>>>>>>>>>>And in this era of globalization, where boundaries of state
>>>>>>>>>>is an obsolete concept as you all declared, the fact of my being
an ex-pat ought not to be an issue.
If we all agree on this, where is the question of adding a new 'state' in the
map with 'boundaries' and 'colours'? Will this 'state' also not 'wither'
away?:-)
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Utpal:
I have found what I was looking for.
You wrote that you were reading my responses to SH with a lot of interest. I
feel honored, considering that many tell me they never read what I write or
give a damn.
I will attempt to answer your questions, but NOT as in an inquisition or
interrogation, where you ask the questions and I am required to give the
answers, while "---dont wish to join you in a debate".
SH also refuses to debate me. I understand he has no time for such. I like to
think that you have at least a little more time than SH, considering you put
together that exhaustive list of questions for Rubi Bhuyan. And I have no
reason to think that you all prefer to pick on easy targets only.
SH declared on your behalf that your
"--- purpose was a DIALOGUE, and that too of the
"sincere" variety and the best way we could have started was by
seeking answers to questions that are plaguing the minds of most
"educated", "middle class" Assamese people.
Taking his word for it, before I give any answers, would you kindly share
with us what the primary objective of your ( and others' too, if you share
theirs) question/s was/were?
I ask, because it was not clear. I am no journalist, just an ol' homespun
observer. But I know from observation, that dedicated and effective
journalists ask questions with an objective in mind and keep asking, seeking
until they arrive at the objective or find the answers that help them achieve
their objective/s.
What was your objective, your AIM?
After that I propose to engage in a give and take, ask/answer/follow-up and
so forth, as in a civil dialogue between two mature persons. I promise not to
ask anything personal or call you names or question your intelligence or
integrity, comment on your language skills and indulge in other such
confrontational or condescending tactics. If you wish you can appoint one or
more ombudsmen/referees of your choice monitor the dialogue, but only for
form/tenor of the discussions--not on the subject matter/s.
Is that a fair deal?
You are also welcome to have others in your team, perhaps no more than say
two more persons. I don't want to get into what I termed the other day a
feeding frenzy of scavengers.
I am hoping that you will not decline on account of your sixth question below:
6. Since you say you do not speak for ULFA and am NOT PRIVY to
its policy-making, would not it be better if ULFA talks directly to all of
us? with regards,
The answer to that is this:
Let us assume that ULFA is incapable of answering your questions, as
was concluded
by many of the inquisitors. But that does not mean these are
unanswerable. I can
field those questions. We will let you and the netters judge how
well or how poorly.
You are interested , after all, in seeing if these resolvable issues.
If I can answer them
satisfactorily, and if ULFA does not have anyone in its policy-making
body capable
of dealing with them, they can always HIRE me. I will be pleased to
help them,
having proven in this forum that I am up to it. That is the kind of
work I do for a living,
as a consultant, solving other people's problems. And in this era of
globalization, where
boundaries of state is an obsolete concept as you all declared, the
fact of my being
an ex-pat ought not to be an issue.
Shall we ?
c-da
Chandan-da, I have been reading with great curiosity your mails
arising out of Shantikam Hazarikas comments on my questions posted to ULFA on
another online group of Assamese people. I dont wish to join you in a debate
on the exchanges you have been having with Hazarika or others, but I would be
grateful if you let me know: 1. How you deduced that my questions to ULFA
were constructive (as you put it, So, even though you have been evading the
points I raised, you can correct yourself, and tell us, that Utpal's
ploy was not a constructive one). 2. I had asked ULFA some
stratightforward questions, and HAD given the reasons why I was asking them. I
am not sure if you saw / have seen the questions while questioning the motive
behind them, because I have posted them on another group and on this group it
just took off on the basis of Hazarikas comments. (I am also not sure if you
are a member of the other group, since you have not participated in the debate
on the other group, though you have said in this forum As I wrote earlier,
Utpal's questions were virtually the same as those posed to this writer by
Chittaranjan in May of this year.) 3. How did you arrive at the conclusion
that the questions were an inquisition and an interrogator's talking
points, and that it was not designed to have a SINCERE DIALOGUE? 4. If
the ULFA dispatcher might have been farther handicapped by not being in on
ULFA's policy making or communicating team (I would like to know
how you arrived at that conclusion, or whether you are privy to some inside
information on this, since Ruby Bhuyan is a member of ULFAs central publicity
committee, as is mentioned in the ULFA press release emails), s/he should
have told me that. My questions were not directed at him/her, but at the ULFA,
so s/he could have taken some time maybe even collecting all the questions of
all varieties (pro/anti/whatever) from more questioners and come up with an
overall response from the leadership, the one which makes the policies. If the
ULFA dispatcher is not part of ULFAs policy making or communication team, n
that context, there is no use in sending any question to ULFA through Ruby
Bhuyan 5. ULFA, for your kind information, did not even attempt to reply to
a single question in a straightforward manner it just inserted some words in
different colours, adding some caustic comments and remarks. I would have
appreciated if it had replied to my questions even if it had
been in the manner you had argued with Chittaranjan Pathak. I am not sure if
you have seen the so-called reply before questioning my motive. 6. Since
you say you do not speak for ULFA and am NOT PRIVY to its policy-making,
would not it be better if ULFA talks directly to all of us? with regards,
Utpal Borpujari
I fully agree with Mrinal that for the first time, at least one section of
Assamese (those with access to the Internet and part of this e-group) are being
able to have a direct interaction with Ruby Bhuyan (or as Mrinal says, a person
assuming the identity of Ruby Bhuyan since the original RB has already
surrendered quite sometime back), and through 'her', the ULFA. So, let both
sides ask questions and get replies, without being uncivilized.
I want to ask ULFA a few questions - as an Assamese whose extended family
includes my late grandfather Suresh Goswami (the director of 1953 film Runumi)
who along with my mother's uncle Jibeshwar Goswami for the first time had tried
to institutionalize Sattriya Dance through the Prachin Kamrup Nritya Sangha,
Lakshminath Bezboruah from whose family my maternal grandmother came,
filmmakers Siba Prasad Thakur (my father's cousin) and Bidyut Chakraborty
(Thakur's son-in-law), Mamoni Raisom Goswami (who is a relative through my
bhai-bowari). I am giving all these examples to prove my 'purebred' credentials
to ULFA before asking the questions - so that Ruby Bhuyan can reply to them
without attributing any motives. Also, I am a journalist who have been working
outside Assam for last 14 years after starting my career in Assam, with a close
tab of Assam's events, and have been done my best to promote particularly
Assamese cinema outside Assam. I had been in touch with several former
ULFA spokespersons as a journalist in my professional capacity. But here I am
asking these questions as a common Assamese who want to see Assam excel in
every field, without any fear that he or she might not return home alive in the
evening.
So, here are the questions. I hope there will be straightforward answers to my
straightforward questions:
1. In your last mail to this group, you mentioned "By the way--Assam's West is
Korotoya+ Jomuna, North is Tibet, East is Yunnan, South is Maan". Does this
mean that in ULFA's map of Assam, Bhutan/Arunachal
Pradesh/Nagaland/Manipur/Mizoram are all included as an integral part of Assam?
Asking because between Assam & Tibet are Bhutan & Arunachal, between Assam &
Yunnan is Arunachal, and between Assam and 'Maan' are
Arunachal/Nagaland/Mainpur/Mizoram. And the southern borders do not mention
Bangladesh.
Can we have an image of the independent Assam that ULFA wants?
2. How does ULFA's Assam plan to run its economy? The oil & natural gas are not
going to last forever and tea sector is facing a lot of competition already.
Please give us a detailed plan of action, not theory.
3. What will be the place of Bodoland, Karbi Anglong autonomous council and
many other such demands in ULFA's Assam? Has ULFA found out from all the
communities demanding autonomy whether they want to be / would be part of
ULFA's Assam?
4. How do you justify the killings of the Dhemaji children, the scores of
innocent people going to market places in various towns and cities, bus & train
passengers all these years through bomb blasts, etc? Is this ULFA's way of
waging war against the 'colonial' rulers of India? If you are fighting the
official machinery in an armed struggle, you are supposed to fight the armed
forces directly, isn't it?
5. What will be the political system of ULFA's Assam - will it be a democracy?
will discordant voices be allowed to be heard or will they be sougth to be
subjugated like some of your replies on this forum sought to do with a lot of
taunt to people who all want good of Assam (like calling Nayanjyoti Parasara a
Bihari - even if he is one, what difference does it make, though for the record
he is as pure an Assamese as any ULFA cadre could claim to be; or calling
Santikam Hazarika 'the best management guru east of Suez' or some such
description)?
6. With reference to the killing of Bihari settlers in Assam, what is the
definition of outsiders for ULFA, because many of those killed have been
residents of Assam for over 50 years, with their children even going to
Assamese medium schools. What is the cut off date, basically? Because it can be
stretched to include the family of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, the late Lalan Singh
(whose forefathers had come to Assam from Bihar, and who became a president of
AASU in the early 1970s), singers like Pulak Banerjee and Banikona Ghoshal,
actress Seema Biswas, all the brahmins and many of the kayasthas in the states
who were brought to Assam by the Ahom Kings, the saah bagan mazdoors who were
brought in by the British from the present-day Telengana, Orissa, Jharkhand...
and many more people.
7. ULFA has banned Hindi film screenings in Assam as it is part of 'colonial
propaganda'. Does its definition also include films made by Assamese directors
in Hindi (Jahnu Barua's 'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara', Anshuman Barua's 'Dooor'
which is yet to be released), or even venturing into Hindi film world by people
like Zubeen Garg, Saswati Phukan, Kalpana Patowari (who is, incidentally a
superstar singer in Bhojpuri though she is a 'purebred' Assamese), Seema Biswas
and others? Does the bad influence films also include those by people like
Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani etc which talk of common man's concerns?
8. Does ULFA's ban mean that it would seclude Assam from 'outside' world
through such censorship, by preventing its people from accessing any form of
art form as they want, especially in today's globalized world?
9. Is there a possibility of ULFA extending the ban to literature, dance and
other art forms from outside? What is ULFA's cultural policy? What has it done
in all these years to inculcate in people love for indigenous art & culture
(people still see Bollywood potboilers more than they go to see Jahnu Barua's
Hkhagorloi Bohu Door, isn't it?)? I am particularly asking this in context of
poetry of people like Mithinga Daimary, whose writings talk of an open world
with freedom for all.
10. Would ULFA ban people from Assam from participating in talent hunt shows
(however trivial they may be) of TV channels from 'India' - for eg Saregamapa
which Assam's Debojit Saha won last year?
11. What are ULFA's views on mass organizations like Axom Sahitya Sabha, AASU,
AJYCP which have all opposed its demand for independence and opposed the
killing of innocent people? What is ULFA's opinion about public protests
against the killings of innocent people in bomb blasts, allegedly carried out
by ULFA? (Please don't refer to the atrocities carried out by Indian Army on
innocent people and families of ULFA cadres - we all know about that are
condemn that fully).
12. What are your views on NSCN-IM's demand for Greater Nagalim which includes
parts of Assam, Arunachal and Manipur?
These are just a dozen. If I have more, I will send them in my next mail.
And yes, I must congratulate Rubi Bhuyan for the sudden improvement in English
- if anyone has noticed, the language and grammar in her latest mail was really
outstanding - not like the angry outbursts without a care for grammar in her
earlier mails.
Utpal Borpujari (New Delhi / Guwahati)
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