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www.morungexpress.com
The Morung Express
Dimapur Vol. iX issuE 352
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www.morungexpress.com
Selena ‘obsessed’ with Bieber
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VHP patron says: ‘We want an invincible Hindu society which works for the world's welfare according to these values’
no, no toys. Can you give me some 1234 Cr?
Vote on www.morungexpress.com sMs your answer to 9862574165 Are Nagas losing the spirit of Christmas to commercialization?
no
others
should naga women be given the right to inherit land? Yes
61% 23%
no others
16%
Details on page 7
Mild earthquake hits NE, Myanmar sHILLoNg, DECEMBER 21 (IANs): An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale Sunday jolted northeastern states and parts of Myanmar Sunday, authorities said. The earthquake occurred at 11.08 a.m. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property. According to the regional seismological centre in Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya, the epicentre lay on the IndiaMyanmar border in Manipur. The tremor was also felt in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The northeast region is considered the world’s sixth most earthquake-prone belt.
A bullet that changes direction in ‘mid-air’
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NEW YoRk, DECEMBER 21 (IANs): The US Department of Defense is testing a bullet that could change direction in midair. The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO), currently being tested by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is a .50 calibre round that can change direction as it flies towards its target. The details of how it will work are completely secret, Popular Science reported. It is designed specifically for use by snipers, for whom slight improvements such as these could make the difference between life and death. “The system combines a manoeuvrable bullet and a realtime guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course,” said the description on the DARPA website. The EXACTO technology is now being tested in live firing situations to enhance and improve performance.
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‘Hindu values will be restored in country’
By Sandemo Ngullie
The Morung Express Poll QuEsTion
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– Dale Evans
Kohima district jail inmates Real crowned educated on legal rights world champ at [ PAGE 2] Club World Cup Two NYC cops killed in shooting
reflections
Yes
Monday, December 22, 2014 12 pages Rs. 4
Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas J&K await results with bated breath
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NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 (PTI): Asserting that Hindu values will be restored in the country, Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Sunday said they have never wanted to convert the world but only to "win over its heart". Speaking at a book launch, VHP patron Ashok Singhalsaiditwasduetotheir "struggle" in the last 50 years that Hindus have "regained" thelost"empire"ofDelhiafter 800 years. "Our culture and religion were subjugated and we struggled. In 800 years, a day has now come in which we can say we have a government which is committed to protecting Hindutva. Our values will be gradually established in the country. "We want an invincible Hindu society which works for the world's welfare according to these values... We have never gone out to convert the world but to win over their heart," SingA baby orangutan plays with a Christmas costume at the zoo in Dvur Kralove nad labem, hal said, apparently refer146 kilometers east of Prague, Czech Republic, sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. Christmas Day ring to the recent row over came early for some animals in the zoo, where the employees prepared presents for them conversion. Referring to the BJP filled with dried fruit, nuts, clothes or dishes. (AP Photo)
Challenging Modi, RSS to go ahead with conversions NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 (REuTERs): The head of India's most powerful Hindu group vowed to press ahead with a campaign to convert Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, stoking a sensitive debate that has stalled parliament and threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic reform agenda. Mohan Bhagwat of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, which is also the ideological wing of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said India was a "Hindu nation" where many Hindus had been forcibly converted to other religions. "We will bring back those who have lost their way. They did not go on their own," Bhagwat said in a speech late on Saturday. "They were lured into leaving." Bhagwat's comments came after BJP said it did not support forced religious conversions and called for an anti-conversion law. India's 1.2 billion people are predominantly Hindus but there are also about 160 million Muslims and a small proportion of Christians. Modi is under fire for being slow to rein in hardline affiliate groups that have been accused of promoting a Hindu-dominant agenda that includes luring Muslims and Chrisgovernment, he said Hindus have come back to power in Delhi after Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan lost it in the 12th century. He claimed that various powers in their attempts to capture the world have brought it close to a world war. "You can see that in Australia and in Central
tians to convert to Hinduism. This month, a group of Muslims complained that they had been tricked into attending a conversion ceremony by Hindu groups, while a Hindu priest-turned-lawmaker of the ruling party planned a conversion ceremony on Christmas Day, although it was cancelled after the prime minister intervened. Supporters define such events as a "homecoming", saying that families signing up for the ceremonies were originally Hindus. "We don't want to convert anybody ... but then Hindus should also not be converted," Bhagwat said, adding that those who do not support religious conversions should bring in a law against it. Bhagwat's comments are likely to further irk opposition parties that have disrupted parliament over the conversion issue, demanding that the prime minister himself make a statement on the issue in the upper house. Although Modi has privately warned lawmakers in his party to back off from controversial issues such as the conversion campaign, he has so far not made any official statement on the subject, leaving it to colleagues to fend off criticism.
Asia. The danger of 'Islamic terrorism' we can see in Europe. This war could have been stopped but the way different powers are in a race to establish their reign in the world, it seems this world war is inevitable," he said. However, he said Hindus will not be a "player" in such a war as they have always
sought to win the world by love and believed in spiritual and not material victory. "They (others) are showcasing their strength on the basis of hate... World will have to think that if we have to live together then we can do so only on the basis of mutual love that India has been propagating," he said.
Three killed in Manipur blast ‘Customs’ cast a shadow IMPHAL, DECEMBER 21 (IANs): Three people were killed and four others injured when a powerful blast rocked Manipur’s capital city Imphal Sunday, police said. “An IED (improvised explosive device) that was planted by the roadside near Khuyathong area, close to Imphal market, exploded at 6 a.m., killing three migrant labourers on the spot and injuring four others,” a police official said. He said the labourers, all non-Manipuris, gathered for tea in Khuyathong, which is about one km from
Imphal city police station, when the blast took place. Labourers - identified as Shiv Yadav, 35, Lalan, 35, and Kusum Pandit, 60 were working as load men in the area, he said. The official said the injured have been rushed to the Regional Institute of Medical Science and Hospital here. Their medical condition is stated to be critical. Senior police officials along with additional security forces have rushed to the spot and launched a combing operation to arrest those responsible for
the explosion. No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam Gangmei, who holds the home portfolio, visited the injured at the hospital. Condemning the incident, the chief minister said adequate compensation would be paid to the families of those killed and the government would bear the expenditure for treatment of those injured in the blast. Gangmei said: “It was a
cowardice to attack the unarmed innocent people, to disturb the peace and harmony.” With Sunday’s incident, the number of non-Manipuris killed in the state this year has gone up to nine. This is the third such incident within less than a month in Manipur. Two youths were killed and four others injured when militants triggered a bomb blast in a market in Imphal Dec 15. A 10-yearold boy was killed in a blast Nov 29, a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state.
Earth cutting for Foothill road in ‘final stages’ Morung Express news Dimapur | December 21
Preliminary works for laying the Foothill Road is in the final stage, with only around 40 kilometres more of earth-cutting remaining. The Nagaland Foothill Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC) informed on December 21 that the third phase of earth-cutting for the Foothill road project will begin soon. The NFHRCC informed that it has resolved to formally launch the third phase in the New Year by the second week of January. The decision was arrived at a meeting held on Sunday in Dimapur. Around 24 kms of fresh earth cutting is required in the Mon sector whileintheMokokchungsector,around 19 kms of earth cutting is required. It has been a year since work on the highly anticipated Nagaland Foothill Road began. It was on December 21, 2013 that the NFHRCC formally launched the first phase of earth-cutting at Longtho (Mokokchung sector), followed by the launch of the second phase a week later in
the Wokha sector. During the initial stages of the foothill road movement, the Nagaland state government had assured in writing to at least make the NiulandTizit stretch motorable by the end of the 2013-14 financial year, while the government moots over the futuristic Tizit-Khelma four-lane super highway. The assurance was given in June 2013. It was in August, 2013 that the NFHRCC and the PWD (Roads & Bridges) agreed on the final route alignment stretching some 339 kms starting from Tizit till Niuland enroute Dimapur. Work was supposed to begin by October but it was pushed back to December, 2013. The delay was attributed to “unfinished technical formalities” and the PWD (R&B) dilly-dallying on the route agreed upon. The cost of the project, estimated to be Rs. 221.5 crores that time, had apparently given the department the jitters. Work finally began in December before differences over award of works contract and choice of con-
tractors affected progress in February, 2014. Another row over award of works ensued later in May between the PWD (R&B) and the NFHRCC, which eventually landed in court as the contractors contracted for the project filed legal petitions against the department. Work was temporarily suspended. In the meantime, the contractors were slapped with libel suits by the Roads & Bridges Minister over allegations of monetary demands placed by the Minister on the contractors. The defamation case is still pending in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kohima. If the third phase of earth-cutting progresses smoothly without any hiccups, it is expected that the stretch of the Foothill Road falling between Doyang river and Tizit will become motorable by March 2015. Further, the NHRCC, while appreciating the support rendered to the construction of the Foothill Road project, thanked the Chumukedima Ao Union for donating Rs. 1,01,330 towards the committee.
on rights of Naga women Morung Express news Dimapur | December 21
“Are we Nagas moving backward while others are moving forward? Let us wake up from our deep slumber,” asserts one commentator while voting on the question ‘Should Naga women be given the right to inherit land.’ In a weekly poll conducted by The Morung Express 61 percent of the participants voted ‘yes’ for Naga women to be given the right to inherit land, 23 percent voted ‘no’ while the remaining 16 percent voting as ‘other.’ A majority of the participants who voted yes advocated the need for Naga society to do away with the patriarchal mindset. One participant commented, “Daughters are not less than sons and therefore not less worthy. Bringing their share of inheritance with them into their marriage would empower them with more voice in the marital relationship.” Another voter stated, “Yes, women have every right to inherit their parent’s/ husband’s or brother’s movable and immovable properties. If someone thinks otherwise, then that’s his/her problem.” Calling for the need to question and rectify “patriarchal foundations” in Naga society, a participant in the poll said, “Yes, as women, daughters should have equal right in parental property. Of course it means shaking the patriarchal foundation, but with changing times such reforms are needed in customary law.” Even among those who voted ‘yes’, there were a number of participants who emphasized the need to distinguish between private property and ancestral/ clan/community property. While vouching his support for women to inherit privately owned property, one participant however stated that “clan or ancestral property is not private land but it belongs to a community so it is up to the community.” Another added “A lot of people feel that such liberty will allow the mainlanders (in case of inter marriages) to come in possession of our lands but this can be easily rec-
tified by allowing only the female line to inherit the lands that their female parents have inherited from their parents.” This, the participant states is a “sensitive issue” for most and needs to be viewed “objectively without prejudice.” Among those who voted no, one vociferously stated “Never to those who married IBIs or to the non-Nagas.” “We the Nagas,” he said “should not become like Tripura by changing the system.” However, he conceded by stating, “We may consider to give to those who are married to the Nagas.” Another participant who voted no opined that the right for Naga women to inherit land would “become the root of all disputes,” and cautioned that “land disputes are the greatest in the entire world.” ‘Tradition’ makes its appearance here as well, with one commentator stating “if given the right it will dilute our customary practices.” One participant who chose to remain on the fence during the poll stated, “I fail to understand why a law has to interfere with the personal wealth of a person. If it isn't ancestral property, then a daughter should have the right to inherit what her parents had achieved and earned during their life time. Why should somebody else have it?” One offered a compromise by tabling, “at least some percentage should be given to the women.” Another participant asserted that “we should stick to the customary laws as Nagas are a group of tribes with different practices, at the same time, refinement and provision of the tribal laws should be adopted for women's inheritance.” While the poll indicated that the majority of the participants favoured the right for Naga women to inherit land, there still remains indecision, and in some cases an unwillingness to compromise, when it comes to the issue of ‘customary’ practices. The pertinent question is whether Naga society is ready to collectively treat women on an equal footing with men, even if it means holding ‘tradition,’ ‘custom’ and ‘culture’ to the crucible of debate and reform.
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