RE: [Assam] Car Rally from Guwahati Is Not for Fun Alone

[Dilip/Dil Deka]

Santanu,

Here is the question you asked me, "Now, I have a question here for you - do you think my views are far from reality? If so, then we differ in our perception of reality and there is no more to it. But if you more or less agree with me, then it seems to me that some rethinking of the terms of the union, the structure of how the sovereign commands the resources on the ground, the right of the state to independently interact in economic matters with other nations, to kick out babus from Delhi that think of themselves as on a colonial assignment, to decide whether or not they want to have paramilitary and military forces deployed at their cost - are in order."

I agree with you completely that the political structure in India needs overhauling. After using it for almost fifty five years, the faults in the Indian republic system are apparent to many Indians.The responsibility to bring about the changes via democratic means lies with the citizens. The constitution has provisions for such discussion and they have been used by people who know how to use them. If those who feel cheated do not have the knowhow, they need to approach those who have it. I definitely feel that the states in India need more autonomy to manage their internal affairs.

 

Talk of secession and introduction of violence to get it are not practical approaches - that is my point. I hear support for thoughts of secession in this very net and I consider it just emotional, not practical. Let's get secession out of the way and we will all be talking the same language.

 

Now talking about performance - there are flickers of performance in Assam, it is not totally deadbeat. There are reports of Assam State Transport becoming an example to the whole country. Numaligarh refinery apparently is performing well. There was talk of NRL exporting to Myanmar. Shouldn't NRL and Assam Govt. pursue that real earnest? If Delhi babus put unreasonable roadblocks, couldn't they be exposed via the national media? I see more and more of NE India news in national papers. If export to Myanmar could be established and made successful, won't it also give big industrialists the incentive to invest in Assam? Will Assam be ready to accept the influx of other Indians such industrialization will bring?

 

For a start, the extremists who are holding Assam hostage with their arms have to open their eyes and realize that the majority in Assam wants to remain in the Indian union. Let the extremists be the ones who will shake Delhi up and will propose the changes needed in the constitution for a share to Assam. Let them be the ones who will lobby lawmakers from the other states to get constitutional amendments passed. Do you think there is a chance this will come to pass?

Dilipda

 

P.S. There will be several naysayers who will write to say that Delhi will not let changes take place. To them I say there are several states in India who feel they are not getting a fair share, it is not assam alone and a lobby group can be formed.

Dilip-da:
I am not recommending anything. It is not for me or any of us to individually recommend dissolution of the Indian Union. However, I do believe that the Indian political structure is extremely centralized and that, in particular, heartland India does think of north eastern India in the same manner as the Russian empire thought of its central asian fringes, the way the Han Chinese think of the Uigurs...- as territories on the frontier to be controlled for political might populated by noble savages that are very different culturally and have to be integrated. And being a majoritarian structure, the government of India - its leaders and its mass of babus reflect these views more or less. I also know that the Indian political structure has exploited the natural resources of many regions of the country -including Assam - through its public sector machinery and provided! them at rtidiculously low prices to industrialized parts of the country & I know that when we have brought final goods from outside of Assam we have paid higher than international prices for those goods because of the lack of international trade. This is the scissor that has cut us both ways. Now, I have a question here for you - do you think my views are far from reality? If so, then we differ in our perception of reality and there is no more to it. But if you more or less agree with me, then it seems to me that some rethinking of the terms of the union, the structure of how the sovereign commands the resources on the ground, the right of the state to independently interact in economic matters with other nations, to kick out babus from Delhi that think of themselves as on a colonial assignment, to decide whether or not they want to have paramilitary and military forces deployed at their cost - are in order.
Santanu


-----Original Message-----
From: Dilip/Dil! Deka [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 10/2/2004 (土) 11:38 午前
To: Roy, Santanu
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Assam] Car Rally from Guwahati Is Not for Fun Alone


Santanu,
Can you please stop writing subliminal messages and state clearly if you are recommending that Assam gets out of the union with India? From your last two notes it appears so.
You mustn't forget that the majority in Assam do not want separation from India, however hard the separationists try. Despite the faults with Indian democracy, they are prepared to stay with it and work to improve it. At least that is what I hear from my relatives and friends in assam.
Dilipda

"Roy, Santanu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:

Dilip-da:
No marriage can be saved by one side - particularly, the weaker side. Traditional Indian women sacrifice their life and their wants to do that. That ought not to be the case.
Santanu

-----Original Message-----
Fro! m: Dilip/Dil Deka [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 10/2/2004 (土) 3:43 午前
To: Roy, Santanu
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Assam] Car Rally from Guwahati Is Not for Fun Alone


Santanu,
Thank you for your kind words on my intellectual ability and professional experience. Coming from an academician, it is an honor for me.

Your statement below had a (hidden) message that did not come out completely. What ship are you talking about and who is abandoning that ship?

I agree with you that the whole is not always the sum of the components, it can be more or it can be less. Your note implies that the whole is less than the sum in this case.

My earlier emails in this thread were not meant to spin anything, nor was there any hidden agenda. I was simply trying to point out that there is no evil design against Assam in New Delhi, in fact there have been political leaders who worked for Assam's development. Yes, ! there are countless other factors including parts of the Indian constitution that work contrary to Assam's interests.

Using your analogy to marriage, should Assam work at improving the marital relations by re-establishing the conditions for a better marriage or should Assam abandon the marriage? What is your opinion?
Dilipda

"Roy, Santanu" wrote:

Dilip-da:
I am astonished that someone with your intellectual ability and professional experience in large organizations should say this. It is a fundamental fact of social institutions that extremely well meaning people can, as a collectivity, function in the most disastrous manner. A system is much more than the sum of best intentions of the people it is composed of. Even a marriage of two great persons or a family of affectionate parents and children attain states of intolerable suffocation and mutual hurt - not because of the lack of best intentions - but because of the way in which their interaction has take! n place over time - the role of chance events, the role of external factors - small, little things that don't amount to anything in themselves, but that together acquire a monstrosity over time - so that nothing but abandoning ship and starting on a fresh slate appears to be the way to go.

Santanu.

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Dilip/Dil Deka
Sent: Fri 10/1/2004 12:23 PM
To: Chan Mahanta; Anjan K. Nath; ASSAMNETCOLORADO
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Assam] Car Rally from Guwahati Is Not for Fun Alone


I am surprised at this talk that is delirious and single track minded.

If as a person ABV meant well, Dr. Singh means well, and so many other leaders in Delhi mean well, then who is left who does not mean well? You will say it is the system, but the system is made up of people like these.

If you don't respect others, others don't respect you- it is as simple as th! at. Do you think ABV had some ethnic hatred towards the Assamese people when he used the term "disloyal", if he used that term at all? There were twenty odd other states about whom he could use the term but he didn't have to. When will you start looking at the world without the bias and hatred towards other Indians? Whether Assam is independent, autonomous, or stays as a state in India, Assam will have to learn to live with India.
Dilip

Chan Mahanta wrote:

Anjan:

I know about Saikia, even though I don't know him or what he is all about.


At any event that is beside the point.

It is not WHAT an individual politician thinks of Assam or views the NE's angst as. I won't have any trouble believing that ABV means well. But that means NOTHING. It has nothing to do with individual Indians' view of Assam or Nagaland or Mizoram, or the Bodos or the Karbis.

What DOES matter however, is what, as a nation that is known as India,has COLLECTIVELY d! one to our peoples, and will CONTINUE to do.

It is about positive change. It is about believing in democracy in all its many
uncomfortable 'avatars', it is in believing in the need for making the institutions of democracy WORK, it is about devolution of powers to the people, it is about learning to accept dissent, it is about RESPECTING everyone, regardless of their economic status, it is about RESPECTING people and their cultures, even if they are NOT something you grew up with, it is about LETTING PEOPLEs BE as agreed to in a FEDERAL democratic state as promised, at time of independence, It is ALL about all of the above and more, that the Indian state has failed to live up to.

So I find the anecdotes of individuals' goodwill towards the people of Assam or the other contiguous states, as PROOF of Indian goodness and the NE's "disloyalty" ( as ABV told Bhuban Barooah kokaideu in London) patently ridiculous.

c


c














----- Original Message -----

From: Chan Mahanta

To: Dilip/Dil Deka ; ASSAMNETCOLORADO

Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 6:54 AM

Subject: Re: [Assam] Car Rally from Guwahati Is Not for Fun Alone


>It looks like Guwahati and Assam were on Vajpayee's mind even when he was >travelling abroad and NDA govt. was serious about opening the land route to the >east through Assam.






Tonight I am going to rejoice at Assam's being in the forefront of Vajpayee's mind, EVEN while traveling abroad. And lecture all those who complain of being in the receiving end of 'step-motherly' treatment by the Center and their 'khai-paat-folaa' attitudes.



Come on Dilip :-) :-) :-) :-)!






At 3:31 PM -0700 9/30/04, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:


From TOI.


It looks like Guwahati and Assam were! on Vajpayee's mind even when he was travelling abroad and NDA govt. was serious about opening the land route to the east through Assam.


Dilip


===========================================================





ASEAN for Guwahati to Indonesia car rally timesofindia.indi/49F7D071.gif

ANI [ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2004 01:48:53 PM ]


GUWAHATI/ NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the ASEAN Secretariat (Indonesia) are jointly organising a car rally from November 22 to December 11 to promote trade between the ten ASEAN nations.






The car rally is being held to demonstrate that there exists a land route between the member countries to enable free flow of trade. This would be first car rally of its kind.

Titled "Chalo ASEAN", the car rally would be flagged from Guwahati and pass through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mala! ysia, and Singapore, before concluding in Indonesia.

The beginning of the rally from Guwahati would be actually a culmination of mini car rallies from across the north-eastern states to be flagged off by the chief ministers of the 'seven sisters'.


The ral! ly would also fulfil former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's wish for such an event to take place to foster regional unity.

On October 8 last year, Vajpayee, while attending ASEAN Summit in Bali had said, "To draw dramatic attention to our geographical proximity we could consider the idea of an India-ASEAN Car Rally. A possible routing could be from Guwahati in North-east India, through Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia to Hanoi in Vietnam."

"Such a rally would draw in commercial interest in infrastructure along the route. It can promote tourism and development. There could be a long term impact on the economic co-operation in the region," Vajpayee had said.

Giving details of the rally in Ne! w Delhi, Resident Commissioner at the Assam Bhawan, Rajiv Yadav, said, "One of the purposes of the car rally is to let the public know that there exists a land route between the ASEAN nations. Till now it was a hidden fact from the general p! ublic's knowledge."



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