Northeast Vigil

DEHRA DUN: Issues of the Northeast were eclipsed at a much-hyped workshop deemed to focus on the human rights of marginalised and tribal communities held here in the first week of October. The Northeast could not have fared worse. Activists of the Naga People's Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), the only rights activists from the Northeast, had to return without even uttering a single word at the workshop. A journalist who tried to raise the issue of how difficult it is for both human rights...

It was heartening to see mediapersons being the panelists at a forum on the role of the media. In a random survey of various seminars held on the issue in New Delhi in recent times, one found that among the speakers jurists accounted for 35 per cent, bureaucrats accounted for 35 per cent, politicians were 20 per cent, and mediapersons only 10 per cent. The mediapersons who usually speak at such fora usually belong to the management cadre in media establishments. The hackneyed "role of the media"...

Elections are one psephological carnival in a democracy that politicians revel in celebrating. Like conventional fetishist rituals, elections too are times for a changing. The old order does not changeth yielding place to the new. Just, the old and the relatively old garbs are discarded. Come polls, and you find a host of them in new attires. If they are not in a trendy set of clothes, then they certainly talk different. Such acts have now become intrinsic to the Indian electoral process...

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) has finally come out with the reasons that "necessitated the awarding of capital punishment" to Dally Mungro and two of his associates on 18 August 1999 at Jotsoma village near Kohima in Nagaland. An official statement made available to "Northeast Vigil" said many people from Khaplang's group had approached the NSCN leadership for talks and the latter responded positively. But late Dally and SC Jamir had stopped them and torpedoed the entire...

The tragedy of the Naga political movement has been the annihilation of Nagas by Nagas themselves. Nagas have remained divided along various lines. Radicals and moderates (from killing of Theyieu Sakhrie to that of Kaito Sema) among the insurrectionists themselves. Undergrounds and overgrounds (from killing of Imkongliba Ao to that of the Kevichusa brothers). And somewhere complicating all these delicate equations and rendering all calculations awry are the perennial inter-tribe schisms. And...

How connotations change! Not-so-many years back the term ISI, to Indians, meant integrity, quality. Now to Indians in general and those who belong to the Northeast, particularly Assam, the very term is something to beware of. It is more than just an innocuous appellation - it is anathema. It is an organisation that threatens to destroy the political fabric of the region. Matters, as they are, are bad enough. Ethnic equations are always difficult to understand. But Pakistan's disruptionist agency...

WHAT EXPERTS/ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY THE QUESTIONS: (1) Does the Northeast really need a separate "forest policy"? What can be so special about the Northeast that would merit a separate "forest policy"? (2) If such a policy comes into being, will it actually augur well for the Northeast? what should be the key features of such a policy? (3) The rich biodiversity of the Northeast is well-known. But can a separate forest policy make much of a difference in a situation where the prospects of a...

The moment Swaraj Kaushal's resignation drama came out in the open, political circles have been full of rumours about how much it would harm the ongoing peace talks between the Indian government and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN). After all, Kaushal had been in constant touch with the NSCN leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah over the past one year and more. Just because no political breakthrough has yet been achieved does not necessarily mean Kaushal had made no...

Swaraj Kaushal's allegations against the Prime Minister must be taken more seriously than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary for the Northeast would want one to. With political circles rife with stories that Kaushal had actually been "sacked" or that Kaushal had actually been "removed", the interlocutor for the Indian government decided to go on the offensive. This he did in a first person account which appeared in a New Delhi newspaper on July 25. Whatever might have been the...

Every time cadres of an organisation surrender -be it orchestrated, coerced or voluntary- it is usually the outfit too which stands to gain a lot. A surrender by particular cadres is an act of purification. The doves are purged out, and the hawks remain. Those who stick to the guns are inevitably die-hards who are committed to their cause, whatever it might be. For them, the means and the ends are all that matter. Not so much in the case of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). Those who...