Ram:
I was hoping NOT to have to respond to this gem from the
Sentinel. But you leave me with little choice. So here we are:
Usually, when I try to analyze something like this piece, I avoid
the style and focus on the substance or the lack thereof. I avoid the
style, because it involves language proficiency and few, if any of us
ESL types are in a position to take issue someone else's English
language proficiency. But since you mentioned"---I think it was
well written--", I will look at this aspect also to see how it
pans out.
T his is not to explain what the voice of the ULFA is. The
people of Asom know well what this voice means, what this voice seeks,
and how this voice has 'liberated' them, including, of course, the
outfit's latest brand of ''freedom struggle'' - use of children and
students in planting explosives.
*** Liberated them?
I didn't realize that ULFA liberated anyone. And if it did not,
why so? Would it be reasonable to surmise that it was foiled by
GoI, with active support from the likes of the Sentinel? If that is a
reasonable conclusion, then what is the SUBSTANCE of this taunt in
this opening paragraph? Is it not 'xaap hoi khwta aaru bez hoi zoraa'
?
And would even a barely respectable paper indulge in such
juvenile writing in its editorial? Would you Ram, if you were in that
position?
So what we want to explain here is how the voice of the ULFA
has been perfectly duplicated by some so-called civil society groups
like the People's Committee for Peace Initiative in Asom (PCPIA). The
PCPIA, as though it has earned a divine contract to represent the
people of the State, has called an Asom bandh today demanding: 1)
direct peace talks between the Government of India and the ULFA; 2)
release of five top jailed ULFA leaders; and 3) immediate withdrawal
of Army operations from the State.
*** Divine contract?
Do people of Assam require a divine contract, or
even the blessing of the Sentinel, to express and press for what they
have been? Are they not 'people'? Isn't this editorial implying
that since this group does not reflect the Sentinel's views, it not
only does not have the right to express its views, its views are also
thoroughly illegitimate.
And that from a rag that waves the virtues of a "Liberal
Indian Democracy" ! You go figure that.
Clearly, the PCPIA - the voice of the ULFA - has missed
quite a few pertinent points, and these points are refreshingly
simple.
*** REFRESHINGLY simple? Oh, brother! This damned English
language again!!
Good thing the writer told us though. Surely would have missed it
otherwise.
The first point, then, is obvious: you cannot hold the State
to ransom by calling a bandh, thereby crippling the economy of an
already beleaguered State economy, if you think that you should be
defined as a civil society group. Any answer, PCPIA?
*** PCPIA eibar burhar haatot sengeli porise.
Got them by their you-know-whats! This writer ought to teach advanced
editorial writing in some UGC approved university at the very
least.
you cannot hold the State to ransom by calling a bandh,
----you should be defined as a civil society group.
*** Got 'em again! Or so the editorial writer thought, didn't he?
No wonder she is so impressed with her own REFRESHING cleverness!
Right?
Wikipedia defines : Civil society comprises the totality of
voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form
the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of
a
state
(regardless of that state's political system).
So you decide right or wrong.
No civil society group, in any civilized society, would call a
bandh as today's; however, when an organization acts as a frontal
organization of an underground outfit and represents a view as
partisan as the PCPIA's, and, more important, when such an
organization masquerades as a civil society group, a bandh as today's
is but natural.
*** Heh-heh! So all the hartals, strikes, bandhs and gheraos that
define India and its underclasses' struggles, for the right reasons
and the wrong reasons, are unbecoming of a CIVILZED society.
Good thing there is someone who does know what IS civilized and
is educating the great unwashed of not only Assam but also that great
'liberal-democracy' whose liberties assure the people of such tools of
public protest!
And of course if an organization or a group of people identifies
with the ULFA the UNDERGROUND org. then they must automatically be
labeled an ULFA front, and thus forfeit the right to protest like all
the myriads of others do every week.
The question I have is this: Does the Sentinel think or
believe that ULFA is composed of just those few who are in
hiding, wherever they are, and that no other CIVILIZED person or
persons just might support them or be associated with them?
If that is what it thinks, what do you, Netters, think, of this
rag's sense of reality?
______________________________________________________________________________
So much for today. More later.
Do tell us what you think so far Ram.
c-da :-)
At 6:37 PM -0500 10/19/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
C'da,
>Before this allergy sufferer exposes itself to the allergen you spread >over assamnet :-),
And now I feel like a bee :)
>WHAT do YOU think of the piece?
I think it was well written and made points that we have often discussed on the net, and of course, which you have been able to spin well (successfully, I might add) :).
I have highlighted certain portions, which I thought are relevant. Nowadays it seems 'peace' groups are being spawned left and right. Each claiming to represent "people", but in reality representing the ulfa or some such group. These sound more like mouthpieces than anything else. But then, what do I know - the word "people" exists, so these must definitely represent the voice of the people - whether they (the people) like it or not.
>Once I can figure out where and how you stand, I may have a thing >or two by way of analysis to put forth :-).
Oh! I am sure you do. We just want to be sure, you don't miss mentioning the historical significance, and the underlying reasoning behind the whole insurgecy problem. :)
--Ram
On 10/19/06, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Ram:
Before this allergy sufferer exposes itself to the allergen you spread over assamnet :-), WHAT do YOU think of the piece? Which parts struck a chord with you, and why?
Once I can figure out where and how you stand, I may have a thing or two by way of analysis to put forth :-).
c-da
At the risk of stimulating allergic reactions from certain quarters, here is the editorial from today's Sentinel for those who haven't already read it.
______________
The Voice of ULFA
T his is not to explain what the voice of the ULFA is. The people
of Asom know well what this voice means, what this voice seeks, and
how this voice has 'liberated' them, including, of course, the
outfit's latest brand of ''freedom struggle'' - use of children and
students in planting explosives. So what we want to explain here is
how the voice of the ULFA has been perfectly duplicated by some
so-called civil society groups like the People's Committee for Peace
Initiative in Asom (PCPIA). The PCPIA, as though it has earned a
divine contract to represent the people of the State, has called an
Asom bandh today demanding: 1) direct peace talks between the
Government of India and the ULFA; 2) release of five top jailed ULFA
leaders; and 3) immediate withdrawal of Army operations from the
State. Clearly, the PCPIA - the voice of the ULFA - has missed
quite a few pertinent points, and these points are refreshingly
simple. In this we also have a regime of bizarre pro-ULFA and
so-called human rights organizations whose business it seems to be to
bully further the ordinary citizens who are already sandwiched between
the ULFA's terror reign and the consequent Army operations in the
State.
The first point, then, is obvious: you cannot hold the State to
ransom by calling a bandh, thereby crippling the economy of an already
beleaguered State economy, if you think that you should be defined as
a civil society group. Any answer, PCPIA? No civil society group, in
any civilized society, would call a bandh as today's; however, when an
organization acts as a frontal organization of an underground outfit
and represents a view as partisan as the PCPIA's, and, more important,
when such an organization masquerades as a civil society group, a
bandh as today's is but natural. For, such a civil society group would
not bother to look into the fallouts of such a bandh: its murder of
work culture in an already lethargic society, and the message it sends
across to the younger generation. The message is that one can call
bandhs in any random manner and of any random kind as long as one
knows that it means the business of bullying tactics. After all,
people love their lives and the very word ''ULFA'' haunts them. So as
today's bandh goes in the name of the ULFA, one would naturally have
people staying indoors, safe and quiet. And, of course, it also means
an extended Diwali holiday! This will enable the PCPIA to declare what
a success the bandh was. In this column, we have had occasion in the
past to talk about a typically parasitic bandh-culture mechanism in
place that requires the bandh supporters to design the bandh package
in such a way that it adds to the already existing holidays. So, call
a bandh on a Friday or on a Monday so as to have an extended weekend -
so much for the liberation of a people!
The PCPIA wants the release of the five top jailed ULFA leaders
as if this is the only mantra for the success of the peace process in
Asom. What is the guarantee that these ULFA leaders would not jump out
of parole once they are released? Would the PCPIA give us such a
guarantee? Can it? And why should the Government of India be
interested in releasing these jailed ULFA leaders when it has the Anup
Chetia experience to fall back on and when there is no written letter
from the outfit, stating its willingness to sit for direct talks, as
demanded by the Centre? Let the PCPIA also answer this: is it still
civil for an organization that claims itself to be a civil society
group to call a strategic bandh to voice its demand for the release of
five top jailed leaders of an outfit that has already blocked all
avenues of development in the State? Is not the PCPIA, then, making a
tall claim that it is indeed the voice of the ULFA, that it can,
therefore, bully anyone around in the name of the banned outfit, and
that it has chosen to remain ignorant of the nitty-gritty of a peace
process as paradoxical and yet as sensitive as the current one in the
State?
By paradoxical, we exactly mean what the dictionary says: something to do with ''an apparently sound statement or a proposition which leads to a logically unacceptable conclusion''. This peace process as anchored by organizations as the PCPIA starts on a sound note - it is made out to be all about the ''people'' - but leads to conclusions, such as the discourse behind today's illogical bandh call, that are unacceptable simply because peace cannot be one-sided and the PCPIA has given us a whole lot of reasons to believe that it speaks the ULFA language. And we call the peace process sensitive because it involves the future of the State and the future of a threatened Asomiya identity. The peace process is sensitive because it involves a populace that has been forced to bear the brunt of counterinsurgency operations, with their own stories of alleged human rights violations. And, most important, the peace process is sensitive because there are vested interests that want the industry called 'insurgency' to continue. Given all this, it is actually so simple for the ULFA to script the peace chapter in Asom: they can come forward and say, ''We want to talk with the Government of India right now.'' High-sounding e-mails to the media are a futile exercise, the ULFA must know this. Peace is simple if the mind is simple. And the Asomiyas are a simple community. Let the ULFA make a simple gesture of peace. It can directly sit across the negotiating table with the Government of India to talk peace. The Government of India knows what it has to say, and the ULFA too, as one hopes, knows what it has to say. What is the need for a PCPIA or a PCG, then? Did the ULFA consult its five jailed leaders while constituting the PCG?
By paradoxical, we exactly mean what the dictionary says: something to do with ''an apparently sound statement or a proposition which leads to a logically unacceptable conclusion''. This peace process as anchored by organizations as the PCPIA starts on a sound note - it is made out to be all about the ''people'' - but leads to conclusions, such as the discourse behind today's illogical bandh call, that are unacceptable simply because peace cannot be one-sided and the PCPIA has given us a whole lot of reasons to believe that it speaks the ULFA language. And we call the peace process sensitive because it involves the future of the State and the future of a threatened Asomiya identity. The peace process is sensitive because it involves a populace that has been forced to bear the brunt of counterinsurgency operations, with their own stories of alleged human rights violations. And, most important, the peace process is sensitive because there are vested interests that want the industry called 'insurgency' to continue. Given all this, it is actually so simple for the ULFA to script the peace chapter in Asom: they can come forward and say, ''We want to talk with the Government of India right now.'' High-sounding e-mails to the media are a futile exercise, the ULFA must know this. Peace is simple if the mind is simple. And the Asomiyas are a simple community. Let the ULFA make a simple gesture of peace. It can directly sit across the negotiating table with the Government of India to talk peace. The Government of India knows what it has to say, and the ULFA too, as one hopes, knows what it has to say. What is the need for a PCPIA or a PCG, then? Did the ULFA consult its five jailed leaders while constituting the PCG?
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