February 19th, 2017

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

SunDAY • FebruArY 19 • 2017

DIMAPUR • Vol. XII • Issue 47 • 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

o F

T R u T H

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people Palanisamy wins stormy confidence vote in Tamil Nadu

reflections

By Sandemo Ngullie

PAGE 02

PM has soft corner for North East: Nadda NAgAoN, FEBRUARY 18 (PTI): Union Health Minister J P Nadda today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a soft corner for the North East and a number of development projects have been taken up in the region, including medical colleges in Assam. Addressing a gathering after the bhumi puja for Nagaon medical college at Mohkhuli, Nadda said when completed it will play an important role in meeting the health care needs of the people, particularly of middle Assam. Rs 189 crore was sanctioned for Nagaon medical college, which will be the ninth in the state. It will have 500 beds and the student strength will be 100, he added. The foundation stone of this medical college was laid in February 2016 by then chief minister Tarun Gogoi. Yesterday Nadda had done bhumi puja for Dhubri Medical College and inaugurated the 200-bedded Cancer Hospital attached to Gauhati Medical College.

Public Reminder We would like to remind you that Rejoinders to those statements/news pieces that have not been originally published by the newspaper will not be carried either. This is in order to maintain impartiality on an issue. We seek your understanding and cooperation!

The Morung Express

Morung Express News Dimapur | February 18

The “peoples’ movement” spearheaded by the Joint Action Committee (JCC) and the Nagaland Tribe Action Committee (NTAC) demanding the resignation of Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang on “moral grounds” has turned into a political game play to reclaim the spoils - the seat of the Chief Minister.

It has now emerged that Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio, and not Naga People’s Front (NPF) president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu, may replace TR Zeliang as the Chief Minister.

This transpired after 49 legislators from the NPF and Independent supporting the return of Rio sneaked out

meeting at the Kaziranga resort could not be obtained, a source informed that a consensus among the NPF legislators for a new leadership to form a new government could not be reached.

The source however stated that Rio’s group would try to stake claim of the government after TR Zeliang, who is expected to arrive in Nagaland from Delhi on Sunday tenders his resignation to the Governor.

We still hold the trump card, claims Dr Shurhozelie TR Zeliang

Neiphiu Rio

Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu

of Nagaland capital Kohima late Friday night and early Saturday morning and lodged in a resort at Kaziranga in Assam.

The sudden dramatic turn of events occurred right on the eve of Dr Shurhozelie preparing to stake claim to replace Zeliang after 42 MLAs – 33 of them from the NPF – had thrown their weight behind Dr Shurhozelie, as mounting pressure from JCC and NTAC grew for Zeliang to resign.

Sources in the NPF camp said TR Zeliang met the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday night. He also met Neiphiu Rio and reportedly patched up their “hostilities” to team up again. The Governor who also flew down to New Delhi the same day as Zeliang to meet the President and the Prime Minister returned in the same flight with Neiphiu Rio on Saturday.

Speaking to the media at Dimapur

airport, the Lok Sabha MP did not deny that his arrival was to meet the legislators camping at Kaziranga, Assam.

“I am here to meet the legislators…

Let me meet them and after that I will decide…” Rio responded to a question on whether he was coming to stake claim of the seat of the Chief Minister.

While the Governor on arriving Dimapur airport took a chopper to Kohima, Rio on the other hand, after a brief halt at his residence in Sovima left for Kaziranga.

Except for NLA Speaker Chotisuh Sazo; Kiyanilie Peseyie, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; Kuzholuzo (Azo) Neinu, MLA; Khriehu Liezietsu, advisor, Music Task Force (MTF), new and renewable energy; MLA Vikho-O Yhoshu and PHE Minister, Tokheho Yepthomi, the rest of the NPF legislators along with the Independent were in Kaziranga to meet Rio.

Sources said the four BJP legislators- P. Paiwang Konyak, Imtilemba Sangtam, Dr TM Lotha and Mmhonlumo Kikon are reportedly camped in Dimapur and awaiting the change of leadership to take place and to become a part of the new government.

Though PHE Minister Tokheho Yepthomi did not attend the Kaziranga meeting, source informed the PHE Minister met Rio in Dimapur right after his arrival to extend his solidarity.

According to sources, this new turn of events has the handprint of the BJP leadership at the centre, who is eyeing to play a major role in the coming 2018 Nagaland general election. The presence of Dr M Chuba, former president of the Nagaland State BJP at the Dimapur airport also led to more speculations of the involvement of the BJP on the current political arrangement.

While confirmed details of the

A beleaguered NPF president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu on Saturday claimed that the party organization is intact and that nothing would go wrong since “we still hold the trump card.”

“Some of our legislators have gone to Kaziranga but they are still NPF legislators and we are in touch with many of them,” the NPF president told the NPF central executive council, central office bearers and division presidents during an emergency meeting.

Other speakers at the meeting pointed out that since the party president and the chief whip of the NPF legislature party are still with the party organization, the present Kaziranga episode will flop like the failed coup d’état of 2015 when majority of the NPF legislators embarked on the misadventure but were compelled to return to the party-fold.

Earlier in the evening, the Speaker of the Assembly, Chotisuh Sazo paid a courtesy call on the party president, a press statement issued by the media & press bureau, NPF central stated.

Manipur Govt not sincere in solving economic blockade: Javadekar Films on Nagaland stir debate

IMPhAl, FEBRUARY 18 (PTI): The economic blockade in Manipur is “a gameplan of Congress” which is not sincere in solving the issue with the Chief Minister confining to barracks central forces at its disposal to ensure safety of highways, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.

Refuting the Congress allegation that the BJP was hand in gloves with the groups who have called the blockade, Javadekar said the economic blockade was a “gameplan of the Congress”.

“The Manipur Chief Minister and the Congress regime know

very well that they would lose the polls and that is why they have resorted to the blockade. The gameplan of the Congress is money through power and power through money,” Javadekar, who is also BJP’s in-charge of Manipur, said.

The HRD Minister claimed in an interview to PTI that in the last two years there was no blockade and that the prices of LPG and other essentials had come down considerably.

“So there was support in favour of the BJP and that is why the Congress resorted to an indefinite economic blockade. This blockade

is by Congress regime, of the Congress regime and for the Congress regime,” Javadekar said.

The HRD minister said that the central government had provided 175 companies of central paramilitary forces to the state, but the chief minister was not using them and kept them in the barracks.

“The central government had provided these forces which are waiting for the orders of the Chief Minister to control the situation, but he is not giving them any orders. He has ordered them to stay in the barracks,” he said.

“You need to deploy just 2,000

Serious risk for India as pollution deaths rise

NEW DElhI, FEBRUARY 18 (AgENCIES): New estimates of the global burden of disease (GBD) released today by the USbased Health Effect Institute (HEI) paint a grim picture for India. Globally, air pollution is estimated to cause more than 4.2 million early deaths -- of these, 1.1 million deaths occur in India alone, more than a quarter of the global figure. India now nearly equals China which scores

the highest number of early deaths due to PM2.5.

Worse, India now tops the list of highest number of early deaths due to ozone pollution.

The rate of increase in early deaths in India is quite scary. While early deaths related to PM2.5 in China have increased by 17.22 per cent since 1990, in India these have increased by 48 per cent.

Similarly, while early deaths due to ozone in

China have stabilised since 1990, in India these have jumped by 148 per cent.

Air pollution is the leading environmental cause of death worldwide; as many as 92 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas with unhealthy air. The 2017 report presents a deeper analysis than the earlier GBD report (2015) and examines the long term trends from 1990 through 2015.

central force personnel on the highways to ensure the safety and security of the goods vehicle. But he is not allowing the forces to work.

This is the first proof that Congress is not interested in lifting the blockade, he charged.

The United Naga Council has imposed an indefinite economic blockade since November 1, 2016 to protest against the state government’s decision to create seven new districts in the landlocked state by bifurcating the existing ones.

The state government has said that the decision has been taken to improve administrative efficiency.

NTAC asks Governor not to entertain alternate arrangement till CM resigns

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): The Nagaland Tribes Action Committee (NTAC) today submitted a letter to the Nagaland Governor apprising him of the Chief Minister’s appeal to the NTAC for 2 to 3 days till he steps down. The NTAC informed the Governor that it held a meeting in February 18, “where the members present unanimously decided to ask your esteemed August Office to take cognizance of the matter at hand and plead your authority not to entertain any alternate arrangements till the Chief Minister steps down.” The NTAC expressed hope that Governor would “consider the above mentioned assertions and would address the matters positively and promptly before any other issue crops up in this connection.” It meanwhile also reminded that the period of three days sought by the CM draws to a close on February 19.

South Asian nations must work to achieve goals for peace: Mahajan

C M Y K

PAGE 12

new political twist unfolds in nagaland

• Neiphiu Rio may replace TR as CM • Dr Shurhozelie beleaguered, 49 legislators supporting Rio camped in The timing is just perfect. If Kaziranga you pass I’ll kill our buffalo and throw a big bash for all the mobile internet service • TR Zeliang to providers in Nagaland. arrive Sunday to JCC to relax bandh in Dimapur for today tender resignation DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) has informed that it would be relaxing its bandh on Sunday, February 19.

This was informed by the JCC in a press note today.

UFC boss says GSP comeback is on

‘Voice of the people cannot be crushed’

PAGE 08

— Chinese Proverb

INDoRE, FEBRUARY 18 (IANS): Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said that South Asian countries must work in tandem to achieve the goals for peace and prosperity of their people.

“We in South Asia have not only a shared history, a contiguous geography, but also a shared destiny,” Mahajan said in her inaugural speech of the South Asian Speakers’ Summit, being held here from February 18-20.

“We must work in tandem to achieve the goals for peace and prosperity of our people,” she said.

She stressed that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set global priorities for the progress of humanity.

“The SDGs emphasise on achieving a balance between

the three pillars of economic growth, social development and environmental protection,” Mahajan said.

“I personally feel that this approach somehow was very much required in our contemporary growth and development strategy.”

“In my view immediate relevance of the goals to the local priorities at the national and sub-national levels actually holds the key. Much of India’s development agenda is mirrored in the SDGs,” she said.

“I strongly feel that development at the cost of our culture is not sustainable,” the Lok Sabha Speaker pointed out.

Mahajan said the past tells us how civilisational strengths may steer us through the contemporary challenges.

Emphasising on the development of the people, she said: “I must also mention here that first and foremost is the citizen.

No development is possible and sustainable unless it has a human face.”

In her address Mahajan pitched for an inclusive and broad based economic growth to reduce the widening gap between the rich and the poor and said that effective delivery of schemes, which targets the people at the bottom of the socio-economic strata of the society, was needed.

“The common road map to end poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, ignorance, disease and discrimination, especially of the girl child, requires conscious effort and concerted action from all of us here to achieve the de-

sired results,” she added.

She said that South Asian region is endowed with vast natural resources, rich culture and ancient heritage, but despite that the region is plagued by poverty and conflicts.

“It is said that 21st century belongs to Asia. This can happen only when we are able to surmount the challenges before our countries and the South Asian region as a whole.”

During her address Mahajan also highlighted the importance of gender equality and said there was an urgent need for continuous efforts to be made to promote the welfare of the girl child.

“Elimination of child marriage, access to reproductive healthcare facilities and overall emphasis on hygiene and per-

sonal care of women are few of the critical areas we have to concentrate upon,” she said.

Mahajan also spoke on climate change and said the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating global response to climate change.

“Nature has been the guiding philosophy of the Indian way of living. We are committed to a sustainable path to prosperity,” she said.

“India and its Parliament is committed to working with the international community to craft an ambitious, comprehensive and equitable development agenda with poverty eradication at its core,” Mahajan concluded.

on hunting and conservation

KolKATA, FEBRUARY 18 (IANS): A cluster of films based on the biodiversity-rich Nagaland, showcased at the seventh National Science Film Festival, have kick-up a debate on hunting practices and conservation in northeast India’s tribal communities.

Revolving around the Yimchunger tribe of Nagaland in the state’s remote Fakim village, the 30-minute film “Point and Shoot” clinched three awards at the fest that concluded on Saturday.

“It explores the relationship of the hunting community with animals and birds found in the forests around Fakim. My film documents the pros and cons of hunting versus conservation. It is debate for you to figure out what you would choose,” director Harsimran Kaur Anand told IANS. Set in the same village, Savyasachi Anju Prabir’s “Miilelam Miiyoh” captures a “perceptive account of the changes in the tribe’s relationship with nature”.

In the same vein, Sesino Yhoshu’s award-win-

ning “The Pangti Story” is about the Pangti village’s residents who transformed from hunting Amur Falcons to saving them.

Amur Falcons, the longest travelling raptors in the world, fly from Siberia every fall to roost in Pangti, a small village in Nagaland.

In 2012, Nagaland made global news when thousands of these raptors were mercilessly hunted.

The film explores the “transition of an entire village from one that slaughtered hundreds and thousands of the winged visitors to their most fervent preservationist”.

The festival-competition was organised by Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science & Technology (DST) and and National Council of Science Museums. A total of 67 films were screened.

According to DST officials, the aim is to help India make a mark in the global science film festival scenario by encouraging students and enthusiasts to develop acumen for science films.

2

SunDAY 19•02•2017

NAGALAND

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

‘Unfold Voyage’ Exhibits unique stories

Volunteers impose bandh at Nagarjan junction, Dimapur on Saturday. (Morung Photo)

JCC/NTAC volunteers outside Hotel Tragopan, circular road on the sixth day of the indefinite bandh on Saturday. (Morung Photo)

Women volunteers collect packed lunch as they impose bandh at Dhobinullah junction, Dimapur on February 18. (Morung Photo)

Women volunteers seen in the traditional attire in Dhobinullah junction, Dimapur on February 18. (Morung Photo)

(LEFT) Southern Angami Youth Organisation volunteers at PR Hill junction in Kohima on February 18. (RIGHT) Two women IRP personnel on duty at Raj Bhavan, Kohima on February 18. (Morung Photo)

SASRD students interact with DONER Minister ‘Voice of the people

cannot be crushed’

Art work displayed at the ‘Unfold Voyage’- a group show by young artists from different state of West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Gujarat at Kanoria Gallery for Arts, Ahmedabad from February 16 to 19.

Dimapur, February 18 (mexN): ‘Unfold Voyage’- a group show by young artists from different state of West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Gujarat is underway at Kanoria Gallery for Arts, Ahmedabad from February 16 to 19.

H Akup Buchem, sculptor Artist from Nagaland is also participating in the show along other twelve young artists.

‘Unfold Voyage’ is all about the journey and not the destination. ‘Unfold Voyage’ tell us a unique story where painters from different corners of India came to Ahmedabad and gifted their aesthetics in the form of art. Everyone is coming from a different background yet everyone stands on a common ground of art. The excursion will reflect experiences with different people and things during the exhibition.

We at ‘Unfold Voyage’ will tell people to start experimenting with oneself without hesitation. Travelling is an inspiration, which helps us in exploring.

“Let us all come and join the unfold voyage to know the unknown of the art from the artist,” the young artists shared.

Naga Council commends support shown by various section of society

Students of SASRD, Medziphema with DONER Minister, Jitender Singh in New Delhi on February 17.

Dimapur, February 18 (mexN): 13 students from School of Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development (SASRD), Medziphema interacted with Jitender Singh, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) on February 17 in New Delhi.

WITH SINCERE GRATITUDE BORN 10th Dec 1993

The students are on a tour - National Integration Tour - organized by 41 Assam Rifles under the aegis of Headquarters Inspector General Assam Rifles (North). During the interaction, the DONER Minister acquainted himself with problems and issues

faced by the youths of the region, informed a press release from Assam Rifles.

After interaction with the Minister, the participants of the National Integration Tour also visited Red Fort and other historical places in Delhi.

Mobilization of CIGs, FIGs Naga delegate attends prog in Japan and SHGs held at Bhandari

DIED 12th Feb 2017

Lt. Niamo C. Thai

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the light of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” 2 Corinth 4:6-10 We express our profound gratitude to each and everyone who stood by us physically, spiritually and financially during his brief illness and demise.

May our Heavenly Father bless you all abundantly.

Love and Prayers, Family

Dimapur, February 18 (mexN): The Naga Council Dimapur today acknowledged everyone “who stood truly for the cause of the Naga rights in its fight against the discordant policy of the state government.

Naga Council Dimapur (NCD) in a press release issued by its general secretary, Thsapongkyu Sangtam and vice president, K Ghokheto Chophy said, “The fight demonstrates our unequivocal intention to protect and preserve our rights which also shows that the desire and voice of the people cannot be crushed by any force.”

NCD said that the support shown by various sections of the society be it colony, ward union, women organisations, DNYO, tribal hohos has been “the cutting edge in our fight for justice during the prolong period of bandh.”

“The spirited determination shown by the DNYO, from the start of the bandh till date is all commendable, for the fact that you stood resolute not to compromise the future generation,” NCD commended.

It also applauded the stance taken by various parties in restraining themselves from all means of provocation behaviours during the bandh.

Further, it appealed and solicited unfringing support from all concern and also urges to avoid any kind of violence and aggression in future as well.

Participants during the field day on contour bunding conducted on January 18 at Merapani Village.

Wokha, February 18 (mexN): Mobilization of CIGs, FIGs and SHGs was at the office of SDO (Sc), Bhandari Town, organised

by ATMA Bhandari Block and sponsored by ATMA, Wokha on January 14.

The programme was chaired by Chumbeni Odyuo, SDO (Sc) cum BTT Convener, ATMA Bhandari Block. The resource person,

Khyothungo Ezung BTM, ATMA, Bhandari Block delivered on the concept and importance of FIGs, CIGs and SHGs. Farmers friend representing 20 different villages attended the same.

On another day, Field day on contour bunding was conducted on January 18 at Merapani Village

by ATMA Bhandari Block and sponsored by ATMA,

Wokha.

Demonstration on contour bunding was done practically in the field by resource person C Yanthan, Field owner. Further, advantages of contour bunding for soil conservation by controlling soil erosion, promotion of water retention and for increasing crop production was discussed

by Chumbeni Odyuo, SDO (Sc) cum BTT Convener, ATMA Bhandari Block. She also encouraged the farmers to use locally available resources like wood, bamboo etc for blocking soil erosion and preventing run off in sloping fields.

SDO (Sc) cum BTT Convener, Bhandari Block, Wokha in a press release said that the Field day was held at the Demonstration Field on Soil Erosion Control Measures which was identified and selected by ATMA Bhandari block for conducting such practical demonstrations relating to soil conservation measures. Altogether 18 farmers attended the field day.

Former Minister, Lt. Col. Doshehe Y. Sema attending the programme in Japan.

Morung Express News Dimapur | February 18

Former Minister, Lt. Col. Doshehe Y. Sema is among the 11 Indian delegates attending a programme on “Research in Transformation & Upgradation of Technology & its Application in Interventions in both the Countries,” which began in Tokyo, Japan on Friday.

Speaking to The Morung Express from Tokyo, Doshehe said that possible financial assistance from Japan government including soft loan were also discussed during the

programme. Supply of man power to Japan and Southeast Asia was also discussed, he informed. He said that the Indian delegates were trying to explore vibrant programmes for upgrading economy and employment generation.

“I observe that there is big scope in employing our youths in Japan as there is great shortage of man power in Japan as their population is declining,” Doshehe added.

The programme for Indian delegation was sponsored by Japan government.

SUNDAY 19•02•2017

NORTH-EAST 3

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Why was Assam's Nellie massacre of 1983 not prevented?

A long-buried report submitted to the state government in 1984 tried to answer the question about the large-scale killings on February 18, exactly 34 years ago Ipsita Chakravarty Scroll.in

On February 15, 1983, a wireless message went out from the officer in charge of the Nagaon police station in Assam. It read: “INFORMATION RECEIVED THAT LAST NIGHT ABOUT ONE THOUSAND ASSAMESE PEOPLE OF SURROUNDING VILLAGES OF NELLIE ARMED WITH DEADLY WEAPONS ASSEMBLED AT NELLIE BY BEATING OF DRUMS (.) MINORITY PEOPLE ARE IN PANIC AND APPREHENDING ATTACK AT ANY MOMENT (.) SUBMISSION FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION TO MAINTAIN PEACE.” Three days later, the crowd moved in. On the morning of February 18, Nellie and 13 nearby villages were surrounded by mobs wielding country guns and machetes. For more than six hours, between eight in the morning and three in the afternoon, they killed around 1,800 people. The unofficial toll counts 3,000 dead.

But why was the local administration not able to prevent the massacre despite intimations of unrest?

Commissions of enquiry In the aftermath of the violence, the state government took the tried and tested route. It set up a Commission of Enquiry on the Assam Disturbances in July 1983, headed by TP

Arunachal to set up public grievance portal ITANAGAR, FEBRUARY 18 (PTI): Continuing with its endeavour to make the government accountable, responsive and more citizen friendly, the Arunachal Pradesh government is going to set up public grievances online and redress the same. The state cabinet today launched the CPGRAMS portal, designed and developed by the department of IT and NIC, in collaboration with department of Administrative Reforms for Arunachal Pradesh which can be accessed from the state government webpage.

Citizens can visit the portal and click and lodge their grievance. The system will enable the citizens to easily lodge and track the grievances online using the Unique Registration Number received by SMS/ email. The system will facilitate departments to receive, forward and monitor grievances which would enable timely and efficient redressal of public grievances, the secretary said.

The state government has notified Public Grievance Officers (PGO) for all departments to address the grievances online.

Tewary, an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. The terms of the enquiry were: “to look into the circumstances” leading to the violence that spanned from January to April 1983, “to examine the measures taken by the concerned authorities to anticipate, prevent and deal with these disturbances”, and “to suggest measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents”.

The commission produced a sprawling, 547page report in May 1984, having interviewed hundreds of witnesses as well as state officials. But the many layers of forgetting that fell upon Nellie also buried the report. It was never tabled in the state Assembly. For decades, its contents remained a closely guarded secret, with a few photocopies circulating among activist groups. It was only in the last few years, after an application under the Right to Information Act was filed by the Centre for Equity Studies, that the contents of the report entered the public domain.

The report concludes: “It is entirely unwarranted to give a communal colour to the incidents under enquiry.” It is at pains to argue that the motivations of the violence that occurred in a three-month period were rooted in conflicts over land, language and ethnicity, in Assam’s old struggle to eject the “outsider” and restore the homeland of its

“original inhabitants”.

It points out that in some parts of Assam, Muslims were the aggressors and Hindus the victims. In some areas, Bengali Hindus and Muslims banded together to attack Assamese villages. In other areas, there were clashes between tribal groups and ethnic Assamese. “If there is a Nellie there is also a Chamaria or a Malibari,” the report says, referring to incidents where Assamese Hindus had been attacked.

The violence that engulfed the state in those three months grew out of the Assam Movement.

Launched by the All Assam Students Union in 1979, the agitation was aimed at “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” who had migrated to the state in waves, settling on land that was in short supply and entering electoral rolls. Matters came to a head when the government scheduled Assembly elections in 1983, prompting the AASU to step up its agitation and call for a boycott. It divided the population into two camps, those who supported elections and those who did not, and violent clashes erupted.

But another story also emerges from the testimonies recorded in the Tewary Commission, that of an administration trying to account for itself and failing. However, the commission tries to direct attention to cases of indi-

vidual guilt. For that fateful morning in Nellie, at least, the report narrows responsibility down to three specific officers.

February 18, 1983 In Nagaon district, where Nellie is located, the elections had been scheduled for February 14.

About 40% of the district’s inhabitants were Muslim, many of them immigrants.

The Assam agitation had shaded into extremist violence here, and the AASU had come into conflict with the All Assam Minority Students Union. The district had seen blasts and clashes in the three years leading up to the elections.

So when the government decided to go ahead with polls, the deputy commissioner expected violence.

The administration was prepared, he said, with polling stations divided into three categories – “safe”, “moderately safe” and “unsafe”. There were preventive arrests of more than 1,000 people and 22 persons were detained under the draconian National Security Act. On February 16, the army was asked to help with law and order in certain areas of the district.

What, then, went wrong? The Tewary commission traces it to the wireless message sent on February 15. The officer in charge at Nagaon sending it had omitted to inform the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of po-

lice. So the district control room, located in Nagaon, remained in the dark. But the Tewary commission pins the blame on the three recipients of that message.

They included the commandant of the 5th Assam Police Battalion, who was also in charge of law and order in Morigaon, the subdivisional police officer of Morigaon, and the officer in charge of the Jagiroad police station. All three denied receiving the message, which was delivered to the officer’s wife in one case, languished on a table in the other and in a “put up basket” in the third.

But there was another intimation of impending violence. The same day, Hindu inhabitants of the village had complained to the deputy superintendent that they feared an attack.

KPS Gill, then inspector general of police in Assam, had asked the Jagiroad officer in charge to patrol the area and form a peace committee.

On February 17, the officer had visited Borbori, one of the 14 villages that would be hit by violence.

Residents there had asked him to post armed police at the spot but he declined, later saying he did not have enough men. The report refutes this claim, pointing out that reinforcements had arrived in time.

The next day, he got word of trouble in Nellie at 10.54am but chose to send two platoons of the Cen-

A few bad men?

Could the tragic events at Nellie been avoided if the three men had “been more careful with their dak (let-

ters)”? For the most part, the Tewary commission exonerates the law and order machinery: “There were lapses of individuals but the system worked well.”

Yet its own findings contradict this statement.

In almost every district, it is the same story – trouble starts with the AASU declaring a boycott and extremist offshoots of the agitation implementing it with violence. Roads were blocked, bridges blown up and phone lines cut. Isolated police officers, short of vehicles and unable to communicate, found themselves unable to contain largescale violence.

What system, exactly, was working well?

Disciplinary action, if it was taken at all, was largely restricted to mid- or lowerlevel officials. The report admits that “Lower formations of the police had a soft corner for the agitation.”

Many of them were Assamese, and in some places they had suffered directly from the violence. Besides, four years of policing the agitation had frayed nerves and “demoralised” the police force. When elections were declared, many were reluctant to turn up for poll duty.

In Goalpara district, one senior official admitted that “certain administrative actions”, such as mass suspensions and physically forcing government servants to election duty, could have contributed to

the violence. Indeed, it was in Goalpara that members of the Assam Police Battalion shot two sentries guarding a polling station on February 16. A crossfire had then ensued between the battalion and the CRPF, killing personnel on both sides. The incident had played a large part in undermining law and order.

Who is to bear responsibility for sending out disaffected, ill-equipped men to deal with raging mobs, for pressing forward with elections even though there were largescale strikes among government employees? The Tewary report gives a clean chit to the state administration, even defending its decision to hold elections at that volatile moment. It also makes scant mention of the Centre, which was largely absent.

Yet in the years that followed, 688 first information reports were filed for the Nellie massacre, resulting in just 299 chargesheets and no prosecution – the state administration had not thought it necessary to press for justice. And then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was later asked why she had not responded promptly to the Nellie massacre. “One has to let such events take their course before stepping in,” she replied.

Grimly prescient words, given the events which followed the prime minister’s own death in Delhi 1984.

PRJA crowdfunds to raise money for fighting polls UNC leaders further remanded to judicial custody

Irom Sharmila. (AP File Photo)

IMPHAL, FEBRUARY 18 (PTI): With severe shortage of funds and manpower, Irom Sharmila's party Peoples' Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) has taken to online crowdfunding to raise funds and campaigning on cycle to reach out to the masses.

PRJA is the first regional party in Manipur which has resorted to crowdfunding to finance the poll expenses in the state.

According to PRJA sources, online crowdfunding with a slogan "Ten For a Change" is an idea in order to involve more people, bring in transparency in election funding and reach out to the masses.

The PRJA so far has collected Rs 4.5 lakh through crowdfunding.

"The online crowdfunding is in line with the party s call for accountable governance.

When we started the party there was a lot of need for funds. On-

line funds are transparent and normally political parties face a backlash because they don't have transparency in their funds," PRJA's convener, Erendro Leichonbam told PTI. "We want to play a positive part in the politics of India, that s why we launched the crowd funding. From the beginning itself every single rupee is accounted for and we know who has donated it unlike others who don t disclose majority of their fund sources," he added.

Irom Sharmila, while briefing about the idea of online crowdfunding, said, "Online crowd-fund is also aimed at ending muscle and money power in elections. Our aim is to change the system for a better Manipur."

Erendo says, the iconic stature and acceptance of Irom across the country has helped the party in organising this programme.

Sharmila to marry after polls

Newmai News Network

IMPHAL, FEBRUARY 18 (IANS): Human rights activist Irom Sharmila plans to get married after the upcoming assembly elections in Manipur in March.

Sharmila made the announcement while speaking to reporters here on Thursday.

Sharmila had launched her fast-unto-death on November 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

Desmond Coutanho, an NRI originally from Goa, and Sharmila have been in love for a long time. He used to rush to Imphal to be with her whenever she was presented before a local court where she was tried for attempting to commit suicide.

On one occasion, Coutanho was beaten up by the angry women activists on the court campus after he was seen holding Sharmila's hand inside the courtroom.

One woman activist said: "In Manipur it is socially not acceptable." Since then Coutanho had stopped coming here.

Some sections questioned Coutanho's presence and also how Sharmila was provided cell phone and laptop inside her prison room and why.

After his manhandling in the court complex, Coutanho has been critical of journalists, human rights activists and many others who were extending helping hand to her during the protracted campaign.

Sharmila on Thursday apologised for Coutanho's rude behaviour. She said: "On behalf of Desmond, I tender my apology and seek forgiveness."

Vitriolic attacks by Coutanho were posted in the social media which are expected to affect the upcoming polls here on March 4 and 8.

There are no signs to suggest that the powerful women activists in Manipur have forgiven her.

United Naga Council (UNC) President Gaidon Kamei and its Information and Publicity Secretary SK Stephen were further remanded today to judicial custody by a court till March 3. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal East, Aribam Noutuneshwari Devi granted 14 days of further remand when the duo were produced before the court.

Before leaving for jail, Gaidon spoke to media persons who were waiting outside the court, saying that UNC will hold further talks with the Manipur government to end the

Traffickers use Facebook, WhatsApp to trick girls from NE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 18 (HT): A fisherman from a Mumbai slum posed as a model on Facebook to lure a 17-year-old girl. A 49-year-old trader from Defence Colony masqueraded as a wealthy businessman in his mid 20s to bait a teenage girl.

These are just a few complaints that the Delhi Police received from the police forces of the northeastern states over the last few months alleging that minor girls mostly in their teens fled their homes to meet their Facebook “friends” in Delhi.

Over the last three months, police have rescued 11 girls, all of them aged below 18. The girls were lured by traffickers on Facebook.

These traffickers, mostly middle aged men, posed as models and befriended teenage girls on Facebook.

tral Reserve Police Force.

He followed hours later, claiming he did not know a path to the village. He also said he was forced to stop and rescue drowning persons in a river on the way. A barely veiled note of amusement enters the report at this point: “On that day, within a period of three hours he is supposed to have rescued two hundred drowning persons, indeed a miraculous task.”

The subdivisional police officer of Morigaon was also notified about the violence at 12.30 pm on February 18 but merely passed the message on to his colleague in Jagiroad. It is not clear what lapses the commandant was guilty of, apart from neglecting to check his mail.

The officer in charge at Jagiroad was suspended and the government ordered disciplinary action against him. The subdivisional police officer from Morigaon was suspended for 10 days but then reinstated. There is no record of action taken against the commandant.

For the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police, the report has praise: their performance was “in keeping with the high traditions of public services”.

They chatted with these girls for months to win their confidence and later switched to WhatsApp. Police also found that the traffickers sponsored the girls’ flight or train tickets so that coming to Delhi or cities via Delhi wasn’t a problem.

Two weeks ago, a 17-year-old girl from Nagaland was rescued from the Dimapur airport in Nagaland while boarding a flight to New Delhi. A man, whom police have identified and believe to be a kingpin in a human trafficking chain, had funded her ticket. He had befriended the teenager on Facebook and started a long distance relationship with her. He had told the teenager that a job was awaiting her in Delhi and that he would marry her.

The Nagaland police discovered that the man was in touch with at least seven girls from Nagaland.

Last month, a 16-yearold girl from Jorhat in Assam was rescued while on her way to Chandigarh from Delhi. The teenager, an eight standard student, was conned by a 45-yearold Chandigarh-based shopkeeper on Facebook and made to believe that she was chatting with a 25-year-old BPO executive.

Rishikant, who runs NGO Shakti Vahini and has rescued hundreds of minor girls over the last few years, said, “Use social media by traffickers is a dangerous trend. In the last two weeks, we have come across so many cases from Jharkhand and West Bengal. The recent rescue of the girl at Dimapur airport is an eye-opener. The trafficker had also sponsored the ticket. These traffickers don’t even have to leave their homes. They are trafficking girls by simply using

their computer.”

In December, the Delhi Police and Arunachal Pradesh police in a joint operation arrested a fisherman, who worked at a cold storage firm and stayed in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, for abducting a teenager from Arunachal Pradesh using Facebook. The man had used the photograph of a model from south Korea to befriend a 17-year-old from Arunachal Pradesh.

The teenager was lured to Mumbai and confined to his house for 11 days.

Nodal officer for the northeastern residents in Delhi and joint commissioner of police Robin Hibu said, “There has been a rise in cases of minor girls being lured on Facebook. We have rescued 11 girls with the help of police from other states. It is just the tip of the iceberg. I advise everyone to be careful on social me-

dia and be friends with only people that they know.”

Police sources said that in most cases, minor girls who end up with traffickers are forced into prostitution. A woman, who worked as an escort and whose headless body was found in a sewer in south Delhi’s Munirka last year, was also tricked on Facebook and brought to Delhi.

Investigation revealed that she had become Facebook friends with one of the men who ran the escort agency and was lured to Delhi on pretext of a job offer.

Recently, the Delhi Police started a campaign to educate schoolchildren especially girls about the perils of befriending strangers on social media.

The police teams visited over 700 schools advising teenagers not to befriend any unknown persons on Facebook.

Imphal | February 18

current impasse.

“We’ll talk to the state government over the current problem. Every problem will be resolved through dialogue. It may take time. I cannot say the exact date for the talks,” Gaidon said.

The UNC leader hurried to the prison van as he talked to the mediapersons after a cop guarding him told him that no “permission” was given to him (Gaidon) to talk to the media.

Gaidon and his associate Stephen were arrested by police on November 25, 2016 after the onset of ongoing economic blockade on National Highways and faces charges in a number

of cases.

UNC has been protesting against creation of 7 new districts in Manipur. A tripartite talk between the Centre, Manipur Government and UNC was held in New Delhi on February 3, which had ended without any headway.

Three days after the talks, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh had said the jailed UNC leader would be released unconditionally and simultaneously the blockade would be lifted.

On February 8, the UNC negated the same and decided to continue the blockade following a meeting of the its presidential council.

STATEMENT

This statement is given to inform one and all that my brother Mr. Sword Vashum’s decision to join the upcoming 11th Manipur Assembly Election from the 45 (ST) Chingai Constituency,Ukhrul from the BJP party, is against the decision of the NSCN, Wung Tangkhul Region(WTR), that no family members of the organization from Major above shall stand for Indian elections.

This standing Azha was a decision taken based on national interest and it is a national necessity of our times. It was taken to save the nation from our adversaries. Therefore, my brother’s decision to participate in the election is a deliberate defiance and challenge to the decision of the NSCN, WTR. I therefore declare that, I have nothing to do with his participation in the election. He will be held solely responsible for any consequences.

I also appeal to one and all to follow the correct national line.

Dated: Camp Delhi 17th February, 2017

Lt. Gen. (Retd) V.S. Atem

SAINIK SCHOOL, PUNGLWA BPO, MEDZIPHEMA SO DIST-PEREN (NAGALAND): PIN- 797106 (TELE: 03839-262002/262004)

EXTENSION OF TENDER NOTICE

1. Refer to Tender notification published on 16 Jan 17.

2. Last dates for sale and submission of Tender Form for :(a) Registration of Firms: Extended upto 03 mar 2017. (b) Submission of Tender forms for Dry, Fresh, Non Veg, Clothing Items, Utility Shop, Wet Canteen, Horse Feed and Stationary is extended upto 07 Mar 2017. Rest No Change.

4

SunDAY 19•02•2017

Business

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Indian IT industry faces twin challenges of Trump, automation MuMbai, February 18 (reuTerS): Automation and the new U.S. administration were the big unknowns at the Indian tech sector's annual shindig this week, with machines threatening to take away thousands of jobs and concerns over possible visa rule changes in the key American market.

But senior executives from the $150 billion industry, which rose to prominence at the turn of the century by helping Western firms solve the "Y2K" bug, said companies with skilled English-speaking staff and low costs could not be written off yet.

The sector, led by Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd, is lobbying hard as the new U.S. administration under President Donald Trump considers putting in place visa restrictions.

The administration may also raise salaries paid to H1-B visa holders, a move that could significantly increase costs for IT companies that are already facing pressure on margins.

The longer-term challenge and

opportunity for the sector was automation, executives said, as global corporations from plane-makers to consumer firms bet on the use of machines to further cut costs and boost efficiency.

That threatens lower-end software services and outsourcing jobs in a sector which employs more than 3.5 million people.

Summing up the mood at the three-day NASSCOM leadership event in Mumbai ending on Friday, Malcolm Frank, Chief Strategy Officer at Cognizant which has most of its operations in India, spoke of "fear and optimism."

Even top IT executives were "fearing the machines", he said.

Some Indian executives, including Infosys' Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao, said that greater automation was expected to help engineers and developers shed repetitive jobs for more creative roles.

"Some part of the work we'll be automating 100 percent, you don't require people to do that kind of work," Rao told Reuters.

"But there are always newer things, where we will be able to re-purpose employees who are released from those areas."

Moving Up Food Chain With rapidly changing technology, Indian IT firms are emphasizing the need for retraining their workforce, in many cases setting up experience centers and learning zones on their sprawling campuses.

Some companies are partnering with universities to design and fund education programs, while staff members spoke of employers laying on training and webinars to help develop skills in automation and cloud computing.

"The threat from automation killing jobs is more than Trump's anticipated visa rule changes," a general manager-level employee at a top Indian IT firm said.

NASSCOM chairman and Tech Mahindra CEO C.P. Gurnani said technology would create new roles where "man will manage machines," even if a fourth of Indian IT jobs were to be replaced by machines over the next four years.

Hiring patterns may also change, with unconventional, high-value graduates likely to be more attractive, to the possible detriment of hiring from India's engi-

neering colleges.

Infosys, which traditionally recruited only engineering graduates, is considering hiring people educated in liberal arts to add creative skills to its workforce, COO Rao said.

In a first, NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies), the leading Indian IT lobby group, delayed its initial growth forecast for fiscal 2017/18, citing market uncertainty.

NASSCOM officials said it had deferred its predictions by three months to give it time to gauge policy announcements in the United States which could make immigration rules tougher.

The industry body aims to announce a firmer growth forecast after the quarter to March when IT companies report annual earnings and give guidance for the next fiscal year.

"A certain level of ... uncertainty will continue over the mediumterm," said NASSCOM President R. Chandrashekhar. "And businesses therefore have to take essential decisions on new technology in the face of a certain degree of uncertainty."

You may soon be able to access internet Print solar cells at cost of a newspaper! services during your flight travel MuMbai, February 18 (DNa): Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed allowing in-flight connectivity which will give flyers access to voice, video and data services on-board. Those who cannot resist the urge to use mobile data services on their phones, iPads or laptops in flights are in for some good news. According to The Indian Express, the DoT has proposed allowing in-flight connectivity which will give flyers access to voice, video and data services on-board when the aircraft is flying over the Indian airspace.

DoT is currently working on the proposal and a final policy on the issue is expected shortly. The department had sent a draft plan to ammend the Indian Telegraph Rules and the Indian Telegraph Act last month but was returned with the Ministry of Home

Affairs and Department of Space seeking clarifications.

A revised proposal will be made by the panel by the end of this month. “When it went to the committee, it got support from a number of departments, including civil aviation, DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion). Home and space departments raised some issues which will be addressed in the final policy,” the official was reported saying.

The DoT proposal is specifically focused on providing connectivity onboard through satellites although in-flight connectivity can be accessed through ground-to-air communication and satellite communication. Wireless internet on a flight is dispensed through an onboard router connected to the flight's antenna. The antenna's work process of

sending and receiving signals will not interfere with the ground-to-air communication channel used by pilots for air traffic conversations.

Almost all smartphones offer the Wi-Fi option, which will be the only requisite to use the flight's internet system even when the flight is on the airplane mode. Although, a number of foreign airlines offer this service, they are not allowed to do so when they enter the Indian airspace.

The existing Indian Telegraph Act permits the Centre to grant license if it thinks it fit to allow establishment of “wireless telegraphs on ships within Indian territorial waters (and on aircraft within or above [India] or Indian territorial waters)…” provided that the government prepares rules under the Act.

leisure

CROSSWORD # 3862

SUDOKU

Answer Number # 3856

also the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology.

Perovskite solar cells depend on a layer of tiny crystals -- each about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair -- made of low-cost, lightsensitive materials.

Because the perovskite raw materials can be mixed into a liquid to form a kind of 'solar ink', they could be printed onto glass, plastic or other materials using a simple inkjet printing process.

"The most effective materials for making electron

ACROSS 1. Savory jelly 6. Hotels 10. Found over each eye 14. Tether 15. Person, place or thing 16. Tibetan monk 17. Electrical pioneer 18. Handout 19. Among 20. Apparent 22. Give as an example 23. Prompt 24. Scrapes gently 26. Gossamer 30. One who is excessively proper 32. Bay window 33. Candor 37. Bristle 38. Threw 39. Chills and fever 40. Unsteady in gait 42. Play the bagpipes 43. Fancy 44. Internal-combustion engine 45. The male reproductive cell 47. Solidify 48. Sun 49. Edible marine gastropod 56. Hair salon process 57. Anagram of “Dice” 58. Flogged 59. Aquatic plant 60. Outbuilding 61. Egg-shaped 62. Observed 63. Sacred 64. Chatty DOWN 1. Countertenor 2. Views 3. Long ago 4. Small island 5. Sanctuary 6. An independent film company

7. Newbie (slang) 8. Nonexistent 9. Expressive of contempt 10. Type of harmless snake 11. Bog hemp 12. Leaves out 13. Walk in water 21. A type of large sandwich 25. Request 26. Outlay 27. Chocolate cookie 28. A mooring post 29. Meteorologist 30. Wrinkled fruit 31. Telephoned 33. Flutter 34. Auspices 35. Certain 36. Peddle 38. Dowdy 41. Hearing organ 42. Semiconducting material 44. Morning moisture 45. Inscribed pillar 46. Plaster 47. Lightheaded 48. Resorts 50. Reflected sound 51. Bobbin 52. Central area of a church 53. Be cognizant of 54. Wreaths 55. Countercurrent

Answer to Crossword 3861

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147 Junior Assistant vacancies at Airports Authority of India Airports Authority of India has released a notification inviting interested, eligible candidates to apply for the posts of Junior Assistant. The candidates may apply to the posts in a prescribed format on or before March 31.

TaHaMZaM

Pay scale: The candidates will be in the pay band between Rs 12,500 and Rs 28,500 Selection process: The candidates will be selected on the basis of a written examination and interview.

How to apply: In order to do the same, please check the following steps ■ Visit the official website, www.aai.aero ■ Click on relevant link ■ Upload the scanned copies of the documents ■ Click on submit ■ Download it and take a print out for further reference Important date: The last date to receive application is March 31

std code: 03871

(formerly senapati)

Police station Fire Brigade

222246 222491

Civil Hospital emer

232224

MH Hospital

227930 231081

Fire Brigade

2222952

Faith Hospital

228846

naga Hospital

2222916

shamrock Hospital

228254

oking Hospital

2243339

Zion Hospital

231864 224117 227337

Bethel nursing Home

2224202

northeast shuttles

08974997923

229529 229474

KOHiMa

std code: 0370

Police Control room

228400

KoHIMA Ps/oCs Contact numbers

Police Traffic Control

232106

north Ps

east Police station

227607

west Police station

232181

south Ps

CIHsr (referral Hospital)

242555 242533

Zubza Ps

dimapur Hospital

224041 248011

131/228404

Airport Indian Airlines

229366 242441 225212

8575045507

Officer-in-Charge 8575045517 8575045505

Officer-in-Charge 8575045515

nagaland Multispecialty Health & research Centre

248302, 09856006026

eden Medical Centre

248288

C

Officer-in-Charge 8575045516 tseminyu Ps

Kezocha Ps

232032, 231031

R

Chiephobozou Ps 8575045506

Khuzama Ps

nikos Hospital and research Centre

A

8575045508

Officer-in-Charge 8575045518

railway

E

8575045502

Officer-in-Charge 8575045520

Apollo Hospital Info Centre 230695/ 9402435652

S

8575045501

Officer-in-Charge 8575045510

Chumukedima Fire Brigade 282777

O

New Delhi, February 18 (iaNS): The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,123.96 million at the end of November 2016 to 1,151.78 million at the end of December 2016 - a monthly growth rate of 2.48 percent, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday said in New Delhi.

The urban subscription increased from 659.03 million at the end of November 2016 to 683.14 million at the end of December 2016, and the rural subscription also increased from 464.93 million to 468.64 million during the same period.

The overall tele-density in India increased from 87.81 at the end of November 2016 to 89.90 at the end of December 2016.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 1,099.51 million at the end of November 2016 to 1,127.37 million at the end of December 2016, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 2.53 percent.

The wireless tele-density in India increased from 85.90 at the end of November 16 to 88.00 at the end of December 2016.

The wireline subscriber base declined from 24.44 million at the end of November 2016 to 24.40 million at the end of December 2016, the data revealed.

During the month of December 2016, a total of 5.67 million requests were received for mobile number portability.

As per the reports received from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 218.27 million at the end of November 2016 to 236.09 million at the end of December 2016, with a monthly growth rate of 8.17 percent.

Vacancy details: Total posts: 147 selective layers (ESLs) start Name of the post: as a powder and have to Junior Assistant be baked at high temperatures, above 500 degrees Eligibility criteria: Celsius," said Tan. Educational qualification: Tan noted that The candidates must perovskite solar cells us- hold 10th/ 12th/ Diploma ing the older, high-tem- certificate from a recogperature method are only nised board or university. marginally better at 22.1 per cent and even the best Age limit: silicon solar cells can only The upper age limit of reach 26.3 per cent. the candidates must not exTan's perovskite solar ceed 30 years as on March cells were also stable and 31. However, the reserved retained more than 90 per category candidates may cent of their efficiency even apply in the prescribed forafter 500 hours of use. mat as per the notification.

DiMaPUR

Simple Rules - Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Game Number # 3857

ToroNTo, February 18 (iaNS): Researchers have found a novel way to print perovskite solar cells easily and at a cost similar to bringing out a newspaper!

A team, led by Hairen Tan from University of Toronto Engineering found that the solar cells manufactured with perovskite mineral could lead to lowcost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power generator.

"Economies of scale have greatly reduced the cost of silicon manufacturing," Ted Sargent, an expert in emerging solar technologies, said in a university statement.

"Potentially, perovskites and silicon cells can be married to improve efficiency further, but only with advances in low-temperature processes," added Sargent, who is

India’s phone subscriber base risen to 1.15 billion

8575045549

Officer-in-Charge 8575045538

H

women Cell

8575045509

Officer-in-Charge 8575045519 Control room

8575045500 (Emergency No. – 100)

FiRE STaTiONS

KoHIMA soUtH: 0370-2222952/ 101 (O) 9402003086 (OC) KoHIMA nortH: 7085924114 (O) dIMAPUr: 03862-232201/ 101 (O) 9856156876 (OC) CHUMUKedIMA: 7085982102 (O) 8732810051 (OC) woKHA: 03860-242215/101 (O) 8974322879 (OC) MoKoKCHUnG: 0369-2226225/ 101 (O) 8415830232 (OC) PHeK: 8414853765 (O) 8413822476(OC) ZUnHeBoto: 03867-280304/ 101 (O) 9436422730 (OC) tUensAnG: 8414853766 (O) 9856163601 (OC) Mon: 03869-251222/ 101 (O) 9862130954 (OC) Kiphire: 8414853767 (O) 9436261577 (OC) Peren: 7085189932 (O) 9856311205 (OC) LonGLenG: 7085924113 (O) 9862414264 (OC) we4 woMen HeLPLIne 08822911011 WOMEN HeLPLIne 181 CHiLD weLFAre CoMMIttee Toll free No. 1098 childline

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9485232688 9485232689 9485232690 9485232693 9485232694 9485232695 2226216

woodland nursing Home

2226263

Hotel Metsüpen (tourist Lodge) 2226373/ 2229343

CURRENCY NOTES BUY (rs) seLL (rs)

Us dollars sterling Pound Hong Kong dollar Australian dollar singapore dollar Canadian dollar Japanese Yen euro thai Baht Korean won UAe dirham (Aed) Chinese Yuan

65.48 81.92 8.17 50.16 45.99 50.04 57.27 69.33 1.81 0.0552 17.25 9.22

68.43 85.88 9.09 52.60 48.24 52.48 60.49 72.69 2.01 0.0615 19.21 10.27

Sunday 19•02•2017

NAGALAND

36 aR apprehend NScN (K) cadre

‘abducted’ GPRN/NScN members join NScN (iM) DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): In a new development, two GPRN/NSCN members, who were reported to have been abducted by the NSCN (IM) on February 10, 2017 from Saring village area under Mokokchung district, announced that they have joined the NSCN (IM).

In the declaration re-

leased to the media, Major Tongpangyungdang from Tsurmen village and RAO Merentoshi from Yimjenkimong village of GPRN/NSCN stated that they decided to join the NSCN (IM) and made correspondence with one Major Imkong of the Naga Army, NSCN (IM) and set rendezvous at Saring village jurisdiction.

36 AR promote Beti Padhao Beti Bachao

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): 36 Assam Rifles apprehended an NSCN (K) cadre at Lilen Kuki in Peren district on February 18 during a search operation launched along with police representative. The operation, according to a press release from Assam Rifles was launched based on specific information regarding presence of an armed cadre.

Troops of the 36 Assam Rifles apprehended the cadre The NSCN (K) cadre apprehended by Assam Rifles at Lilen Kuki on along with one 7.65 mm pistol February 18. (bearing no K-5832), three live

It however regretted that “three of our cadres escaped before they reached their destination.” The declaration letter also announced that they were happy to serve in the “mainstream” under the leadership of Th Muivah.

The declaration could not be independently confirmed.

rounds of 7.65 mm, two gelatin sticks, one detonator, two unidentified explosives, one battery and one mobile phone, the release stated. He has been identified as Lamngul Hmar (29).

“It was revealed that the individual belongs to NSCN (K) and holds the rank of SS Sergeant in the faction,” the release added.

The apprehended individual along with the recovered arms and items was handed over to Athibung Police Station, Peren for further investigation.

NSCN (IM) cadre apprehended in Khonsa Town KohIMA, FERBUARY 18 (MExN): The Khonsa Battalion under the aegis of DAO division apprehended one NSCN (IM) cadre in Khonsa Town of Arunachal Pradesh in the evening of February 17.

Jenhu Tinlom, Sergeant in the NSCN (IM) was apprehended based on specific intelligence about presence of cadre “trying to terrorize and carry

out extortion” in Khonsa Town, according to a press release from Col C Konwer, PRO (Defence).

The NSCN (IM) cadre was apprehended with a pistol and live ammunition, the release stated, adding post spot interrogation he admitted allegiance to NSCN (IM). The release further said that the cadre divulged he had joined the group in August 2016 and

had also undergone training in an NSCN camp in Dimapur for three months as an active cadre.

As per the press release, the security forces has been carrying out aggressive operations in the South Arunachal Pradesh and “this apprehension has struck a blow to the extortion activities being carried out by the underground cadres Security forces personnel with the NSCN (IM) cadre apprehended from Khonsa Town of the group in the area.” on February 17.

AR medical camp provides check up to 328 people

Official of 36 Assam Rifles with the two girls who were enrolled in school recently through the sponsorship of the AR unit.

PEREN, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): 36 Assam Rifles have undertaken to sponsor for education of two orphan girls - Lydia and Mary - of Songhlu village in Peren district. The girls who had been forced to discontinue their education due to financial reasons have been enrolled at Government Middle School, Athibung, informed a press release from Assam Rifles. The AR also provided them with

stationery and uniforms.

In the press release, the Assam Rifles also promised to sponsor further education of girls from deprived sections of the society in furtherance of Beti Padhao Beti Bachao.

The locals, GB and school staff appreciated the efforts of Assam Rifles and wished that other organisations will also take lead from the noble act, the release added.

MoN, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): 9 BIHAR under the aegis of HQ IGAR (North) organised a medical camp at Chenwetnyu village of Mon district on February 18 “in order to bring relief to medically deprived section in remote areas.”

The camp was led by Captain Rahil Arora, Regimental Medical Officer and medical staff.

A press release from Assam Rifles informed that the camp also attended to the patients from nearby villages of Choknyu, Chentown and various scattered small hamlets.

During the camp, free medical checkup and free medicines were provided to 328 patients comprising 246 adults and 82 children. The Medical Officer gave vaccinations and medicines for common ailments to the civilians and briefed the villagers about good healthcare and hygiene practices to ensure long and disease free life.

Col Vikram, SM, CO, 9 BIHAR also addressed the local populace and assured them of full support for the betterment of the society.

The local and civil administration expressed their heartfelt gratitude for the initiative of IGAR A doctor attends to patients at the medical camp organized at Chenwetnyu village of Mon district by 9 BIHAR under the aegis (North) and its units, the release added. of HQ IGAR (North) on February 18.

CNTC meeting on February 21 DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (MExN): The Central Nagaland Tribes Council (CNTC) will have a meeting to discuss some important matters on February 21, 3:00 pm at its Central Office, Dimapur. Therefore, all the office bearers, executive members, three apex body heads, Dimapur based frontal heads, legal advisors, CNSA executives have been inKeneingunyü Sekhose, Advisor APO, along with the Kohima village women society (Kewhimiapfü Mechü Krotho) kept vigil in front of the main gate of Nagaland Secretariat in Kohima to prevent opening formed to attend the meeting without fail. of government offices on February 18 during the bandh called by Nagaland Tribes Action Committee (NTAC).

Public SPace lessons from the Recent Naga crisis and issues Prayer for Revival and Restoration

I

Dr. Dietho-o

ssues are challenges and difficulties we face in life, but they are not beyond solution. Our responses depend on how prepared or unprepared we are. They reveal our hearts and test us whether we operate on the principles of truth and love.

The recent crisis that plagued our state has been unprecedented in three major ways. Never in the annals of Naga history has the state witnessed an uprising of the public of this magnitude and intensity. Secondly, never has a movement brought about all the Naga tribes as one voice and one people as closely as this movement did. This movement has been tried and tested and has ultimately proven that ‘together we can’ and ‘together we will’. Finally, ever since the Naga Peace Mission in the early sixties, the Church came out, open and on the offensive with the Kingdom of God’s mission for the first time. We all know how we responded. Notwithstanding the outcome, NBCC said the Church is always hopeful. What a message! ABCC, under NBCC, along with other denominations hopefully stepped out to do its best, calling all to

stand on the values and principles of truth and love.

When love grows cold and truth becomes diluted, problems multiply and we land in a situation where everything makes sense and nothing makes sense! In every crisis encountered so far, all of us have been weighed and found wanting, falling short of our best. No exception! We need to think harder, learn and grow!

Let this crisis be a defining chapter in the history of the Naga Movement and let us move forward from here, instead of dwelling on what has passed. There have been a great many important and crucial lessons learnt from this, and it is time we start putting these lessons into practice rather than repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Let us not forget that we are a slowly developing society, just barely emerged from an ancient lifestyle, but definitely progressing with the passage of time. New horizons are appearing, rays of hope are emerging for men and women alike. We need to advance cautiously and wisely in the direction of our dreams and endeavour to be more trust-worthy, contributing our mites.

We are all challenged to brighten the corners wherever we are planted.

The recent turmoil has also put an oft repeated message across, loud and clear for all to hear in this instance, that it is time to put our various differences aside, be it tribal, political or social, and come together as one people, with a common vision, and with a common voice. The message is also clear to all who have been listening, that we should begin shedding the divisive institution of “unionism”, which itself is an unprecedented practice (in the world?) with every village and khel promoting its own union, tearing our people apart into tiny islands. Let us, for a start, try to make do with a smaller number of essential unions who have the capacity to represent a tribe as a whole, while being part of a common Naga Body. It is not wrong to envision that we can one day, be a people under one common body without further divisions.

This I say because we still have another big and pressing issue – the Naga National Political Issue. Politics flow in the blood of every Naga.

Our prayer is always, “THY WILL BE

DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”, and for which our people are ceaselessly praying throughout and all over the length and breadth of our land, because we love our people and our land, and we want to STAND TOGETHER on TRUTH ALONE. This time, we can learn an ancient lesson anew in a more refreshing manner. IN A DEMOCRACY, THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE IS SUPREME. In a theocracy, whatever faith we believe and profess, the Will of God is the final word. Amidst all the recent chaos, someone had commented, “People usually deserve the government they get”. How aptly put! A seemingly simple line speaking volumes of wisdom! Let us take heed and RESPOND TO THE CALL OF OUR CONSCIENCE. What do we stand to lose by being responsible citizens and playing our rightful parts in a clean and fair election to put a responsible government in its rightful place next time? Let us all be more truthful and more loving from now on, whether we are underground, overground or middleground. With that, our hope grows ever bigger!

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:14 (Revival) Esther Murry

Dear Sisters in Christ, Revival is our greatest need in our land today. Corruption and evil are increasing as in the days of Noah (Gen. 6:5: cf Matt. 24:37, 38); Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:5, 13; Matt. 10:15); Nineveh (Jonah 1:2;2 Timothy 3:1 - 5).

Prayer can bring revival to our land.

• Elijah’s Prayer saved the nation of Israel from Baal worship (1 King 16:29 – 33; 18:20 -40) • Queen Esther prayed and God delivered her community from the evil plan of Hannah (Esther 3:6; 4:16).

• Jonah preached repentance in Nineveh. The king and his people repented and were saved from the anger of God (Jonah 3: 1 - 10).

Let us come together in one accord and with a humble spirit pray for a mighty revival in Nagaland. We must believe that God will heal our land. We need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit like recorded in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost.

Scripture: Nehemiah 1: 5 – 11 (Restoration) Nehemiah was the King’s cup-

bearer but heart-breaking news from the Jewish people who had returned to rebuild Jerusalem. Their plight moved him to mourn, fast and pray.

Real love helps us to pray. When you care about the land you live in, you pray for God’s hand to direct it.

Real love both weeps and prays over the brokenness in the lives of others.

Yes, Nehemiah eventually went to work but prayer came first. Just as the enemy ruined Jerusalem, we discover today that the power of darkness has ruined our society spiritually, morally, socially and economically.

Government programs and human efforts have failed to restore it.

Nehemiah’s mission – impossible became mission - accomplished through the power of prayer. It’s our time, Oh dear women of God, we must appeal to God. He alone can heal our people and land. Prayer is the one thing that will bring the power of heaven down to bless the lives of those we love. It was true for Nehemiah. The same will hold true for us.

The writer is Coordinator, Women Ministries, Assemblies of God of East India

The Morung Express “Public Space” is to provide space for diverse opinions to be expressed and heard. The opinions in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper nor the editor.

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The Chalkboard

SunDAY 19•02•2017

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

_____________________________ Because Children Matters

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Y

ou have learnt about nouns, common nouns and proper nouns, and singular and plural nouns by now, haven’t you? In this lesson, we are moving on to another way in which nouns can be classified: countable and uncountable nouns.

Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted.

For example, ‘car’ is a countable noun. You can count one car, two cars, three cars and so on. Countable nouns have both singular and plural forms (e.g. car/cars; country/ countries; book/books; cat/ cats; woman/women; friend/

ReaRRange the jumbled woRds

friends; teacher/teachers; table/tables). In the singular form, they are preceded by a or an. In plural form, they take ‘many’. For example, 1 friend, 10 friends, many friends.

If you want to ask about the quantity of a countable noun, you ask "How many?" combined with the plural countable noun. For example, How many books do you have?

Examples of countable nouns in sentences: We have four cats.

My brother owns a house.

How many friends do you have?

I would like two pens please.

Uncountable nouns, on the other hand, cannot be counted. They do not usually have a plural form. They cannot usually be used with a number. It is not possible to say 1 water, 2 waters etc.

Examples of uncountable nouns include water, money, meat, milk, juice, soil, rain, advice, weather, baggage, behavior, bread, news, trouble, furniture, accommodation, information, luggage, progress, traffic, travel, work and wood.

Uncountable nouns are not preceded be a or an. Abstract nouns such as anger and happiness are typically uncountable.

The following are examples of sentences using uncountable nouns.

There is a lot of money in this wallet. (Not 100 money) There is some milk in the jug. (Not 2 milk) Uncountable nouns take

• Of all the words in the English language, the word ‘set’ has the most definitions!

• “Almost” is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

• “Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel.

• There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”

• The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Russian and Spanish.

• Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a “Friday the 13th.”

• Coco-Cola would be green if colour in weren’t added to it.

• The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.

‘much’ instead of ‘many’.

To express a quantity of an uncountable noun, use a word or expression like some, a lot of, much, a bit of, and a great deal of.

In other cases, expressions such as a cup of, a bag of, 1kg of, 1litre of, a handful of, a pinch of, an hour of and a day of.

If you want to ask about the quantity of an uncountable noun, you ask "How much?"

Example: There is too much money in the house. Be careful.

There has been a lot of research into the causes of this illness.

My father gave me a great deal of advice before my marriage.

Can you give me some information on the holiday trip?

Please give me a cup of water and a

teaspoon of salt.

How much fruit juice do you want?

Is there any case when you can count uncountable nouns such as money, milk and meat?

Yes, there is. You have to use the units of measurement such as currency, litre, kilo, and glass.

For example, 10 dollars ( but not 10 money) 2 litres of water (but not two water) 3 glasses of milk (but not 3 milk) 3 kilos of meat (but not 3 meat)

My War Amy Wolstenholme

My war can fit within the rotation of a minute hand.

Between 6:59 and 7:00pm, news bulletins in Times New Roman, Another town with a name you cannot pronounce is known and lost simultaneously. You have time to glance up from your dinner, Look to your front door; check the outside is still locked out, Say: Thank God. My war is erased by pressing a button.

It exists on the other channel, or on dull Tuesday afternoons where the bluebottles swarm their reflections in windows, Get crushed by volumes of literary poetry and – thank God – the bell rings. My war is trapped in front covers and fly wings.

My war is on tour buses, in fields all scoured with red, (we all know how well flowers bloom from the dead) I pinned a poppy to my car bonnet, left it to bleed in the sun, until all the blood had run, until all the colour had gone, until it was white as vacant skin – the colour of peace.

My war is on pay slips, in five pounds a month to some charity off building houses or commemorating bodies. Here: have my illegible signature, my languid name. Stamped.

Approved. My war comes out of the post office and in through the letterbox, my sympathy fits 12 inches by 2, (the rest of the door is locked tight thank god thank god) Here are some more faces that travelled from doormat to bin.

My war stays on street corners, in bedraggled protest signs, Small change occasionally gifted, dropped in my peripheral vision, (we all know eye contact cannot, must not be given) My war is dust that occasionally comes drifting through, People dissolved into air, into beautiful nothing in locked rooms (you did remember to turn the key – did you, did you?)

My war is in my pocket: Update–Hashtag–NEWS FLASH. Somewhere inconceivable, people are turning to ash.

My war is when I take your hand and hold it on the bus. (thankgodthankgodthankgod it wasn’t us) This poem is the 1st prize winner in the Timothy Corsellis Prize 2016 on Young Poets Network (YPN).

Word Puzzle

Spot the differences

maze-games

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FAITH LEAF

SUNDAY 19•02•2017

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

INSPIRATIONAL STORIES, MESSAGES, POEMS & SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

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The silence broken by a The peaceful life through reconciliation from voice in the wilderness theFiveOldstories Testament Bible passage: Based on Chapter 1 and 3 of the Gospel of Luke People asked, of the newborn boy, "What then will this child turn out to be?"

1. Zacharias and the angel Gabriel: Herod, king of Judah at the time of Jesus' birth, was an Edomite who professed to be a convert to Judaism but had no real religious faith of any kind. He was the first Gentile to occupy the throne of Judah. His reign fulfilled the ancient prophecy that the scepter would depart from Judah when "Shiloh" came. The time was now ripe for the coming of Shiloh, a title sometimes applied to the Messiah. Zacharias was an aged priest and Elizabeth was his wife. Both were truly religious people, blamelessly observing all God's commandments and requirements. They were childless through Elizabeth's infertility, and both of them were getting on in years. David had divided the temple priests into 24 divisions and each division was on duty one week every six months. While Zacharias was on duty the lot determined that he make the incense offeringan honor which a priest could enjoy only once in a lifetime. And as Zacharias stood before the altar of incense in the holy place, the angel Gabriel appeared to him.

2. A living and personal God: There is a strong trend today toward an intellectual conception of God instead of an awareness that God is a living and personal Being.

People don't object to talking about God as an impersonal "First Cause" who is responsible for the universe, but they often prefer not to respond emotionally to God with commitment and obedience. Zacharias had good reason to be startled. God had not given His people a special revelation for 400 years. We can imagine this aged man's consternation when the heavenly messenger confronted him and told him that he and his wife were to have the son for whom they had so long prayed. Hebrew couples considered it shameful to be childless. Notice that Gabriel appeared to a the priest and that he came to a priest when was in the temple offering the incense which symbolized the prayers of the nation. The Lord can best speak to us when we are close to Him and when we are faithfully attending to His business, whether our assignment is prayer, work, or housekeeping.

3. How shall I know?

Gabriel went on to inform Zacharias that his son was to be no ordinary mortal. He would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth; he would be a Nazarene and he would turn the hearts of many to God. Zacharias did not believe the words of the angel. He was undoubtedly a godly man, and he wanted very much to accept as true what his heavenly visitor had told him. But the circumstances were all against it. He and his wife were both so old that it was physically unlikely that they would ever have children. One would think that the appearance of an angel would have been enough to convince Zacharias that God was dealing with him.

But no, he must have some other sign to bolster his belief. "How shall I know?" he asked. This is the question with which we so often respond to God's voice. We read a promise in the Bible that seems to apply to our need and which we would very much like to claim, but doubt creeps in and we ask ourselves- and God- "How shall I know?" Zacharias got his sign, all right, For over nine months, until after his son he was to be dumb, had been born, unable to discuss this wonderful news with anyone! The sign must have greatly strengthened his faith, but, it was a sharp rebuke to his unbelief.

5. John the Baptist and his bold message: John the Baptist was the first inspired prophet to speak God's message to man since the days of Malachi four centuries earlier. Though Luke makes no attempt to date the birth of Christ precisely, he is meticulous in fixing the date when John the Baptist began to preach. He mentions the reigning Roman emperor, "tetrachies" the rulers of the four (quarter parts) into which the territory of the late Herod the Great had been divided, and the religious leaders at Jerusalem.

The year was probably A.D. 26. Luke must have regarded John's ministry as highly important.

All the rulers mentioned here were wicked men, though they enjoyed positions of power in their day. They used their influence to get what they wanted out of life, with little regard either for the Lord or for moral integrity. But they were the VIPs of their time. By contrast, John the Baptist was an unknown- we could call him, today, a backwoods preacher. But John spoke out boldly in behalf of truth. In the eyes of God, he was the greatest of the prophets, and his name lives on where the names of his contemporaries have been forgotten. The world and its great leaders pass away, but he "who does the will of God abides forever".

There were several reasons why multitude of people thronged to hear John the Baptist.

Though he does not appear to have been the winsome of individual to whom people are irresistibly attracted, he was an unusual and arresting figure. He had lived alone in the desert and had adopted the garments and manner of life of some of the Old Testament prophets.

He preached with great vigor and forcefulness, not sparing his hearers, but compelling their attention with the force of his message.

There were those who came to John sightseeing. They had heard of his strange message and went out to witness for themselves and to get a firsthand view. Others apparently were afraid that the time of awful suffering, generally known as the "worship of Messiah" (a period which their rabbis had told them would precede the Messiah's advent). John called his hearers a ''brood of vipers." Most of us would do well not to imitate this form of address in witnessing to others! As Farrar says, "Only teachers of transcendent holiness, immediately inspired by God with fervency and insight, may dare to use such language." The rest of us are better off if we speak more mildly- in humility, patience, and love. John declared, in effect, "If you profess to be the people of God, show it by the lives you lead!" John was not saying these people could be saved by doing something. He was preaching mostly to Jewspeople who were in the place of covenant relationship with God. God had adopted them as His people. Their responsibility, however, was to trust Jehovah, and demonstrate their faith by their lives. But in spite of their position of privilege, their conduct was actually bringing discredit to God. John called on them to repent, to a complete change of mind, heart, attitude and behavior. John made it perfectly plain that by repentance he meant no mere form or ceremony, nor was the word merely an abstract theological term. The repentance God demands is more than a halfhearted compromise with what is right. It involves going all the way and coming clean in living for God. He does not expect us to do this in our strength.

His Holy Spirit gives us the desire and the ability to do His will.

6. Pointing out the corrupted and the extortionists: When the publicans, or the tax-collectors asked John what they were to do with his message, he told them to stop collecting more than was prescribed. These men grew rich by extorting all they could, turning over to the Roman government the prescribed tax and keeping the balance of their collections for themselves. As a result, they were among the most despised people of Jesus' day. There is nothing wrong with being a tax collector. A government cannot operate without funds, and funds must be collected from the people. The sin of the tax collectors was that they used their office to enrich themselves at the expense of the people from whom they collected. When soldiers came to John and asked what they ought to, he did not condemn them for being soldiers, or suggest they leave the army. He told them never to extort money from anyone, 4. The birth of John the Baptist: never to make a false accusation, and always to After Elizabeth realized that she was to have a be satisfied with their wages. Roman soldiers rechild, she retired from social life for five months, ceived notoriously to be alone with her newfound joy and with poor wages, but they were to be content.

God. All of us can profit by time alone with the Lord- time when we can give ourselves over to 7. The great danger of coveting: worshiping Him and to hearing His voice as we Discontentment and dissatisfaction stimuread His Word. Elizabeth's son was to learn, in late ambition; and though the right kind of amsolitude important lessons that would contrib- bition is necessary, it can (and often does) lead ute to his spiritual development. The neighbors people into all kinds of excess. Covetousness, of Zacharias and Elizabeth were in an under- the "itch for more" is one of the most common standably festive mood when the son of this sins in our modern society. It impels people to aged couple was born. In true oriental fashion, overwork, to ignore the rights of others, to dethey assembled to make merry with the proud mand unreasonable economic advantages, and parents. On the eighth day, as was customary, to sacrifice God's approval for the sake of matethe child was to be circumcised and named. It rial gain. John's preaching obviously required was assumed that the firstborn son would be boldness. In answering each group, he touched called by the name of his father, Zacharias. Eliz- the same sensitive spot- the wallet. The people abeth, however announced that her child was were to share, the publicans were to forego exto be called John. "How unusual!" objected the cessive income, the soldiers were to be satisfied neighbors. "You have no relative by that name". with their wages and rations.

Ignoring Elizabeth's wish, they asked Zacharias, People seldom get upset about doctriwho still could speak, what the baby's name was nal preaching or about sermons that deal in to be. Requesting a tablet, Zacharias wrote, in broad generalities. But when a preacher exobedience to the angel's instruction, "His name pects them to make a financial sacrifice they is John". Immediately his mouth was opened are likely to accuse him of either meddling in and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak their private affairs or judging them. The kind in praise of God. Zacharias had been silent for of preaching, teaching, or testimony that gets nine months; now his first words were in hearty down to everyday, real-life situations comes

A

Keith Meservy

s we seek to develop a Godlike quality in our lives, we daily come into contact with conflict—conflict within ourselves and conflict with our fellowmen. Our independence and pride can cause conflict between our desires and the will of the Lord or the authority of his agents.

This is not a situation unique to our generation; it has always been thus. The Old Testament offers some examples of great people who were able to overcome conflict by reconciling themselves to others, to authority, and to God. For instance, from the book of Micah, we learn that during the eighth century B.C. there was a lying spirit abroad in the land that gripped the hearts of all people—prophet, priest, judge, merchant, and housewife. Values were materialistic, covetousness was rampant, streets were unsafe, and violence was commonplace. No mere caveat emptor here, but trust ye not in a friend was the all-too-common counsel. A man was well advised not to trust even his own wife in a world where a man’s enemies might often be his own flesh and blood. The courts, the clergy, and civil officials were all priced to fit the market in a broken-down society.

Who could stand up to the corrupting forces of such a society and remain pure?

Micah, the prophet, had worked long hours and many years in order to effect a change of heart in this spiritually calloused society. At times, when his efforts seemed ineffective, he longed for another ministry in a world far removed—one wherein men could be easily entreated, where righteousness was approved, and where men were peacemakers.

“Woe is me!” declared Micah, “for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.” (Micah 7:1.)

For Micah, however, there was to be no such harvest.

But the Lord knew the faith of Micah. This was no chance meeting of man and circumstances. In a day when values had toppled and vision had perished, when the meaning of life had been lost and men stumbled at noonday, when the diviners, prophets, and seers had all become confounded and had received no answer from God, here was one who could say: “Truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.” (Micah 3:8.)

Micah’s inspired counsel and testimony helped many to recognize who they were and to understand why they were on the earth, and many of them learned to live life anew. They learned through his testimony that in an untrustworthy world, one could still trust the Lord.

“I will look unto the Lord,” Micah had said, “I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. …

“He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.”

(Micah 7:7–9.)

Although his calling was lonely and unpleasant, Micah’s ability to reconcile his will with the will of the Lord made him an effective servant of God, and a pillar of light to his fellowmen. Another figure of the Old Testament might well have rationalized himself out of a great and wonderful calling had he not placed himself in the hands of the Lord. His test came when he was climbing a hillside that was shimmering in the brilliance and heat of the sun. But he knew that what he saw was no heatinduced mirage—the bush was aflame, but it was not burned.

Moving closer, he was startled by the command: “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

Complying and attentive, he hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God, who was present. Then the Lord continued: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. … And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them [into the land which I have promised them]. …

“Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

An amazed Moses replied, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?”—as if he expected that he would have to perform the task alone.

But the Lord offered the reassuring words, “Certainly I will be with thee.”

the Lord, for he raised other questions as to his ability to fulfill the mission.

“But,” he said, realizing that he had not been among his people for forty years, “they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.”

Again the Lord demonstrated his support, and again Moses raised a point of human concern. “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”

It would be difficult, he seemed to suggest, for a man who could but poorly communicate to take on the role of leadership. But again the Lord put forth his hand and challenged Moses’ faith when he said, “Go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

Still uncertain, Moses tried the Lord’s patience when he asked for a companion to help him, to be his voice.

But the Lord, adapting his desires to Moses’ need, told him that he could use Aaron, his brother, as his mouthpiece.

Moses eventually was to learn that his performance as a leader of men was to be empowered by and, therefore, acceptable to the Lord. Any human frailties would become as naught as he placed his faith in the Lord and did his bidding. (See Ex. 3, 4.)

To do the direct bidding of the Lord is one thing; to do the bidding of a complete stranger is another. But that is what a certain widow did in the century before Micah served as a prophet. The widow lived at a time when a divinely decreed famine was having its effect upon the land.

Under a rainless sky the sun had drawn the moisture out of thirsty soil that had hardened to become like the heart of Ahab—the ruler of this devastated land. The draining of the life power out of this land haunted all the survivors with the constancy of death’s close vigil.

The stranger had come into town directly to the widow’s home as if he were on a mission. She, knowing neither him nor whence he came, ignored his presence while continuing to gather the few sticks with which to bake her last meal.

Beyond that, she could see only the extended hand of death that both she and her son would soon grasp.

“Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink,” the stranger said. And then, even before this was done, he gave further instructions: “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.”

Spelling out her personal predicament to him—enough meal only to make one cake for herself and her son and then nothing but death—apparently had no effect. His next request seemed to be selfish, requiting her to transfer even this meager meal from their mouths to his: “Do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make [one] for thee and for thy son.”

An astounding request! But there was a promise attached: “Fear not. …

For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

To give her life’s substance to him in exchange for a mere promise was a request that beggared all reason! And that promise was made in a barren, desolate land where such promises seemingly could no longer be kept. This request severely tried her faith, but “she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.

“And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.” (See 1 Kgs. 17:10–16.)

This blessing was a result of her willingness to follow the word of a prophet of the Lord. Like Moses, the widow had been able to reconcile her rational mind with her desire to do the will of the Lord.

are not reconciled to our fellowmen.

One man had cause to look back over the twenty years since his brother, Jacob, had left home—twenty years since Jacob had gained their father’s blessing, a blessing Esau felt was rightfully his. His thoughts then had been of terrible revenge, but with the passing of time Esau’s anger and burning resentment had subsided. These feelings had been replaced by a deep awareness that God had not forgotten him and that he, in turn, could not forget the love he had held for his brother.

Now Jacob was returning to Canaan from Haran, and Esau set out to find his brother anew. Upon seeing Jacob, Esau “ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.” (Gen. 33:4.)

This manifest capacity for forgiveness evoked a powerful response in Jacob, who freely told Esau that to see his face and be accepted by him was “as though [he] had seen the face of God.” (Gen. 33:10.)

Likewise, as these brothers were reconciled, so must we be reconciled with our brethren before we can hope to approach the Lord in sincerity.

Esau overcame his resentment, but one man allowed his resentment to eventually destroy him. He was a king who lived to see a thrilling day in Israel’s history. A national champion had overcome the boasts, taunts, and threats of the hulking, brute power that was Goliath. The nation’s king, Saul, exulted along with everyone else, little realizing that within this experience the seeds of his own destruction had been planted.

Already, as the king led his army home from battle, the seeds began to sprout.

The women attributed to Saul thousands of the fallen enemy, but to David, an unknown shepherd boy, tens of thousands. (See 1 Sam. 18:7.)

Over the years these seeds ripened into full bloom as jealousy began to eat away at Saul’s rational powers and move him to seek David’s death.

On one occasion, Saul sent David on a seemingly impossible mission against the Philistines, hoping that the enemy would accomplish what he himself had been unable to do. But the mission was successful, bringing more honor to the young man who little needed it and a lessening of honor to the king.

Saul subordinated everything else to his all-consuming desire to kill David: when his son, Jonathan, identified himself with David, an angry Saul almost killed him; eighty-five priesthood leaders, mistakenly accused of aiding David, were butchered in a pitiless massacre; whenever David’s whereabouts was ascertained, Saul led a personal campaign against him.

David had succeeded in staying alive, despite Saul’s best efforts to the contrary.

Never did he make any effort to avenge the accumulating wrongs committed against him by Saul. The king’s actions were left entirely to the Lord to judge and to reward in his own due time.

On at least two occasions, in the cave and on the field, David could have killed Saul. Each time the young man’s followers urged him to kill the king, believing that Saul had been delivered into David’s hands. But David knew that all men are in the hands of God, and he refused to draw his sword against the Lord’s anointed. The impeccable faith of the boy who went forth to meet Goliath was still burning deep in the young man, who knew that his time would come to be king.

Although David undoubtedly had a strong desire to defend himself and take revenge on Saul, he was able to reconcile these desires with his absolute respect for authority in the form of the king, and with his love for the Lord.

(See 1 Sam. 18–24.)

Like David, Moses, Micah, Esau, and the widow, we must be reconciled one with another, and with our God. Then, if we remain faithful, we can achieve the greatest goal—eternal life.

Keith H. Meservy, an associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU, is a

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INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Apply for Aadhar by Jun 30 if availing Central Sector Scholarship NEW DELHI, FEbruary 18 (PtI): To avail benefit under the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme for College and University students, applicants will now have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar card or undergo Aadhaar authentication, the HRD ministry has said. Those who are receiving these scholarships but dont have an Aadhar card will have to apply for enrolment by June 30th, an HRD ministry notification states.

It is, however, not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir. As per another notification issued by the ministry, children who wish to avail the National Means-cumMerit Scholarship Scheme shall also apply for Aadhar

by June 30, though it exempts the states of J&K, Assam and Meghalaya. According to officials, the move brings in transparency and enables beneficiaries get entitlements directly to them in a convenient and seamless manner and Aadhaar obviates the need for producing multiple documents to prove identity. However, till the time Aadhaar is assigned to the students, they may get scholarships on the basis of documents like Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip, Aadhaar enrolment application, the voter identity card, PAN card etc. Similar provisions have also been made in the notification related to the Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme for school children. This notification shall come into effect from the date of its publication in all states except Jammu and Kashmir.

Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya: Minister KoLKata, FEbruary 18 (IaNs): Asserting that the Ram temple will come up at Ayodhya, BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi whether they wanted it to come up in Bangladesh or Pakistan. "The Ram Mandir (temple) will be built in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya.

Can anybody -- Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav -tell me whether they wanted the temple to be built in Bangladesh or Pakistan," asked the Minister of State for Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises on the sidelines of a programme here on Friday. "The Ram temple will be built and has to be built in India," said the leader, known for making controversial comments on various issues. Attacking Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Vadra, he said: "She cannot see 'achhe din' now. But about 1.5 crore women, who had never seen LPG cylinders in the past, have received them now. They are seeing 'acche din'."

Secretary empties twin pit toilet to end stigma NEW DELHI, FEbruary 18 (tNN): Nearly a dozen top bureaucrats from 23 states including Union sanitation secretary took up a unique exercise of emptying some of the twin pit toilets in a village in Warangal district to demonstrate how it's the best technology for rural folk and also to end the stigma of cleaning these pits. "It's perfectly safe and clean to empty a twin pit toilet. The @swachhbharat team joins Gangadevipally village today...Great to be emptying a toilet pit in Gangadevipally, Warangal," Union sanitation drinking water and sanitation secretary Parameswaran Iyer tweeted after opening one such pit.

Iyer told TOI that each of the principal secretaries from states who participated in the exercise are carrying a bottle of the compost from the emptied pits with them. "We had twin objective to demonstrate how twin-pit toilets are one of the best suitable technology in rural areas. Second, there is a stigma among people to empty these pits after closing one pit for six months or a year. Once you close one pit for months, the excreta gets converted to clean compost," Iyer said.

In the case of twin pit toilets, the cover slab has two drop holes, one over each pit. Only one pit is used at a time. When one is full, its drop hole is closed and the second pit is used. After six months to one year, the waste stored in the first pit can be removed safely and used as soil conditioner. The pit can be used again when the second pit is filled up. This alternating cycle can be repeated.

Palanisamy wins stormy confidence vote in Tamil Nadu

Protesting DMK MLAs taken into custody

CHENNaI, FEbruary 18 (IaNs): Police on Saturday took into custody DMK MLAs as they sat on protest, led by party chief M.K. Stalin, on Marina beach here against the manner in which the party legislators were evicted from the state assembly. DMK's Working President Stalin, along with party MLAs, sat on protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Marina beach.

Police later took the DMK MLAs into custody. DMK supporters blocked the police vehicles at the venue.

A couple of hundred metres away at the Marina beach, there were scenes of jubilation by the AIADMK faction led by V.K. Sasikala on Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami winning the vote of confidence. Palaniswami, his ministers and Chief Minister 'Edappadi' K Palaniswami after taking the oath of secrecy administered by other AIADMK party men arrived at the Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao during the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Chennai beach to pay their homage to late Chief on Thursday. (PTI Photo) Minister J. Jayalalithaa at her memorial NEW DELHI, FEbruary 18 (rEutErs): The chief minister of Tamil Nadu won a confidence vote on Sunday after a brawl in the state assembly, triggered when the speaker rejected opposition calls for a secret ballot.

Edappadi Palanisamy won the vote by 121 to 11, which followed a weekslong power struggle set off

tion group DMK petitioned to be conducted via a secret ballot, arguing this would reveal deep divisions in the ruling party.

The speaker refused to grant the request and, after a brawl that broke out, ejected DMK lawmakers from the chamber, footage from local broadcasters showed. One official was injured in the scuffle and

was taken out on a stretcher, TV networks said.

The state of more than 70 million people, a magnet for foreign automakers and consumer electronics firms, has been in political limbo since Jayaram died on Dec. 6 without naming a successor.

The subsequent political turmoil, along with rising social unrest, has raised

UP gears up for crucial 3rd phase polls on Sunday

LuCKNoW, FEbruary 18 (IaNs): The third phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held for 69 seats across 12 districts on Sunday.

A total of 2.41 crore voters will decide the fate of 826 candidates.

There are 1.31 crore men, 1.10 crore women and 1,026 voters from the third gender who will exercise their franchise on February 19, a poll official said.

There are 16,671 polling centres and 25,603 polling stations in this phase.

The 12 districts where polling is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. are Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Hardoi, Kannauj, Kanpur rural, Kanpur city, Unnao, Lucknow, Barabanki, Auraiyya and Sitapur.

Prominent personalities whose fate would be decided in this phase include Ministers Arvind Singh 'Gop', Fareed Meh-

fooz Kidwai, Vijay Bahadur Pal, Abhishek Mishra, Nitin Agarwal, Narendra Verma, Rajeev Kumar Singh and former Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.

The maximum number of candidates in fray are from Etawah (21) -- the home town of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, while the least number is in Haidergarh (3) assembly constituency of Barabanki, neighbouring the state capital here.

Lucknow Central and Lucknow West have 17 candidates each, while Farrukhabad and Bhojpur have 20 each.

The third phase comes as the biggest litmus test for the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) as it held 55 of these 69 seats in the 2012 assembly polls.

Of the remaining seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) held six, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

five and Congress two in the last election. One seat was won by an independent.

Other than the stronghold of Etawah, which is the home turf of the Yadav clan, the popularity of Akhilesh Yadav is also up for test, especially after the ugly power struggle that was witnessed over the past few months in the state's first family and the ruling party.

Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has not campaigned for the SP which he founded 25 years ago.

Sullen at his unceremonious ouster by son Akhilesh Yadav in January from the post of national president, Mulayam Singh has only sought votes for his younger brother Shivpal Yadav, who is contesting from the Jaswantnagar seat in Etawah and daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who is a candidate from Lucknow Cantt.

doubts over its attractiveness as a place to do business.

Following Jayaram's death, her companion V. K. Sasikala was appointed interim general secretary of AIADMK and then sought to take over as leader. But that bid ended this week when the Supreme Court convicted her of corruption and jailed her for four

years. Known as the "Detroit of Asia", Tamil Nadu is India's second-largest manufacturing state. It hosts manufacturers including Daimler, Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault.

Before his appointment as chief minister, Palanisamy served as public works minister, and is little known outside his home state.

DDCA defamation case: Court tells Kejriwal to appear on March 21

NEW DELHI, FEbruary 18 (IaNs): A court here on Saturday directed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it on March 21 while it granted bail to suspended BJP parliamentarian Kirti Azad in a defamation complaint filed by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and Chetan Chauhan.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra granted bail to Azad, asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and a surety of like amount.

The court also allowed Kejriwal's plea seeking exemption from personal appearance.

On January 30, the court issued summons to Kejriwal and Azad, asking them to appear before the court on February 18.

Chetan Chauhan, through his advocate Sangram Patnaik, has accused them of defaming

the cricket association by passing "scandalous" remarks.

Referring to Kejriwal's interview to a news channel where he said that sexual favours were sought for selecting players, the complainant alleged that "false" charges were levelled against the state cricket association.

The plea claimed that Kejriwal's "false" statements were immediately endorsed and repeated by Azad.

"The aforesaid actions of the accused (Kejriwal and Azad) have severely damaged the credibility and reputation of the complainant (DDCA) in the eyes of thousands of cricket lovers, citizens of India as well as internationally," the complainant told the court.

The complainant had requested the court to initiate proceedings against the accused.

One lakh children die of rotavirus infection every year agartaLa, FEbruary 18 (PtI): Eight to ten lakh children are admitted in hospitals across the country due to rotavirus infection every year and one lakh of them die of the disease, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said today.

The disease can be checked only by administering vaccines, he said launching the second

Popular Malayalam actress Bhavana 'kidnapped', released; Driver arrested tHIruvaNaNtHaPuram/KoCHI, FEbruary 18 (IaNs): Popular Malayalam film actress Bhavana was abducted for a while on way from Thrissur to Kochi on Friday night by some people who reportedly took pictures of her to blackmail her. Her driver is suspected of involvement and has been taken into custody, police said. Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra on Saturday said they have identified those behind the 'kidnap' of Bhavana near Kochi.

Speaking to the media in the state capital, Behra said that a joint investigation team has been formed to track down those behind the crime.

"We know who are behind this, and we will very quickly arrest all of them and get to the bottom of the truth," said Behra.

The Nedumbassery police have registered a case under sections of kidnapping and molestation.

According to police, her driver is believed to be part of a gang of four behind the incident. The hugely popular actress on Friday night after a shoot was on way from Thrissur to Kochi to take part in the dubbing of her new film directed by director-cum-actor Lal. While on way, a car hit her vehicle from behind, following which an argument erupted over the accident. The passengers of the other car forcefully entered her car and drove off with the actress.

The gang behind the incident is from the film industry and involved in doing various production jobs, police said. Bhavana was held hostage for two hours. According to reports, the gang took pictures of the actress that they planned to use to

by the death of his party leader and former chief minister, filmstar-turnedpolitician Jayalalithaa Jayaram.

Palanisamy was elected leader of the AIADMK party, which holds a majority in the assembly, and sworn in as chief minister on Tuesday. The assembly speaker then called a confidence vote, which opposi-

in Marina. Earlier, Stalin met Tamil Nadu Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao and lodged a complaint against the happenings in the assembly.

Speaking to reporters after he and his party legislators were evicted from the assembly, Stalin said the party had demanded secret ballot to decide on the motion of confidence moved by Chief Minister Palaniswami.

He said the party demanded adjournment of the House for a week so that legislators can go back to their constituencies and seek the people's views before they come back to vote on the confidence motion. The DMK leader said he sat in protest inside the assembly to press his demand.

Stalin alleged he was forcibly evicted by the marshals and suffered injuries while his shirt was damaged. He also alleged that the party legislators were assaulted by the marshals while evicting them.

blackmail her for money.

The police, after tracing the call list, zeroed down on the actress' former driver who was thrown out after she came to know of his criminal background. He is believed to be the main culprit.

After being held hostage by the criminal gang, the actress managed to reach the home of Lal, who informed the police.

Speaking to reporters, Lal said he has been advised by the police probe team not to speak about the incident as it would hamper the investigation.

The actress for a while was not having the best of relations with a group in the Malayalam film industry, and the group had scuttled a few good roles that she was offered, according to reports.

The police are looking into all aspects of the incident and will probe if this was a planned move against the actress.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is currently in Delhi, told reporters there that the police is doing its job and will certainly arrest those responsible.

Lok Sabha member Innocent, President of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists, told reporters that he had tried to get in touch with Vijayan over the incident.

He said police chief Behra had assured him that all behind the incident would be arrested. Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala, currently on a day-long protest at his home constituency near Alappuzha over the "sudden deterioration" of the law and order situation in the state, expressed shock over the incident. "If this is the plight of a celebrity, what can one say about ordinary people.

This is really shocking," said Chennithala, a former state Home Minister.

phase of the rotavirus vaccine programme here for the states of Tripura, Assam, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan and Madhyapradesh.

He launched the programme by administering rotavirus vaccine along with Tripura Health Minister Badal Chowdhury to children.

Nadda said immunization programme for

children is a priority in the country and last year there was an increase of five per cent in immunization programme.

The health ministry, he said, has launched 'Mission Indradhanus' and introduced four vaccines including those against rotavirus and encephalitis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given clear

cut instructions that the east and north-east should get priority and focus in development works and the union health ministry is working in that direction.

"We (the Centre) do not do politics on health," he said adding the development demands of Tripuris will be met.

Tripura government had wanted Rs 20 crore for

development of the state cancer unit, but the ministry had sanctioned Rs 120 crore for its development, he said.

"We are giving money, but entire amount is not being spent. The states should spend the allocated money for development," he said and gave the instance of Uttarakhand which did not spend Rs 179

crore sanctioned to it.

Chowdhury said the infant nortality rate in Tripura had come down to 20 last year from 34 in 2009 against a national average of 37.

Nadda appreciated the success of Tripura government in immunization programme saying "The state has done a commendable job.

It's rightists vs left-liberals in media slugfest Amulya Ganguli IANS

A major reason the media is being targeted by right-wing establishments in both India and the US is the belief among the "official" ideologues that large sections of the newspapers, magazines and TV channels are dominated by left-liberals, a legacy of Nehruvian times.

Hence, the derogatory terms of "presstitudes" and media workers (apropos of sex workers) coined by the saffron brotherhood to describe journalists and the charges of dishonesty and fake news levelled by US President Donald Trump against the scribes in America.

The media is certainly not blameless, depending as it often does on sensationalism to outdo rivals while the TV "debates" are marked more by rancour than reason. But since it has rarely been under such sustained attacks as now, it must have touched a raw nerve among present-day politicians.

It is no secret that a long-standing grouse of the Hindutva Parivar in India has been that the years of dominance by the secular, left-ofcentre Congress led to the projection of these ideologies as the only legitimate objectives for the country. The political slant represented by the ruling party at the Centre from 1947 to the 1980s influenced both the academia and the press.

In contrast, the right remained on the sidelines for decades, its marginalisation being reinforced by its association with Gandhi's assassination. As a result, being a right-wing politician was not quite respectable.

But the times have changed.

The ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), based on what Vice President Hamid Ansari has called "religious majoritarianism", from the 1990s, has disassociated right-wing politics from the unwashed masses and made it acceptable on the cocktail circuit, especially in the Lutyens power zone in Delhi.

The BJP has also taken advantage of its position in the corridors of power to plant saffron ideologues in the groves of academe even if they are regarded as unworthy of the posts by the leftist intelligentsia.

However, even as the right has now captured the high ground of politics and the academia, the media has evaded its grasp. Not only that, rightist political views -- the economy is another matter -- are still not accorded the respect which is given to more holistic presentations in line with the "idea of India" representing inclusive pluralism.

The right has had to depend, therefore, on the trolls in the social media even if their abuses point to a sense of inferiority complex.

The BJP must have been disconcerted, however, by the fact that for all the shrill support which it receives from the saffron netizens, the party's electoral performance has been quite dismal in the last two years when it lost in Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puduchery. The BJP's only success was in distant Assam.

Since the mainstream media remains one of the last bastions of the left-liberals, it is not surprising that the saffron lobby in India and the Trump acolytes in the US lose no opportunity to lambast the "presstitudes" and purveyors of "fake" news.

But, for them, there is one more hurdle. It is the judiciary. As the outlawing of Trump's travel bans on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries by the judges in the US has shown, the right is not having all in its own way.

In India, too, judges have set up roadblocks to stop the government from acting arbitrarily. For instance, in the case of a Greenpeace activist who was taken off a London-bound plane by the police, the Delhi High Court said that "criticism by an individual may not be palatable; even so, it cannot be muzzled".

In a case concerning human rights activist Teesta Setalvad, who is known for her humanitarian role during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Supreme Court, rejecting a plea

by the government counsel for her arrest, asked: "Can the liberty of a person be put on a ventilator?"

Little wonder that Prime Minister Narendra Modi once advised the judges to be wary of "five-star activists".

However, the right in India is a great deal more moderate than Trump, not to mention the alt-right in Europe such as Marine Le Pen's National Party in France or Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom in the Netherlands or Norbert Hofer's Austrian Freedom Party.

Besides, Modi has made a conscious attempt to rein in some of the BJP hardliners. As a result, there are no more reports of campaigns like ghar wapsi, which "persuaded" Muslims to reconvert to Hinduism, or about the vigilantism of gau rakshaks, the self-appointed protectors of cows.

Evidently, the "idea of India" has influenced its purported critics as well because of their realisation that stable governance is only possible if the rulers adhere to what former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called "raj dharma" -- the religion or the work ethic of governments which did not distinguish between citizens on the basis of caste, creed or community.

It is not impossible that the European far right and the proTrump Republicans will realise sooner or later the value of accommodation and compassion

SUNDAY 19•02•2017

WORLD

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

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Malaysia arrests NKorean man as row over Kim Jong Nam's death escalates

KUALA LUMPUR, FEBRUARY 18 (REUTERS): Malaysian police said on Saturday they had arrested a North Korean man in connection with the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as a diplomatic spat over his body escalated.

Kim Jong Nam died this week after being assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport with what was thought to be a fastacting poison. South Korean and U.S. officials have said he was assassinated by North Korean agents.

Malaysian police said the latest arrest connected with the murder was made on Friday night, and the suspect was identified as Ri Jong Chol, born on May 6, 1970.

He was in possession of a Malaysian i-Kad, which is an identification card given to foreign workers, they added.

"He is suspected to be involved in the death of a North Korean male," read a statement.

The police chief for Selangor state, Abdul Samah Mat, said the suspect had been remanded in police custody.

Two female suspects, one an Indonesian and the other carrying Vietnamese travel documents, have already been arrested, while a Malaysian man has been detained. At least three more suspects

Former spy says Kim Jong Nam's alleged assassins look to be amateurs

A hospital van leaves the morgue at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital where Kim Jong Nam's body is held for autopsy in Malaysia February 17, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

are at large, government sources have said.

Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea.

South Korea's intelligence agency told lawmakers in Seoul that Kim had been living with his second wife in the Chinese territory of Macau, under China's protection.

He had been at the Kuala Lumpur airport to catch a flight to Macau when he was killed. An autopsy is being performed at a hospital in the capital city.

Selangor state police

chief Abdul Samah told Reuters that the autopsy report was not complete yet. He dismissed media reports that a second autopsy would have to be conducted.

DIPLOMATIC ISOLATION North Korea said in the early hours of Saturday that it would categorically reject Malaysia's autopsy report on the death of Kim Jong Nam, and accused Malaysia of "colluding with outside forces", in a veiled reference to rival nation South Korea.

Malaysia hit back by saying the country's rules must be followed. The foreign ministry has yet to make any comment.

Health minister Dr

S.Subramaniam told state news agency Bernama that Malaysia was waiting for the toxicology report to complete the autopsy.

He said the autopsy report would hopefully be released "within this week".

The case threatens to weaken North Korea's ties with Malaysia, one of the few countries that has maintained good diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

North Korea's nuclear arms and weapons programmes have alarmed the West, most recently its test of a ballistic missile earlier this month in its first direct challenge to the international community since

Donald Trump became U.S. president.

Pyongyang's main ally and trading partner is China, which is irritated by its repeated aggressive actions but rejects suggestions from the United States and others that it could be doing more to rein in its neighbour.

On Saturday, China said it had further tightened trade restrictions with North Korea by suspending all imports of coal starting Feb. 19, although it did not say why. Coal exports to China are a vital source of revenues for Pyongyang.

TOKYO, FEBRUARY 18 (REUTERS): Former North Korean spy Kim Hyon-hui said the alleged assassins of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to be amateurs, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Saturday.

Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of Kim Jong Un, was killed in an apparent assassination on Monday at Kuala Lumpur international airport in the Malaysian capital.

Malaysian police said on Saturday they had arrested a North Korean man in connection with the murder, after detaining two female suspects earlier this week.

Kim Hyon-hui, who bombed a Korean Air jet in 1987 after being trained as a North Korean agent, told the Japanese newspaper in a written interview that it was unthinkable that the women received strict training.

"I felt suspicious. They don't seem to have taken strict psychological and physical education and training in North Korea," Kim Hyon-hui told the paper.

According to Malaysian media re-

assaulted at the low cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday with what is believed to be fast acting poison before he could board a flight to Macau.

He sought help but died on the way to the hospital.

North Korea demandROW OVER AUTOPSY Kim Jong Nam was ed on Friday night that Kim

ports, the women told police they had been involved in a prank.

"They would not have run away if that was the case," Kim Hyon-hui said.

She also emphasised a link with North Korea as the date of the murder was close to the Feb. 16 birthday of the late leader Kim Jong Il, father of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Nam, and that Kim Jong Il's nephew Lee Han-young was shot dead on Feb. 15, 1997.

Lee Han-young, a North Korean defector, was shot and killed in South Korea by two assailants who were never caught but were suspected to be North Korean agents.

Kim Hyon-hui and another North Korean spy planted a bomb on a Korean Air flight in 1987, the year before South Korea was to host the Olympics. All 115 crew and passengers were killed when the plane exploded in mid-air over the Bay of Bengal.

Kim was sentenced to death by a Seoul court but received a presidential pardon in 1990. She won sympathy as someone whom the reclusive North had used as a pawn, but largely dropped out of the public eye after leaving prison.

Jong Nam's body be released immediately. It had earlier tried to persuade Malaysian authorities not to carry out an autopsy.

"The Malaysian side forced the post-mortem without our permission and witnessing," the North Korean ambassador Kang Chol told reporters out-

side the hospital where the body of Kim Jong Nam is being kept.

"We will categorically reject the result of the post mortem ... " He said Kim Jong Nam had a diplomatic passport and was under the consular protection of North Korea.

After night in cell, Samsung Filipino Catholics march against death penalty & war on drugs scion taken for questioning SEOUL, FEBRUARY 18 (REUTERS): Handcuffed and tied with white rope, the scion of one of the world's biggest conglomerates, Samsung Group, was taken on Saturday for questioning by South Korean authorities after spending a night in a small detention cell.

Samsung Group chief Jay Y. Lee was arrested on Friday for his alleged role in a corruption scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

The 48-year-old Lee, who has a net worth of $6.2 billion, heads the technology giant that is the world's biggest manufacturer of smartphones, flat-screen televisions and memory chips.

Lee arrived at the special prosecutor's office at about 2:20 pm (0520 GMT) clean-shaven and expressionless. He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt and no tie as he was escorted by officials from a justice ministry van.

The special prosecutor's office accuses Lee of bribing a close friend of the president to gain government favours related to leadership succession at the conglomerate. It said on Friday it will indict him on charges including bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and perjury.

He spent the night at the Seoul

Samsung Group chief, Jay Y. Lee arrives at the office of the independent counsel team in Seoul, South Korea, February 18, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

Detention Centre on the outskirts of the capital in a small single cell with a toilet in the corner behind a partition.

Special prosecution spokesman Lee Kyu-chul said on Friday that officials were working to supplement inadequacies in their investigation into Lee, without elaborating.

While Lee's detention is not expected to hamper day-to-day operations at Samsung firms, which are run by professional managers, experts said it could hinder strategic decisionmaking at South Korea's biggest con-

Scientists claim existence of drowned Pacific Ocean continent SYDNEY, FEBRUARY 18 (REUTERS): A continent two-thirds the size of Australia has been found beneath the south-west Pacific Ocean, scientists reported in the journal of the Geological Society of America. The land mass of 4.5 million square kilometres is 94 percent underwater and only its highest points - New Zealand and New Caldeonia - poke above the surface.

"It's rather frustrating for us geologists with the oceans being there," said Nick Mortimer, a geologist at GNS Science in Dunedin, New Zealand. "If we could pull the plug on the oceans it would be clear to everyone we have mountain chains and a big high-standing continent above the ocean crust."

"Since about the 1920s, from time to time in geology papers people used the word 'continental' to describe various parts of New Zealand and the Catham Islands and New Caledionia," Mortimer said. "The difference now is that we feel we've gathered enough information to change 'continental' to the noun, 'continent'."

Mortimer said geologists early in the previous century had found granite from sub-antarctic islands near New Zealand

and metaphormic rocks on New Caledonia that were indicative of continental geology.

If the recent discovery is accepted by the scientific community, cartographers will probably have to add an eighth continent to future maps and atlases.

"The paper we've written unashamedly sticks to empirical observations and descriptions," Mortimer said. The land mass is believed to have broken away from Australia about 80 million years ago and sank beneath the sea as part of the break up of the super-continent known as Gondwanaland.

glomerate, or chaebol.

Samsung is going through a restructuring to clear a succession path for Lee to assume control after his father was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014.

Decisions that could be complicated by Lee's arrest include deliberations over whether to reorganize the group under a holding company structure, as well as its plan to abandon its future strategy office, a central decision-making body that came in for criticism during the scandal.

MANILA, FEBRUARY 18 (REUTERS): Thousands of Roman Catholics marched in the Philippines capital Manila on Saturday in the biggest gathering denouncing extra-judicial killings and a government plan to reimpose the death penalty for criminals.

Dubbed a "Walk for Life" prayer rally and endorsed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the gathering came just days after the church launched its strongest attack against President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Organisers claimed as many as 50,000 people took part in the march toward Manila's Rizal Park, while about 10,000 based on police estimates stayed to hear speeches.

More than 7,600 people have been killed since Duterte launched his anti-drugs campaign seven months ago. More than 2,500 died in shootouts during raids and sting operations, according to the police.

Amid mounting criticism about a surge in kill-

Participants join a "procession" against plans to reimpose death penalty, promote contraceptives and intensify drug war during "Walk for Life" in Luneta park, metro Manila, Philippines February 18, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

ings, Duterte said on Saturday that the campaign was "by and large successful".

Speaking at the Philippine Military Academy's alumni homecoming in Baguio City, he said the drug problem was more complex than he initially thought, prompting him to seek military support.

"I need the help of each one, especially the military, not for social control but protection (for) the citizens from the lawless, the reckless, and the selfish," the firebrand leader said.

Both the government and police have denied that extra-judicial killings have

taken place. But human rights groups believe many deaths that police had attributed to vigilantes were carried out by assassins likely colluding with police.

"We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill. It also increases the number of killers," CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, who also joined the rally, called for strengthening and promoting the culture of non-violent movements.

In its most strongly

worded attack on the crackdown on drug pushers and users, a CBCP pastoral letter read out at services across the country early this month said killing people was not the answer to trafficking of illegal drugs.

Nearly 80 percent of the Philippines' 100 million people are Catholic and until recently the church had been hesitant to criticise Duterte's war on drugs.

Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte's war on drugs now facing three drug-related charges, also joined the rally.

She said the charges were meant to silence her.

US lawmakers want NKorea added to terrorism blacklist WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 18 (AP): The apparent assassination of the North Korean leader's estranged halfbrother is strengthening bipartisan calls for the U.S. to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation lifted nine years ago. Doing so would increase the country's isolation, while potentially complicating any future diplomacy to halt its nuclear and missile programs.

The U.S. kept North Korea on its terrorism blacklist for two decades after the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner killed 115 people. But President George W. Bush lifted the designation in 2008 to smooth the way for aid-fordisarmament negotiations.

The concession proved of little value as the talks collapsed soon after and have yet to resume.

Currently, the U.S. considers only Iran, Sudan and Syria as terrorism sponsors. To reimpose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine that it has "repeatedly" provided support for acts of international terrorism. Last June, the

department said North Korea "is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts" since the plane attack 30 years ago.

House lawmakers are pushing for a fresh review of the evidence. The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's exiled elder brother could make the case more persuasive. A pair of female assailants reportedly accosted Kim Jong Nam at an international airport in Malaysia on Monday, and he told medical workers that he had been sprayed with a chemical.

"We should never have taken North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list," Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California told a congressional hearing Thursday.

While Malaysian authorities are still investigating, the death compounds the impression of North Korea acting with impunity. Just a day earlier, it launched a new type of medium-range missile as President Donald Trump was meeting Japan's prime minister.

Trump has vowed to "deal with" North Korea but hasn't said how. And it's unclear if his administration would con-

template negotiations with the North, which wants to be treated as a nuclear power.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, want Trump to apply stiffer sanctions on the country and press China to turn the screws on its wayward neighbor.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who chairs a Senate panel on Asia, is among six Republican senators who this week urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to take more steps to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency. They also sought for the administration to review the terror designation.

"The murder once again highlights the treachery of North Korea," Gardner told The Associated Press in an interview. He said there is evidence of North Korean "actions and relationships that would meet the criteria of state sponsor of terror."

"Almost every North Korean provocation has been met with capitulation - year after year, administration after administration," Rep. Ed Royce of California, the Republican chairman of the House For-

eign Affairs Committee, told the AP in a written statement.

He said he is working on legislation to relist North Korea.

Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the committee's topranking Democrat, was more measured. Despite North Korea's "very questionable behavior," he said the State Department has to judge Pyongyang by strict legal criteria. The North's record should now be reviewed, he said.

The State Department said North Korea remains among the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, based on its nuclear detonations and ballistic missile and proliferation activity. It also is penalized for human rights violations and its status as a communist state. The department wouldn't say if a terrorism review was underway.

A 2015 Congressional Research Service report, intended to advise lawmakers, said re-designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism was unlikely to inflict significant economic punishment, particularly in the short term.

The U.S. already severely restricts foreign aid, defense

sales and exports of sensitive technologies to Pyongyang.

It warned that North Korea could respond by conducting more nuclear and long-range missile tests if it concludes the U.S. isn't interested in dialogue.

That isn't deterring U.S. lawmakers. A bipartisan bill that stalled in the House last year has been reintroduced, calling for the State Department to review a list of purported acts by North Korea, including assassinations of dissidents and weapons sales to militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. It requests a determination as to whether such acts constitute support for international terrorism.

The legislation also cites the 2015 computer hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the FBI blamed on North Korea. Hackers threatened movie theaters that screened "The Interview," a comedy parodying Kim Jong Un. "It is time to put little Kim back on that list because he is a world terrorist and a threat to world peace," said the bill's Republican sponsor, Rep. Ted Poe of Texas.

10

public discourse

Jonah Achumi

T

SunDAY 19•02•2017

Dimapur

oday in these turbulent times Nagas need to truly reflect and analyze where we have gone wrong. Is it only our leaders who are in the wrong side? Or is it we the people as a whole? Though the opening weeks of this year had been a tumultuous one, or say even a chaotic one, the turmoil was announced by the distant drums of the ULB elections and the storm clouds over the women reservation issue and the Nagaland Municipal Act. The issue has now changed direction with the unfortunate death of two young lives and in the sporadic turn of events.

Here the Nagas, emotionally charged up and standing up in unity to confront the issue at hand today is one victory of Nagas coming together after a very long time since the Plebiscite of 1951. The sense of purpose and shaping those enduring pillars for our tomorrow set by our fathers felt threatened which came to reach this present scenario. But with the currents, undercurrents and crosscurrents taking its own shapes and sizes it is now getting very difficult to analyze this present scenario which remains very tense and uncertain.

Hoping it will reach a logical conclusion for the best for all.

While there is general sense of being let down by the elected, there is also a sense of reassurance of hope that something definite will emerge from this crisis. The bond of unity among the Nagas has been displayed to the fullest during this recent social upheaval. Never has the government been as disturbed as it is today. Our elected leaders too should reflect seriously on their own deeds that made them face this crisis. Every government has a right to make their decisions because of evolving circumstances but not heeding the voice of the people could result in their own gloom and doom as it is the people who put them where they sit today and if they don’t listen the people has every right to ask them to come down .These could range from

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

The Last Bastion

polls to public pressure to court verdicts or just a plain reality check. The failings of any government is clear when each petty and peevish desires to personalize every debate or differences; an arrogant and unshakeable belief in its own virtues and a bizarre disdain for people’s voice and intellectual expertise from its own people. In a complex democracy like ours, no government, no individual, no politician or political party, howsoever mighty can claim to be the repository of all wisdom. Nor can claim the sole right to make, break or alter any law. That right remains with the people as they are put into their chairs by the people and the people’s voice need to be heard at any cost.

Decisions guided by dishonest ulterior motivations will result only in contradictions as is being faced today which must be avoided in future at all cost by our elected legislators. The Oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.

The 15 minutes assembly session with the devil-may-care attitude of our elected leaders when the state had so many burning issues to be addressed with prompt and all seriousness ended with only informing their salaries and perks. The water-cannoning on teachers’ for demanding their salaries, the arrest of ACAUT leaders during the fuel adulteration agitation, the bullish suppression using brute police force during a peaceful rally against the PDS Rice scam, the imposing of Cr.144pc on every democratic and peaceful public rally called seemed that the state was becoming more of like a military junta rule by some iron-fisted military leaders and all these incidents were gathering storm in the eye of the public. There had been a long clamour and the people’s heart, mind and the soul of the people who elected them were all watching silently with anger building up inside only to be blown into a volcanic form of eruption on the government’s gigantic adamancy over the ULB elections with locking of horns with tribal hohos and civil societies . The govt.’s lack of clarity and mishan-

dling on the Municipal Act was one sure of all this from the very beginning. The party that came to power 15 years back is no longer the people’s favourite anymore. The issuing of threats by the party against anyone or everyone and confronting every known tribal hohos and civil societies shows it has lost friends and only creating more enemies when it should be trying to win more sympathy from every quarter. From village republics to legislative assemblies the inner strength of our people to live together inspite of our internal differences and imbalances has remained. In the end, the silent majority has many important narratives to tell, perhaps not only to change the future but to remember the past.

Although, absolute and immediate solutions seems to be elusive at the moment, what remains and what emerges from this upheaval facilitates the memories, experience and contemplation of these moments only is what everybody is anticipating. No fool can miss to see the sarcasm in the voice of the people who have rejected all the aftermath apologies and late remedial measures that came a too little too late. While an uneasy stillness has engulfed the whole state the uneasy baggage between truth and perception seems to be only getting more. Where do we go after this? The failure to elect the right people for the right governance is the proof of our gullibility and the price we pay for our own follies after every election which everyone of us has to take the share of blame.

I remember a line said by a well known preacher in a non-denominational church that in a land where there is disobedience, conflict, confusion and division thrives and prosper in plenty. And isn’t that true? Notwithstanding how much those propaganda machines seem to be churning overtime with their Goebbelsian truths the people just refuse to buy them. The rotten debris of corruption with its stench all around, the greed, high handedness and arrogance of those in power trampling the people’s voice has resulted in all these. But we never

seem to be learning from old lessons. The scurrying of the ruling tickets for the unheld ULB elections after so much of spewing venoms and cursing the very party are some grim reminders how we are ready to compromise our integrity and principles just to grab some power. Rehearsed outbursts and old habits don’t need rocket scientists to discern this since old habits die hard or most of the time they don’t. The protectionism of our cultural and traditional rights over adapting to the changing times and constitutional obligations had a good clash this time. The govt. should have known that all decisions and resolutions were useless until and unless they garnered support and consent from the tribal hohos in such a sensitive and delicate issue.

Though the Article 371A remains unconquered, will the sanctity and fight for it always remain or would it be under threat again in near future?

Just because we have been elevated to a position to legislate some laws, don’t tamper it as history will never forget nor forgive you. Historical perspective about our Naga Identity is one major factor we must always retain in any political or social arena.

Public resentment on the hurriedly imposed ULB election only seems to be a natural offspring from the debris of the scams that were accumulated over the past few months.

We might have stumbled and fell at times in the past, struggled to cope with distortions and even started to crack under the weight of our own limitations many a times during the short run of rapidly changing situations. The village republic system always has made every Nagas take pride for being an integral part of our decision making. It came under fire and was nearly jeopardized and became a cauldron of insistent emotions and demands. But sometimes we become so persuading of our beliefs and self-evident virtues that we fail to see political turns and twists that sets in.

Like Newtonian laws, politics doesn’t change without the new outside forces being applied. There is sure value in prior looking ahead

Admitting guilt does not justify the criminal acts

O

Robert A. Silverstein

ne of the most difficult things to do is to debate someone who has admitted your main contention. I wrote an article, titled, “The World and Time in Reverse: The March Back to the Primitive.” It appeared in The Morung Express on February 16th 2017, and in the Eastern Mirror on February 17, 2017. Today, February 18th, Kahuto Chishi Sumi, in an article titled, “Perceptions,” responded in The Morung Express and the Eastern Mirror The last two sentences of my article state, “The people of Nagaland are marching backward into their past, as tribal communities in which each were laws unto themselves. Backward into a primitive history that makes them unworthy of even being recognized as a state within India, let alone a nation among civilized nations.”

The last two sentences of Kahuto Chishi Sumi’s article state, “All that you see around you in the Towns of Nagaland are just a Façade of Modernity, a veneer over a primitive people still trying to come to terms with modernity. We are not a modern people regressing back to our primitive instincts; rather, we are a primitive people trying to find our way and our Place in the modern world.”

The first paragraph of the author’s article, referring to me, states, “Being a lawyer himself, I feel he just cannot accept the fact that people or organizations would bypass what seems to be a perfectly adequate Judicial System in favor of mass protests on the streets.

“Bob [disclosure: the author and myself have corresponded for a number of months] sees our present scenario in the context of the civilized, orderly and largely law abiding modern day U.S.A.” The author then continues, throughout his whole article, until the last two sentences, quoted above, to use analogies to the present Nagaland situation with those of colonial America and what led up to the American Revolution, also the French Revolution, Kristallnacht (the destruction of Jewish property by the Germans under the Nazis on one night, famous as Kristallnacht due to all broken glass of Jewish establishments), the “Final Solution,” that is the name used to describe the plan by the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews in Europe, and even the KGB (the secret police) of Stalin.

And all of these events and factors leading up to them, according to the author, are analogous to the present situation in Nagaland, and the British government in the 18th century,

the French government before the Revolution, and Nazis and Stalin governments, are all analogous to the present Nagaland state government.

The author even goes on to say, after describing the use of water cannons, etc., against teachers, “Before things got to the stage of the Government’s Final Solution for the Nagas, we decided to rise, en masse, and find our own solution.”

Jews throughout the world have been accused of “using” the Final Solution (otherwise known as the Holocaust or Shoah in Hebrew) too frequently and for political reasons. And other ethnic groups have used and abused the words as well. But to use it here, as an analogy for the present Nagaland situation, is absurd and to many Holocaust survivors and academics, it would be insulting. Putting aside numbers (six million Jews gassed, shot, etc., versus, what? Three in this latest incident, and even in relation to these three, there is a Judicial Inquiry Commission to be formed to examine what exactly happened), the analogy itself is nonsensical. Jews versus Nazis, Naga people versus who?

Naga politicians? Corrupt Nagas? Nagas planning to exterminate all other Nagas? Is the author joking?

Here is what happened to the author, not just in this article, but in articles leading up to this one: he emotionally came to his conclusions about the Nagaland state government and then used his considerable intellect and writing abilities to find the most brutal analogies to it he could find. In other words, his intellect was used to rationalize is emotions, rather than using his intellect to test the accuracy and truth of his emotions.

Does the author really want the reader to believe that the present Nagaland state government is similar to the French Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette?, to the Russian Empire of Tsar Nicholas II?, to the British under George III? If so, he is not familiar with the situation leading up to the revolutions against those regimes. For example, the author quotes the famous colonel American cry, “’No taxation without representation.” Well, during the colonial period, the Americans literally had NO REPRESENTATION in the British parliament, when certain taxes were voted on that affected the colonists in America. In Nagaland, the people have representatives whom they themselves voted in, both in the state legislature and in the Centre Houses of Parliament.

If there is any complaint to be made it should be made about the NSCN (IM) for coercing taxes out of

the people, taxes being paid to members of the NSCN (IM) who were not elected by the people! But the Naga people are too afraid to change that situation; it is easier to go after a government which, even though it is suffused with corruption, certainly does not have the same power to intimidate and coerce as the NSCN (IM).

The author talks about “mass protests on the streets.” He also quotes the Father of American civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau: “’Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we succeed, or shall we transgress them at once?’”

The above quotes, from the author and from Thoreau, are a slight of hand by the author, a deception. Those quotes are fundamentally misleading.

The nature of civil disobedience is that you perform your protest, and if it is illegal, you calmly accept arrest by the police, making your point to the greater public that it is an unjust law you are disobeying and by disobeying it and being arrested you are hoping that the greater public will force, through public pressure, the reformation of the unjust law. That is what happened during the 1950s and 1960s in America, when African Americans sat in at segregated restaurants and sat in the front of the bus, reserved, by law, for whites.

That is NOT what has happened here. The Nagaland police force, for all practical purposes, does not exist.

The JCC and the NTAC have not disobeyed a law and allowed themselves to be arrested. They did not “protest,” in the Thoreau, Gandhi, or King sense of the word “protest.” They have committed assaults, burned property, threatened and intimidated women, and committed other criminal acts.

And the fact that the author has decided to rationalize all this destruction and bloodshed due to the “primitive” nature of the Naga public does not change the nature of their acts.

They’ve acted like a mob of intimidating and violent people, not just the JCC and the NTAC, but the AYO and other youth groups like them, and also let us not forget, the women going along with them.

Unlike the situation in colonial America and pre-revolutionary France and Russia, the judicial system in India is a viable one, proven by the fact that the NMA used it successfully. The JCC and those following it chose to take the illegal route and that cannot be excused because they are “primitive.” They’re not primitive, they’re simply violent, Nagas who decided that they had a better chance of getting what they wanted by using violence than by using the courts.

in the windscreen to analyze as things as major roadblocks and bends are clearly visible in advance before things take an unprecedented turns. But somewhat like during the renovation of a house, one must live through several quarters of dirt, noise and mess before the new and the better structure becomes visible.

Tribe had always been an enigma to others and a potential point to play divisive politics to their whims.

The reasons were obvious as every Nagas no matter whom or what holds their utmost loyalty to their own tribes except for some probable Judas Iscariots who are found in any race.

Shakespeare’s greatest plays were his tragedies. In each one, he demonstrated how humans beings fail to rise above their human frailties, including their human impulses. It would be a real tragedy if we Nagas fail to see those writings in the walls by the present 371A in the name of development, progress or modernity. It was not only deterrence but redemption. The unfolding and inescapable reality lately was a signs of things to come and more to come in future. It is an understandable fact that the pace of societal change has far accelerated beyond our capacity of Naga adaptability of social mores and psyche.

We are no longer in a world where a community can cocoon themselves and survive alone; nor can our domestics interests prevail forever over the realities of progress and emerging concerns. But compromising our timeless traditions of self governance and deep rooted cultural hegemony became threatened when the ULB elections with land and building tax, women reservation came rushing along with it .

In a land where people’s voice is a cheap and useless, political decisions and proceedings are sacrificed at the altar of cheap rhetoric; things are unlikely to improve until there is a mob driven catastrophe which is very disheartening. Only then will the eyes of our leadership open. Very often we under estimate the voice of the masses and takes pleasure in

overriding them for our vested gains.

It will be illuminating if we start realizing our problems and start finding solutions based on people’s will rather than on few leaders who wants to gain political mileage from it. However the challenges remain .In a nutshell, the silent majority who has watched all these have now come together. The Naga pride bestowed by Art.371A was nearly lost by the madness of some over-zealous feminists.

The sins of omission and commission of the past will always haunt and cast their shadows over the present scenario. Why should some of our state legal mandarins hobnobbing with the government always harp on the Centre’s decision over us? History, in its convoluted logic, will remind us that without the peripheries perhaps there is no Centre. To come to the government’s apathy and adamant attitude it was clearly indifferent which allowed all these problems like a festering wound to ooze out its pus all over the flesh of the land.

Despite all these, today the church remains the Last Bastion to salvage our sanity and a much needed healing in our sick land. Therefore it should be the initiator of much needed solutions in times such as this. Let it find a way when even there seems not to be. Searching for moral saviors in this stubborn set of conflicts and troubled hours is never futile but is worth trying which will pay off rich dividends. In such trying times, the church remains only the most potent, influential body and has the capacity to hand the white flag to all the different groups in these warring moments. It must always stand for a negotiated settlement to all disputes and welcome any accord that will reduce violence and conflicts of interests. Let us all regard it lest we may become some sort of an Atheist Republic.

The challenges we face today requires a coordinated, concerted and combined efforts which of course again requires us to remember what we were, what we are and what we will be. Let us be strong enough to stand alone, be ourselves to stand apart, but let us be wise enough to stand together when time comes.

The will of the righteous people

T

Imlisanen Phom

here is no greater heart than the heart of a volunteer. The brave hearts have finally decided to take the stand. The History of Nagaland is finally being reedited. The Public of Nagaland has awakened from their long slumber.

The dark, powerful and crafty spell of the politicians has expired. The people have finally decided to not be pushed around by the ideologies or their elected politicians. Tribalism has taken a good beating as all tribes are working together for a common cause. Nagaland not for sale is slogan. The Chief Minister’s resignation is the demand of the people. After a long time the politicians have come to realize that the voice of the people cannot be ignored as in the past days. In these few days the politicians in Nagaland have learned to appreciate the value of a good night sleep. Above all they have learned the true meaning of freedom, that it is a gift from LORD almighty and is guaranteed by the ‘public’. Anytime this gift of freedom can be take away by the public and that their position as politicians would not matter at all when they find themselves helplessly imprisoned behind the their own residence/hotels/resorts.

The quicker the politicians learn that the ‘do anything and get away ticket’ which was enjoyed abundantly by many politicians in the past 1970’s and 1980’s has found it place among fairy tales like Cinderella and snow-white and stop fantasizing over the past glory and slap themselves to reality of the 21St Century the better for all.

I fell sorry and sad for the precious lives lost and those who got hurt. I also feel sorry for Chief Minister and the NPF party. The people who lost their precious lives must have not seen it coming. The Chief Minister could be finding it difficult to imagine that fate can change so fast. It is a tragedy that NPF party has be branded as “anti people party” by their own people.

Even BJP is being dragged in for the current mess and all the Cabinet ministers have landed in the same frying pan where our Chief Minister is already deep fried. The speaker is also in the firing line. Even Mr. Rio and Mr. Imkong Imchen are being chewed by their own former NPF party. It is unfortunate that T.R Zeliang has become a serious political liability for the BJP as well as for its own party.

It is clearly visible, the biggest threat for NPF at the present situation is not from the outside but from

within its own party. The public of Nagaland has already started calling NPF as “anti people party” because of the present Chief Minister’s refusal to listen to its people. If NPF do not listen to the demand of the people, the NPF could end up being ‘permanently’ branded as the anti people party. This permanent branding of anti people party could cause irreparable damage to the party than the chief minters resigning from his post. It may be too late to save the Chief Minister however there is still time to save the brand image of NFP. If the Present Chief minister is a real gentleman and has concern for his Party image, fellow legislators and above all the voice of the public demanding his resignation then he should voluntarily steeped down by now.

President Richard Nixon voluntary resigned as the president of the United States of America. Yes, he resigned over a completely different issue however the point is he listened to the voice of the people. To top it all, he had the guts to go live on Tv and admit his mistake and apologized by giving a heart moving speech. Now that’s a real gentleman. Richard Nixon resigned as the president of United Sates but he did it with all his dignity and honour intact. That’s one way the Chief Minister can go too. Of course one can always improvise.

T.R. Zeliang could be living his nightmares. Yet he must consider himself fortunate and be grateful to God as he is not being asked to reign over corruption charges like PDS(Rice) scam, oil(Kerosene) scam, fuel adulteration, misuse of Government funds, sex scandal, etc.

It should also comfort him greatly because he is not the first one to step down as Chief Minister of Nagaland and he won’t be the last one either.

It would be naïve to think that he did not know what he was getting into when he took the seat of Chief Minister. He must have known that times like this would come. Now, it is upon the Chief Minister if he has the strength to suppress his ego and listen to the voice of the people or continue to grab unto his position as Chief Minister and behave like a stubborn kid refusing to listen even to his closest friends.

It would also greatly benefit all; if the NFP media cell could tone down their use of vicious words against the Naga tribal bodies by calling the Tribal bodies ‘non-governmental players’ and ‘delusional’. The NPF media cell went to the extent of referring the Tribal bodes as “they.” Here are some questions to the NPF. Did

“they” not vote you to power? Did “they” not trust you when you made big promises of peace and prosperity? Did “they” not put their lives at risk when they went campaigning for you? Did “they” not go door to door to win voters for you? Did “they” not begged and lied for you just so that you could win? Back then “they” were so very precious, now “they” have become “non- governmental players” and “delusional.” Remember “they” will be much needed in the coming election, and yes “they” will determine your party’s fate. The party that’s stands for Naga People's Front should not treat its own people like trash.

The recent T.R Zeliang’s radio speech lacked the Spirit of regret although it contained the words. Not because his speech did not contain the lines which said “I immediately resign as the Chief Minister of Nagaland” but because his speech went something like first he tried to justify his actions and only at the end of his speech he brought up the matter of the precious lives lost. By all means he could have started his speech by apologizing for the loss of lives yet he did not. The way he placed the subject of lives lost at the end of the speech shows his lack of concern for human souls and his stubbornness.

Like the story of Jonah in the Bible. The NPF ship is caught in a divine storm and is about to sink. The question is will the chief minister like Jonah say ‘throw me over’ to save his fellow sailors or will he drag all down together. Even more curious is what the other legislators in the sinking NPF ship thinking? They know this man has to go or they all go down together. What will they do? May God give the legislators the wisdom to do what is right and not fight over who is right? Looks like the Chief Minister got less than what he hoped for, but more than he expected.

The volunteers are doing a great job. It is no fun to be sitting the hot sun and protesting for days. It takes discipline, dedication and Sacrifice to achieve such goals. Yet what has to be done has to be done, for the heart problem of the people, is the peoples heart problem. Let the present people’s movement be a lesson for the present as well as the next Government which will be soon in charge that the voice of the people can no more be ignored at any cost or else they too will be brought to justice by the people. The will of the righteous people is the voice of the righteous people and guess what? The ‘will of the Righteous people’ always prevails. God bless our Nagaland.

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.

Sunday 19•02•2017

EntErtainmEnt

Mick Jagger refuses to have his memoir published

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he Rolling Stones star Mick Jagger has written a 75,000word memoir, but is refusing to publish it.

The 73-year-old icon penned the memoir in the late 1970s, when the Rolling Stones co-founder was given 1 million pound for the project. But he decided against publishing it and handed the money back, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The memoir is in the hands of writer and publisher John Blake as of now, who revealed in an article that he has it stored in a "secret hiding place".

"So far as I have been able to ascertain, a publisher rejected the manuscript because it was light on sex and drugs. In the early 1980s, when it was written, shock and awe was a vital part of any successful autobiography," Blake told The Spectator magazine.

"Read now, however, it is a little masterpiece. A perfectly preserved time capsule written when the Stones had produced all their great-

est music but still burned with the passion and fire of youth and idealism," he added.

Blake also claimed the book shows a different side of the rock legend.

"The book shows a quieter, more watchful Mick than the fast-living caricature. He describes the little room he'd retreat to backstage before a performance, where he'd hide away, sizing up the audience.

"All that famous partying had to wait till afterwards. Those extravagant feasts that rumour had it the Stones demanded backstage: caviar, vintage champagne, stuffed quails... they never ate any of it. They took their shows far too seriously for that.

"He had carbs for an early lunch.

Then water, 'maybe eight pints', because he'd lose ten pints on stage," Blake added. Meanwhile, Joyce Smyth, The Rolling Stones' manager, has confirmed the existence of the book, but said that Blake would not be allowed to publish it.

Source: IANS

Christina Grimmie's family releases new single 'Invisible' by late singer

M

ore than eight months after she was shot and killed in Orlando, Christina Grimmie’s family has released her new song. The proceeds from Invisible will go toward a memorial foundation that the family is setting up in the name of the young star who rocketed to fame on The Voice.

Christina's brother Marcus said the new song will help build the legacy of his sister who was 22 when she was murdered by a deranged fan on June 10. The family are still trying to decide 'what to have the foundation exactly be about,' Marcus told Elvis Duran on iHeart Radio's morning

show on Thursday, 'She was super passionate about breast cancer awareness, animal safety, anti-bullying there are so many things. So we are just figuring out what's the best way to allocate the funds,' the 24-year-old explained. Marcus revealed his sister left '50 to 60 songs that are finished vocally' so expect more releases to follow. Invisible is particularly poignant because it includes the lyrics: 'You're gonna see my light blaze back to life.'

Christina was shot in the head and chest last June by James Loibi while signing autographs near her merchandise table af-

Jimmy Kimmel gets pep talk from Morgan Freeman

C M Y K

J

immy Kimmel, who will be hosting Oscars this years, got a pep talk from veteran actor Morgan Freeman ahead of

his stint at the 89th Academy Awards ceremony.

In a clip released on the official Oscars YouTube channel, Freeman has lent

and an opportunity to be the toast of the town," Freeman can be heard saying.

Freeman continues saying the hosting gig will either be "an opportunity to be the toast of the town" or a "chance to bomb so fantastically, everywhere he goes people would say, 'look at sucky sucko --he had his shot, and man, did he blow it in front of billions'".

Kimmel's eyebrows furrow, and he tells Freeman, who is standing right next to him, that his words aren't encouraging.

"Well, fine. Do your own damn pep talk," Freeman says at the end of the video.

Oscars will air in India his voice to help the "Jimmy on February 27, while "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airs on Kimmel Live" host.

"James 'Jimmy' Kim- Star World and Star World mel. A man on the preci- HD in the country.

Source: IANS pice of hosting the Oscars

K-pop's growing pains

S

even South Korean pop groups have split up in the last 12 months two since the beginning of 2017 raising questions about the future of the manufactured and wildly popular music genre, which has taken Asia by storm.

Mega group Wonder Girls released their final single last Friday. The decade-old group was the first K-pop act to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 with their hit "Nobody" in 2009. Industry figures point to 2017 as a "pivotal" and "transitional," year for K-pop, with some wondering about the genre's future. Fans on Twitter, from as far as St. Louis, Missouri, to the Philippines, were lament-

ing about an "era ending."

"It's pretty sad to see these groups disband," said Paul Han, co-founder of allkpop, a site for K-pop gossip and news, which has 10 million monthly readers worldwide. "You could see that their popularity has waned from their peak and naturally they receive less promotions and eventually disband."

In January, "Kings of K-pop" Big Bang played their last concert before going on hiatus after dominating the charts for 10 years. Girl groups Kara, 2NE1, 4Minute, I.O.I and Rainbow have disbanded after multi-year careers that saw them sell millions of albums and fill stadiums across the globe.

gets Legendary Award

M

elody Queen Lata Mangeshkar has been honoured with the Legendary Award

by Brand Laureate. The Brand Laureate Awards recognise world-class achievement in branding amongst individuals and companies. "Heartfelt thank you to "The Brand Laureate" for honouring

A

released.

Power Rangers, adapted from Saban’s TV series of the same name, is gearing up for launch with a minute-long trailer that sums up the teenage superhero film’s premise.

“Me and four kids found a space ship buried underground,” explains Trini, the Yellow Ranger. “I’m pretty sure I’m a super hero.”

Adapting the 1990s TV

series, Power Rangers stars Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G and Ludi Lin as the five teens who unearth alien technology that enables them to acquire superhuman powers.

Those power must be used for good to deal with alien invader Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) who is searching for the very same tech that gave the Power Rangers their abilities.

Power Rangers is scheduled for a March 24 release.

Source: APF

me with the "Legendary Award" 2017," Mangeshkar, 87, posted on Twitter alongside the pictures of the award.

In 2012, Shah Rukh Khan was honoured with the Brand Laureate Legendary Award for his unmatched contribution to Indian Cinema. The Brand Laureate Legend-

ary Award has been earlier given to the likes of former South African president Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, Indian businessman Ratan Tata, late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Marck Zuckerburg and F1 ace Michael Schumacher.

Now ShowiNg ReviSed TiCKeT RaTeS (Silver) : `.120 (Gold) : `. 200 (Recliner) : `. 400

10:00 aM, 02:50 PM 07:50 PM

Source: PTI

Little Rascals Star Weds

12:30 PM & 05:30 PM

Hillstar

"K-pop really garnered an external following outside of Asia," said Tamar Herman, who covers K-pop for Billboard.com.

The recent splits come down to a number of reasons. K-pop music contracts usually last seven years, said Herman, and with many of the biggest acts starting out in 2009 and 2010, it means more groups could disband soon.

Still, it's fair to say that many Kpop acts have outlasted or at least matched the lifespan of many Western pop groups -- the Spice Girls lasted four years, Destiny's Child at nine, *NSYNC seven and One Direction at six.

NOW SHOWING Jolly ll.B 2

Source: CNN

The new Power Rangers trailer wants you to go go! new trailer for the summer action movie Power Rangers has been

Source: Mail Online

Lata Mangeshkar

Why Asia's biggest bands are splitting up

K-pop emerged in South Korea in the early 1990s, and labels such as JYP, DSP and YG built the nation's pop industry from the ground up, creating a training scheme that churned out stars for music, soap operas and movies.

In 2009, the genre first came to global attention with the Wonder Girls, who opened for the Jonas Brothers on their tour. Then in 2011, Big Bang released "Alive," which was the first Korean-language K-pop album to make the Billboard 200. But it was PSY in 2012 who really cemented its popularity when his single "Gangnam Style" rose to No. 2 on the Billboard 100 and almost broke YouTube.

ter a show at The Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida.

At Christina's funeral her family asked that donations be sent to a scholarship established in her name, the Christina Grimmie Scholarship Fund For The Performing Arts at Cherokee High School in Marlton, New Jersey.

11:00 AM | 05:00 PM

F

ormer child star Bug Hall, who portrayed Alfalfa in 1994 movie Little Rascals, took to Instagram this week to celebrate after Jill Marie DeGroff became his wife. He shared two side-by-side snaps of the couple exchanging vows at the altar and walking down the church steps after the ceremony.

The wedding reunited Bug with his Little Rascals co-star Zachary Mabry, who served as a groomsman alongside Wizards of Waverly Place cast member David Henrie.

Bug, 32, previously gushed about Jill in a sweet social media post in the weeks leading up to their big day. Alongside a picture of the couple, he wrote, "I have never felt so much good in my life as when I'm with this woman whom is soon to be my bride, and that is the lesser good of love, because I have also never been a better man than the one I am with her.

THAT is true love. I will never cease to grow each day to be the man that she deserves."

Source: Contactmusic

The Ghazi aTTack

02:00 PM | 08:00 PM

12

SunDAY 19•02•2017

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

UFC boss says GSP comeback is on Juve rout Palermo with Dybala double

C M Y K

neW yOrK, February 18 (aGenCieS): UFC president Dana White says the deal is done.

Georges St-Pierre says nothing official yet.

GSP's cage comeback continues to be a windy road, it seems.

Speculation has been mounting in recent days that the former UFC welterweight champion is about to end his hiatus from mixed

martial arts and return to action.

On Friday, White confirmed it to the Los Angeles Times.

"He's back. I'm excited," White told the newspaper. "We worked at it for a long time and finally got it done."

But St-Pierre (25-2-0) was not willing to jump back on the bandwagon quite yet.

"Nothing official yet," the Mon-

treal fighter told The Canadian Press via text. "No opponent, no date."

St-Pierre has cited ups and downs over the last six months in negotiations with the UFC, saying he has learned from the past "to not be too excited for nothing."

Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is due to fight Stephen (Wonderboy) Thompson in a title

rematch on March 4 at UFC 209, so St-Pierre would have to wait his turn to get his 170-pound title back.

White told the Times that St-Pierre had also talked about dropping down to lightweight (155 pounds), a division that now belongs to mega-star (The Notorious) Conor McGregor.

The 35-year-old St-Pierre has not fought since Nov. 16, 2013, at UFC 167 when he won a narrow decision over Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks for his 12th straight victory.

A month later, he announced he was vacating his title and stepping away from the sport.

Citing the pressures of being champion and of being in a constant limelight, St-Pierre said his life has become "completely insane" and a "freaking zoo."

St-Pierre has travelled the world since, but kept training and never shut the door on a return — even when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and had to undergo surgery.

He has sparred with the UFC over drug-testing and declared himself a free agent last October, citing failed negotiations with the UFC's new ownership. In November, he was also one of the marquee names behind the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association, formed to protect UFC fighters and help get them their fair share of the sport's revenue.

The UFC could use St-Pierre, with McGregor awaiting the birth of his child and Ronda Rousey's future up in the air. In his heyday, StPierre was a pay-per-view magnet.

GSP's return would also pump life into the sport in Canada, which has seen fewer live shows in recent years.

Sharath Kamal cruises into India Open quarters

neW DeLhi, February 17 (ianS): Indian star Achanta Sharath Kamal thrashed Yuto Muramatsu of Japan to cruise into the quarter-finals of the India Open table tennis tournament here on Friday.

The 11th seeded Indian dominated from the start to script a 11-8, 11-7, 11-4, 14-16, 11-4 victory. It was a cakewalk for top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov as well as the world No. 5 from Germany eased into the men's singles quarter-finals with a comfortable 11-3, 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 victory over Portugal's Joao Geraldo. Kamal built up a 6-3 lead before the fourth seeded Japanese rallied to equalise. But Ka-

mal reeled off the points to take the first game quite comfortably.

The Chennai-born paddler hardly faced any resistance from the fourth seed in the next two games, winning them with ease but the Japanese staged a strong comeback in the next game. Muramatsu enjoyed a strong start to the fourth game as he opened up a 5-2 lead. But the Indian fought back to take the lead at 6-5.

With Kamal enjoying a two-point lead, the Japanese did well to draw level at 9-9. It continued to a neck-and-neck affair before an unforced error by Kamal handed Muramatsu the lead at 15-14. The Japanese then outfoxed Kamal

in the next rally to take the game. Kamal then took the next game quite easily to clinch the match. Earlier, Ovtcharov stamped his authority in style, crushing Abdulazil Al-Abbad of Saudi Arabia in the first round before brushing aside world No. 96 Joao Geraldo of Portugal in the pre-quarter-finals. The four-time Olympic medallist was in red-hot form on the day and dictated terms from the word go against 21-year-old Geraldo.

Repeatedly outfoxing Geraldo with fiery returns and smashes, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist took just 15 minutes to outplay the Portuguese. But it was a disappointing day for

the hosts in the women's section. Archana Kamath was the lone Indian girl to enter the pre-quarter-finals on the day. But she failed to progress to the last eight stage as she lost to Sakura Mori of Japan 11-3, 13-11, 5-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-4.

She had earlier defeated compatriot Ayhika Mukherjee 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10. India coach Massimo Constantini was, however, happy with his ward's performance.

"It was good overall because they played with higher rated players. For their opponents today, it is a very regular thing to play a match where they have to make the top eight. But for our players, making the top

Bagan go level on points with East Bengal KOLKaTa, February 18 (ianS): Mohun Bagan rode Balwant Singh's two goals in two minutes to edge past DSK Shivajians 3-1 and go level on points with cross-town football rivals East Bengal at the top of the I-League table at the Rabindra Sarovar Sadium on Saturday.

Balwant -- preferred ahead of Jeje Lalpekhlua in the starting XI -- scored in the 42nd and 44th minute after Milan Singh had given the visitors a well-deserved lead in the 33rd minute.

Yusa Katsumi put the match beyond doubt with a goal from the spot in the 89th minute.

Bagan are now on 21 points from nine outings

while Shivajians remained sixth with 10 points from the same number of ties.

One minute's silence was observed for the Bagan faithful who breathed his last while returning from the Kolkata derby in a train accident recently.

The visitors wore a defensive look packing their midfield with five men.

Bagan got the home crowd going in the 10th minute when Pronay Halder released Balwant on the left hand channel but the striker could only muster a corner.

Playmaker Juan Quero was looking good for the visitors and in the 18th minute waltzed around Bagan players to earn a free kick.

The first real chance of

the half fell to Shivajians when Sumeet Passi swivelled sharply to find Quero who drew keeper Debjit Mazumdar out of his line and save well.

Bagan defence were at sixes and sevens and their midfield lacked vision.

Norde, dogged by his knee injury, looked off the boil.

Rightly, the Dave Rogers side took the lead. Milan tucked in from close after the impressive Quero beat Eduardo Ferreira with his trickery and pace to set him up.

Stung by the goal, coach Sanjoy Sen brought in Prabir Das in place of Sehnaj Singh.

Three minutes to halftime, Bagan equalised as full-back Pritam Kotal

whipped in a cross from the right which Subrata Paul got a hand to but only as far as Balwant who nodded in.

There was more joy for the green and maroon brigade in the 44th minute when Balwant scored a peach of a goal from another Kotal cross.

In the second half, Bagan looked a completely different side with Norde operating in full tilt. The Haitian international first set up Duffy and then Katsumi but both failed to do anything of note.

In the dying minutes, substitute Jeje was brought down inside the box by Gouramangi with Katsumi making no mistake from the resultant penalty.

Would love to play in ICC Champions Trophy: Nehra

neW DeLhi, February 18 (ianS): Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra on Saturday expressed his wish to be a part of the India squad for the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy, to be held in England in June.

Nehra, who last played in the 50-over format in the 2011 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan, said his vast experience of bowling at any stage of an innings makes him one of the best candidates in the pace bowling department for the tournament.

"I would love to play in the Champions Trophy," Nehra was quoted as say-

ing by espncricinfo.

"When you go to England you will take at least four fast bowlers in addition to two spinners. I know I can bowl anywhere: up front, in the middle overs and at death. I can also

share the experience I have with the other young fast bowlers," he added.

Nehra, who has been an integral feature of the Twenty20 set-up for the men-in-blue, wants to test his fitness in the upcoming

Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over tournament, where the 37-yearold intends to play at least half of Delhi's six fixtures.

"I aim to play at least three matches to build up my match-fitness. Fifty overs is a different challenge and Vijay Hazare is a good platform to test myself," he said.

"I bowl about eight overs even in the nets while preparing for a T20 match.

It is not about fitness. It is about the feel of playing in a 50-over match."

"Once I play these matches I will be fit enough to play and good to go for the Champions Trophy," he added.

eight is a big, exceptional event. "I am pretty much happy with their performance. We still have a lot of work to do. This is my first tournament in charge after many years away from India. I got a good perspective from several players and that gives a good prospect for the future," he added.

"This was a very simple test for us. This is not the end of the world. We were up against good opponents and our players did their best. Most importantly, our players played with the right attitude and right spirit. Our execution was not so good because otherwise they would have won, but the performance was good overall."

Turin, February 18 (ianS): Argentine forward Paulo Dybala fired a brace as Juventus eased past Palermo 4-1 to take a 10-point lead at the top of the Serie A football league at the Juventus Stadium here.

Dybala's superb freekick in the 40th minute and a late 89th-minute strike sealed win for the Turin giants, who were ahead by Claudio Marchisio's first goal of the campaign in the 13th minute. Gonzalo Higuain too scored his 12th goal in 10 games in the 63rd minute.

Juventus got off to an electric start on a night centre-back Leonardo Bonucci made his 300th appearance for the club and could have gone 1-0 up in the fifth minute but a Dybala free-kick bounced off the Palermo left post.

Eight minutes later, however, Massimiliano Allegri's men found the lead as Marchisio pounced on a fumble from away goalkeeper Josip Posavec following a Dani Alves free-

kick to ram home with his left foot.

The visitors were briefly galvanised and were perhaps unfortunate not to immediately conjure up an equaliser. The home defence was penetrated twice down the flanks with first goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, himself making a landmark 443rd Juventus appearance, and then Kwadwo Asamoah both called into action to deny wideman Norbert Balogh from restoring parity, according to Juventus' website.

Juventus later killed Palermo's challenge in the 38th minute as former Palermo star Dybala curled in a breautiful free-kick over the wall to double the lead.

In the second half, Higuain latched onto Dybala's precise through pass before dinking over Palermo goalkeeper Posavec to almost give a cosy evening 27 minutes from time.

With Palermo out for the count, there was even time for Dybala to double his tally

for the evening moments before the end of normal time, rolling into the corner from his strike partner Higuain's clever back-heel lay-off on the edge of the box.

Palermo pulled one back in the injury time with a header from Ilvalyo Chochev but the hosts walked away winners, pocketing three points that took their tally to 63 points -- 10 more than second-placed Roma, who face Torino on Sunday.

"The lads played well.

It was a dangerous fixture and these matches can prove crucial in the title race. Our focus dropped a touch at times during the first half after we took the lead. That, along with the goal we conceded, is something we have to avoid," coach Allegri told Juventus website.

"Either way we had barely any hairy moments but, as I've said, this was anything but a gimme win.

We played nice football in patches, although our ball possession was a little laboured in the first period."

Open Naga Wrestling Championship 2017 registration forms available

KOhima, February 18 (mexn): The Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA) has informed all the interested wrestlers that the registration form for participation in 11th Open Naga Wrestling Championship 2017 scheduled on March 10 is available.

The forms are available at Sports World, Near Bible House, Kohima Town; United Sports Agency, Nya-

mo Lotha Road Dimapur; Lucanus Pharmacy, Opposite SBI Office, Medziphema Town; A to Z Book Stall, Pfutsero; Manna Agro Seed Agency, Phek Town; Cekhwuto Stationary Shop, Chozuba Town; Friends Book House, Jalukie; and K.N.L Grocery Shop, Peren.

NWA, General Secretary, Vekhozo in a press release informed that the last date of form submission is fixed

on March 5 at NWA Office AMK Building, Room#18, opposite Congress Bhavan.

Also there will be general body meeting on March 25 at NWA Office at AMK Building Room#18, Opposite Congress Bhavan at 11:00 am. Therefore, all the NWA Office bearers, Units Representatives and NWRB Drafting Committee Members are requested to be present without fail.

Pep rules out return to Barcelona

LOnDOn, February 18 (aFP): Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he will never go back to Barcelona as their coach amid growing uncertainty about present incumbent Luis Enrique’s future.

Enrique is out of contract at the Nou Camp at the end of the season, and the chances of him leaving have increased significantly after a calamitous 4-0 defeat away to Paris StGermain in the Champions League on Tuesday.

That result, in the first leg of their last 16 tie, left Barcelona on the brink of elimination from the competition, and they also lag behind bitter rivals Real Madrid in the race to win La Liga.

Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde is reportedly a contender for the job if Enrique leaves, along with Eusebio Sacristan of Real Sociedad and Everton’s Ronald Koeman, who as a player scored the goal that secured them their first European Cup in 1992.

Guardiola, who won 14 trophies in four years as Barcelona’s head coach, says he has no intention of returning to the job he left in 2012.

“No, I will never go back to Barcelona to be coach there. My period there is gone.” Despite their stumbles, Barcelona remain the standard bearers of world football, according to Guardiola. “Barcelona are still the best team in the

world,” said the 46-year-old Spaniard.

“It’s always a surprise because they are so, so good, but in football anything can happen. There’s a lot of competition, the opposition are so strong. You can win heavily or you can lose heavily, that can happen, it’s happened to me, but there are 90 minutes to go and anything can happen.

“If there’s a team who can do it, then it’s Barca, with their mentality. When you have dominated world football, it’s normal that the people expect you to keep up that level, but my advice to you, knowing Luis and the players a little, is not to talk too much, because they will be back and prove you wrong.

“They’ve done it over the years, dominating foot-

ball for 10 years, and they continue to be the best team in the world.”

Guardiola, meanwhile, has suggested the quality of English football would be improved if FA Cup replays were scrapped.

Quarter-final replays were ditched last summer by the Football Association, which had abolished them at the semi-final stage in 1999.

Guardiola would prefer to see further action taken, calling for a system similar either to that used in Spain’s Copa del Rey, where all ties bar the final are played over two legs, or Germany’s Cup competition, where drawn matches are decided with extra-time and penalties, without the need for a replay.

“In Spain, we play two

games. I prefer that situation,” he said.

“Maybe for the amount of games played, extratime and penalties would be good. But OK, I’m not here to decide the rules of how we play the competition, I’m here to play the competition in the way that the chairmen and the important people decide.

“I prefer the quality over the quantity. Not only here in England, all around the world. It’s a big mistake, so many games. You have to allow people to go to the theatres, the cinemas, the good restaurants and not play every game in front of the TV. We’re going to kill the players.

“We could have the same quality, same intensity but a few less games. That is just my point of view.”

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