time on his career in 2017 after the world championships.

Tottenham rout QPR 4-0 in Pochettino's 1st home game

In a high-tempo first- er but Tottenham was far loNdoN, August 24 (AP): Tottenham tore half display, Nacer Chadli more rampant in Pochetapart Queens Park Rang- seized on hapless QPR de- tino's first home game in ers to produce a stylish 4-0 fending to score twice and charge.

Emmanuel Adebayor rout that showcased the ex- defender Eric Dier made it pressive attacking football two goals in two games at completed QPR's humiliademanded of new manag- the start of his Tottenham tion in the second-half with a goal on the break provider Mauricio Pochettino on career.

Dier also scored the late ed by Dier, who joined TotSunday, ensuring a miserable return to White Hart winner at West Ham in last tenham in the offseason AustrAliA, August 24 (AFP): American Ka- Lane for Harry Redknapp. weekend's season open- from Benfica for $6 million. tie Ledecky set her second world record in two days by shattering her own 1,500-metre freestyle record at the Pan Pacific Championships on Sunday.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl broke her record by almost six seconds with a time of 15 minutes 28.36 seconds to claim her fifth gold medal at the Gold Coast meet. Ledecky had only set the previous record in the non-Olympic event in June with loNdoN, August 24 but it would be very dif- the defensive strength-in15:34.23. The wonder teen smashed the 400m free- (reuters): Louis van ficult," van Gaal said. "It depth to challenge Manstyle world record at this meet on Saturday, clock- Gaal has conceded it would is possible to win a title in chester City, Chelsea, Living 3:58.37 to beat her previous mark by 0.49sec. take a miracle for Manches- the first year but it is very erpool and Arsenal.

Ledecky holds the world records in the 400m, ter United to win the Pre- difficult. "I think [the ManRio Ferdinand, Ne800m and 1500m freestyle, making her the first mier League this season. chester United owners] manja Vidic, Patrice Evra woman since US distance great Janet Evans to hold After finishing seventh last understand [the size of the and Alexander Buttner all all three records at the same time. Ledecky has won year, United opened their task] or I would not have left Old Trafford during the 200m, 400m 800m and 1500m freestyle golds campaign optimistic that accepted the job. "I have the close-season with left at the Pan Pacs and was also part of the American Dutch master-tactician van discussed everything, long back's Luke Shaw and Arwomen`s winning 4x200m freestyle relay team. She Gaal could oversee a return discussions where I have gentine Marcos Rojo their beat New Zealand`s Lauren Boyle by more 10 sec- to the upper echelons of shown myself as I am al- only replacements. "When Katie Ledecky of the U.S. smiles after she set a new world record in her women's 1500m freestyle final onds in winning the 1500m gold and was well un- the Premier League table. ways open.

I took over from Bobby at the Pan Pacific swimming championships in Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, August 24. Ledecky der world record pace during the middle stages of "It is why we discussed Robson at Barcelona he However that optimism the 30-lap final. won the race setting a new world record of 15 minutes, 28.36 seconds.(AP Photo) was punctured by a shock three years and not one had won three titles so the 2-1 loss against Swansea year. We discussed the selection of players was City at Old Trafford last consequences of them hir- stable at the time. "When I Saturday - their first home ing me. I told them from got to Bayern Munich the league loss to the Welsh my experiences with my selection was not stable. club. It was also their first former clubs the start was What we did was a miracle. loNdoN, August 24 but said he was otherwise opening-day loss at home difficult." Van Gaal won "The problem I have at (reuters): Arsenal pleased with the way Ever- since 1972 and was enough the title in his first season at United is this selection is showed the resilience that ton performed. "Obviously to convince van Gaal that both Barcelona and Bayern not in balance. There are could underpin a Premier it's a disappointment but a successful title challenge Munich but thinks his cur- five number nines and six League title challenge overall I am very pleased would be unlikely. rent squad lacks balance to number 10s and so on. And when they scored twice in with the way we played." we don't have defenders."

"Would it be a miracle do the same. the closing minutes to draw SECONd WIN The 63-year-old has a United face Sunderland to win the league this sea2-2 at Everton after the Chelseasecuredasecond son? I think so but it is also wealth of attacking talent at the Stadium of Light on home side largely dominatstraight victory over a pro- possible, always possible at his disposal but lacks Sunday. ed the match on Saturday. moted team when they beat Aaron Ramsey tapped last season's Championship in after 83 minutes and winners Leicester City 2-0 at substitute Olivier Giroud Stamford Bridge thanks to planted home a header in second-half goals from Diego the 90th to cancel out the Costa and Eden Hazard. Jose lead Everton held after a Mourinho's side started the first-half header from Seaseason with a convincing 3-1 NeW delHi, August 24 (AgeN- ed to his post with a call to also acknowlmus Coleman and Steven win at Championship run- Cies): Lionel Messi became the latest edge the death of four-year-old Daniel Tregerman, who was killed by a mortar Naismith's second on the ners-up Burnley on Monday victim of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. fired from Gaza. However, Messi`s origiThe Argentina and Barcelona star has stroke of halftime. but Saturday's triumph only been dragged into the conflict after his nal Facebook post appears to have been Chelsea, who beat came after a much improved Facebook call to end the violence in the taken off, but it can still be read on other Leicester City 2-0 at Stamsecond-half performance region. In the post, the four-time Ballon Messi fan pages. ford Bridge with goals from against resilient Leicester. d`Or winner used a picture of an injured Tregaron, a Messi fan, is reportedly the home debutant Diego Costa Mourinho was pleased with Palestinian boy, which prompted many first Israeli child to be killed since the beand Eden Hazard, and Swanthe way they improved after pro-Israel social media users to ask Messi ginning of the Operation Protective Edge on July 8. His images on social media show sea City, who sank Burnley halftime, with Costa scoring for similar tributes to Israeli victims.

On August 7, Messi wrote in his Face- him wearing a Messi jersey of Barcelona.

1-0 at the Liberty Stadium, Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey, right, is tackled by Everton's Gareth Barry during the English his second in two games after head the early season stand- Premier League soccer match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park, in Liverpool, 63 minutes from eight metres book post “As a father and a UNICEF Good- The stand-off has reportedly killed at least ings with six points. Arsenal England, Saturday, Aug. 23. (AP Photo) and Hazard adding a second will Ambassador, I am terribly saddened 2,097 Palestinians, majority of them are and West Bromwich Albion was also the second sucbecause we were 2-0 down stayed third with four points 13 minutes from time with a by the images coming from the conflict be- kids while on the Israel had lost 68 lives cessive week Everton had but a deserved one." He said low shot after cutting in from tween Israel and Palestine, where violence so far. One of the social media post said from two games, although ended goalless. has already claimed so many young lives “Hello messi, take a look at that boy, danconceded a late goal which the turning point was the the right. their run of six successive dESERVEd POINT iel tregerman, wearing the national jersey Arsenal's late Goodison denied them victory after introduction of Giroud for league victories, which startSwansea, who opened and injured countless children.” of the best player in the world”. Other posts “Children did not create this conflict, ed after they lost 3-0 at Ever- Park rally was the second allowing hosts Leicester their new 35 million pounds their campaign with a first but they are paying the ultimate price. This on different social media platforms adton in April, came to an end. time this season they had City to equalise and force striker Alexis Sanchez at ever league win at Man- cycle of senseless violence must stop. We dressed to Messi, drew the player`s attenIn Saturday's other matches, scored late after Ramsey's a 2-2 draw in their opener. halftime. Everton manager chester United last week, must reflect on the consequences of mili- tion to their share of tragedies. Whereas Arsenal manager Ar- Roberto Martinez was nat- picked up another three tary conflicts and children must be pro- some other users blamed Messi`s team, West Ham United won 3-1 90th minute strike gave at managerless Crystal Pal- them a 2-1 win over visiting sene Wenger told Sky urally disappointed after points against a battling tected,” Messi added.

FC Barcelona`s sponsor, Qatar Airways, ace, while Southampton Crystal Palace last week. It Sports: "It is a strong point conceding two late goals Burnley side.

Pro-Israel social media users respond- for funding the Hamas in Gaza.

Katie Ledecky sets 1500m freestyle world record

Van Gaal says United title win would be 'a miracle'

Arsenal salvage late Everton draw, Chelsea win

Lionel Messi's Facebook post on Israel-Gaza conflict stirs controversy

The Morung Express

Monday

Entertainment

25 August 2014

Dimapur

11

Lakme Fashion Week 2014: Antony Costa

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Designers play it safe on day 3 Files for Bankruptcy

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fail-safe way of playing with fashion is sticking to trend staples. After an exciting day of textiles and handlooms, Day 3 at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2014 went back to showcasing familiar designs with a twist. The afternoon of three young designers started with Aartivijay Gupta who captured prints and styles-from Roman drapes and French medieval costumes to the 17th century Italian fashion-onto chic pencil dresses, skirts and tops with wide sleeves. The antifit sentiment continued in Tanya Sharma’s label ‘Gaga’ that featured textile treatments like bandhani, leheriya, tie-n-dye and bold block printing on jumpers, maxi dresses, pants, shirts and short kurtas.

Fashion brand ‘Ilk’ continued the trend with asymmetrical skirts, kimono-like tops, mid-calf length dresses, trousers, zipped jumpers, saris and strapless maxis-primarily in white and indigo blue. ‘Men holding hands’ was the running theme that communicated the need to cement relationships, shun societal norms and, instead, adopt love and unity for all.

The easy-breezy vibe continued in the day with Australian label Eston Pearson, which showcased a line of summery striped dresses, skirts and tops, teamed with cute floral embroidered separates with a desi flavour in ornamentation. The occasional also pea-coat made an entry on the ramp. Rocky S’s show-in collaboration with hair care brand TRESemme- stuck to autumn colours like beige, cream and grey-coloured gowns in the first half. In the second half, the show picked up black and white dresses with Jazz Age beaded details. Brand Ambassador of TRESemme and actress Diana Penty turned showstopper not once, but twice for Rocky S. She first strutted down in a cream tulle pleated gown with a softly ruffled jacket and turban, and the second time she stunned the crowd in a black gown with an embroidered top and mesh neck. Moving on towards stronger Indian flavours, Gaurang Shah’s show was a complete delight for the audience as singer Shubha Mudgal lent her powerful vocals for the theme song Chitr-Sena. The collection, which took six months to complete, was a riot of colours and a variety of kanchipuram weaving techniques, matka silk and maheshwari- khadi, zardosi and badla embroidery. The creations featured traditional motifs inlcluding that of rudraksh, sher (tiger), haathi (elephant) and morn (peacock). Actress Taapsee Pannu brightened up the ramp in a yellow ghagara with a gold-andorange border, teamed with a dupatta draped as a pallu and a full-sleeved orange blouse.

Taapsee later shared, “I have known Gaurang for two years, but this the first time I walked the ramp at LFW for him. I had been telling him to design a colourful and bright outfit for me, and he has added all the possible bright colours in my outfit… I love what I am wearing.” nFashion label Ekru took the ethnic route too with focus on ikat, chanderi, handloom cotton, ghicha, silk, aari and zardosi with dual-toned saris, coat style kurtas, chiffonlayered shararas, and bolero jackets. The last show of the day was by one of the most commercially successful designers, Anita Dongre, who presented a bridal collection.

Dedicating the collection to her mythical muse ‘Nayantara’, who is the ideal Jaipur bride, the ensembles alsodrew inspiration from Mughal architecture, and was presented

to the beat of ace musician Niladri Kumar and his band, India Modern. The segment presented jumpsuits, kurtas and embroidered churidars in black and white with geometric patterned gold work, crinckled skirts, trousers, gowns and bandhini dupattas, besides the conventional line of elegant lehengas that were teamed with buttondown shirts.

Day 4 began on a note of extremes-swinging from gentle and feminine designs to bold ensembles and stark colours. Actress and pout-queen Nargis Fakhri walked the ramp for designer Anushree Reddy in a soft pastelhued pink-printed net lehenga, green choli and tulle dupatta. While the ensemble was well crafted, Fakhri’s gold-and-emerald choker necklace and heavy smokey eyes looked out of place. The other creations from the collection had a charming vintage feel as well, and included saris, lehengas, and gowns in fabrics such as satin, tulle, chiffon, raw silk and organza in shades of dull and rose pink, sea green, beige and lavender.

Diametrically opposite was the show by young designer Dhruv Kapur from DRVV that depicted the aftereffects of a battleground where women who fought had emerged stronger and bolder. Keeping in sync with the concept, the snug collection featured sensuous fabrics turned into draped jackets, strapless dresses, capes and trousers in shades such as wolf grey, bloody red and warrior black.Designer duo Pranav Mishra & Shyma Shetty from HUEMN had style divas in the audience waiting for their show, and they delivered on their expectations. Androgynous styles functioned as chief silhouette for trousers, jumpers, shirts and skirts. Men’s wear featured greay suits and plain white shirts with a smart leafy applique in the shape of an ‘O’. Sougat Paul had strong faux leather detailing and fitted asymmetric patterns to showcase, while Showstopper Geeta Basra wore a pre-stitched sari in blue with a wine pallu. ‘Jade’ by Monica Shah and Karishma Swali showcased a variety of anarkalis for the upcoming festive season, and adding to the beauty was the spellbinding dance by internationally renowned contemporary dancer Astaad Deboo, who performed graceful twirls on stage for both the opening and closing of Shah’s show.

Jewellery designer Mrinalini Chandra took inspiration from flowers, leaves, insects, monkeys and fish to create interesting metallic drapes, tribalesque hand shields and more. Making use of techniques like enamelling, moulding, patterning along with filigree casting, trinkets were complimented by garments made by Nikhil Thampi.

ritish pop star ANTONY COSTA has become the third member of Blue to file for bankruptcy. The singer has followed in the footsteps of his bandmates Duncan James and Simon Webbe, who declared themselves bankrupt within weeks of each other last year (13).Costa, who welcomed his first child in June (14), tells Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “I am really proud to be a father and the arrival of my new daughter has made me take a good look at my finances... I want to be sure I can provide the best possible future for my family. “Our former management made a lot of decisions that we as a band have had to be financially responsible for. Whether right or wrong, their personal pursuit in the last two years had led me to instigate proceedings to wipe the financial slate clean and start again”. The band plans to release new material later this year (14) and Webbe has signed on for the latest series of reality TV competition Strictly Come Dancing.

John Lennon’s

Killer Denied Parole

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ohn Lennon’s killer has been denied parole for the eighth time. Mark David Chapman, 59, who shot and killed the Beatles legend outside his Dakota Building home in New York in December, 1980, has lost his bid to walk free from prison. A three-member board denied the parole request on Friday (22Aug14), following a hearing on Wednesday. Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1981 and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono wrote to officials when Chapman’s parole application went back before the New York state’s review board this week (beg18Aug14). In her letter she detailed her objections and urged the officials to keep Chapman behind bars. He will now not be eligible for parole until 2016.

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F1: Ricciardo wins Kvitova takes WTA New Haven title Belgian Grand Prix NEW HAVEN, August 24 (AFP): Reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova won her second WTA Connecticut Open title in three years Saturday, defeating Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-2 in the US Open warm-up event.

Fourth-ranked Kvitova, the 2012 New Haven winner who lost to Simona Halep in last year's final, will be the women's third seed when the year's last Grand Slam tournament begins Monday in New York.

"It was great to win the title.

I'm very happy to play the final like that," Kvitova said. "Hopefully I can show that at the US Open." Rybarikova, ranked 68th, ousted top-seeded Halep on Tuesday but could not claim her fifth WTA title and the first since 2013 in Washington.

Kvitova claimed her 13th career WTA crown and second of the year after her dramatic Wimbledon victory, adding momentum to her bid for another Grand Slam title in the Flushing Mead-

ows fortnight. Never dropping a set, Kvitova lost only 18 games at New Haven and fired 31 winners to only six for Rybarikova.

"I needed some matches before the US Open so I'm very proud of getting through like that," Kvitova said. "I'll enjoy today but from tomorrow I will focus on the US Open." Kvitova escaped a break-point to hold in the opening game of the match and broke in the sixth game to seize a 5-2 edge. But Rybarikova denied Kvitova on two set points in the eighth game and then broke back to 5-4, only to have Kvitova break again to take the set when Rybarikova netted a backhand.

In the second set, Kvitova broke with a forehand winner for a 4-2 lead and broke again to claim the title with a service return winner on her first matchpoint opportunity.

"Magdalena in the first set was a very tough opponent," Kvitova said. "I had to really fo- Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, celebrates with her trophy after defeating cus until I got that first break in Magdalena Rybarikova, of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-2 in the final match of the Connecticut the second set."

Open tennis tournament in New Haven, Conn., on August 23. (AP Photo)

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Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo of Australia celebrates with his trophy on the podium after he won the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany became second and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas of Finland placed third. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

sPA, BElgium, August 24 (AgENciEs): Australia's Daniel Ricciardo took full advantage of early contact between Mercedes teammates and title rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton to win the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Tensions between the Mercedes duo will only be growing after the secondlap incident on Sunday in which Rosberg sliced up Hamilton's rear tyre, and damaged his own front wing, when he tried to overtake him in an effort to regain the lead he had lost at the start.

Hamilton's race was ruined and he eventually retired, and he is now 29 points behind Rosberg, who came second in dry conditions the day after a wet qualifying.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, got his second win in a row and third of the season from fifth place on the grid, ahead of first-time Spa podium finisher Rosberg and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas.

Rosberg leads the championship with 220 points

from Hamilton (191), and Ricciardo, who improved to 156 after 12 of 19 races.

Rosberg had a dreadful start from pole as Hamilton and Vettel slipped past, with Hamilton holding off Vettel to lead the way into the first turn. Vettel tried his luck again but went wide and dropped him back to third.

Rosberg tried to recover first place in the second lap but Hamilton did not give way and, although Rosberg eventually held back, the two Mercedes made contact. "Nico hit me," Hamilton said via team radio as he limped into the pits for new rubbers and rejoined in 19th place.

Stewards took no action, seemingly deeming it a normal racing incident.

Rosberg maintained the lead, before pitting in the ninth for a new front wing and fresh rubbers, with Ricciardo climbing from fifth at the start into second at the time - and leading from Raikkonen once all drivers had made their first tyre change.

Rosberg was hampered

by some sort of debris, possibly even from Hamilton's tyre, clinging to the aerial in front of the cockpit, before he managed to pull it away.

Alonso dropped to eighth after serving a fivesecond stop-and-go penalty imposed because mechanics had worked on his car too close to the start.

Hamilton's request to retire was turned down by the team, saying that any safety car phase would get him back in contention. But they eventually had mercy four laps from the end, saying there was possibly something wrong with the car.

Ricciardo retained the lead through the second round of pit stops and safely completed the 44 laps in one hour 24 minutes 36.556 seconds for victory. Rosberg followed, while Bottas passed fourtime race winner Kimi Raikkonen on the 40th lap to complete the podium. Raikkonen placed fourth while a big fight for fifth to eighth saw Vettel ahead of the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, and Alonso in eighth.

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