IMPHAL, March 27: The Asti ritual of late Irom Rozer Singh who was killed during the Yaoshang festival on March 20, allegedly shot dead by N Ajay s/o minister N Biren, was performed today. Amidst tight security arrangement, friends and relatives of the dead lad also conducted a procession starting from Wangkhei Angom leikai and reaching till Ghari, the site of the shooting incident.
During the procession, the mourners hold placards demanding justice for the Irom Rozer, CBI enquiry of the incident, resignation of minister N Biren on moral grounds, etc.
Meanwhile, the National Identity Protection Committee (NIPCO) has expressed its concern and strong condemnation against the recent firing incident that took place near Ghari village along the Tiddim road under Singjamei police station resulting in the killing of one Irom Rozer Singh, 21, s/o I Lokendro of Wangkhei Angom Leikai on March 20 around 2.00pm involving Nongthombam Ajay Singh, 27, s/o state IFCD, minister N Biren of Luwangshangbam Mamang Leikai.
A release of the committee has appealed the concerned government authorities to take up necessary investigation into the case in order to bring justice. On the other hand the very incident was not first of kind in the state, as there has been many cases of muder and crimes in the state involving relatives and families of ministers and MLAs of the state.
it has furter added that easy provision of escorts, giving license guns to the sons and family members of MLAs and minister in the state has led them to think of themselves as above the law and such activities should be seriously dealt by this SPF government thinking for the welfare of the people of the state.
The release further mentioned that, during the last year the Advocate General of the state was shot and injured by the license gun belonging to one of the cabinet minister on the way return from Ukhrul. The matter has been kept in silence by the state government, likewise the people are also apprehensive of the possibilities of concealing the recent firing case resulting to the death of Irom Rajer by the government and that the people are still awaiting the commitment given by the Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in the Assembly session that, any body else involved in the incident will not be spare and they will be punish as per the rules of law, the release added.
Colloquium of the un-colloquial
by Bobo Khuraijam
We shall begin by thanking tamo editor for allowing us to muse on a Monday morning. He well understands our incapacity for a Sunday sitting. It so happened that, quite unexpectedly, we were invited to a khana neinaba at the highest pedestal of learning, which you called – a university. Someone must have printed our names on the invitation card by mistake. And it somehow reached us. Colloquium, as it was named, giving us a hard time to remember the spelling. Forget the pronunciation part. The three-day discussion took us to a grueling ride of cerebral ingenuity. To tell you the truth, it was a bumpy ride. Almost like a ride on the national highway thirty nine. Upward and downward turn of the academic terrain would nudge us from all sides. Scholarly potholes would not let us catch a nap. All in all it was a demanding exercise. We realized how naked we are in the epistemic paradigm. It took sometime to put our clothes on. What else could we have done other than to adjourn the musing for a day!
A WELCOME CHANGE: we see a change – a change in the format. Many academic dialogues, particularly here in our Leibak, tends to start with a session called inaugural session. You have to wait for the ‘chief guest’, most often a VIP with armed escorts, to arrive. Then also, you have to wait for the ‘guest of honor’, the ‘special guest’ and so on. They would lit up the Olympic torch…Oops the inaugural lamp, which we feel, has got little meaning or does not serve any purpose for a dialogue. At best, the lamp would come to use in case of a power failure. It could be a symbol of hope flickering faintly amidst the darkness of our times, and nothing more than that. The proverbial half-sari clad nubile would come on the dais. One with a tray full of badges and another one would fasten one by one onto the torso of the guests. Each of the guests on the dais would speak one by one. They would speak on length referring to the theme of the discourse again and again. They would take an uneasy amount of time, longer than their age. The session gets over. And you realize it is two-three hours behind the lunch time. Good that the organizer of the colloquium had decided to cross out the VIPs, the lamp and the badges for a change. The perfunctory dais was not used at all during the sessions. As the organizers have put it, they wanted to bring the discussion down on earth.
HICCUPS: in order to facilitate an array of issues for an orderly and threadbare deliberation, it is important to split it into sub themes. Organizers have invited commentaries from the commentators. They are meant to probe deeper on what the speakers have dwelled upon. May be they were not explained of their role thoroughly. Many of them presented papers of their own, on the same theme. We are not saying that they derided the subject. But we feel as if we were shown with two movies on a single ticket, one at the first half and another in the second half. We believe that in future we shall be able to see commentators doing their rightful roles. We are confident of the adaptability which most of us possess. Besides commentators, we have participants who would always keep us in awe. Some of them have the uncanny talent of throwing up queries or observation, which are hardly related with the theme. Some would be happy enough to ask questions for the sake of question. We appreciate their enthusiasm. But should we also remind them that cheerleaders do take rest as well. If they never get tire, medication could be the immediate answer.
GROUND REALITY: the main organizer of the conference happened to be from the city of Delhi, including some of the speakers. It has become ritualistic to color anybody of not knowing the ‘ground reality’, if the speaker happens to be based outside the state. To put it straight: Reality happens in the ground. The fact that they have stayed outside the state for a long time and based somewhere is also a reality. The fact that they take keen interest on issues which are inherently part of the state is also a reality. The fact that they aspire for a common destiny is also a reality. We strongly feel there is a need to ground these ‘realities’ along with the realities as perceived by the dissenting groups. If there is not a common meeting point, we are afraid, we are sailing nowhere. It is far better asking extraneous question in the session instead of harnessing a conspiracy of conspicuous absence. Here are some proposals for our Akhang Ahei(s) Diaspora. Next time, could you please come by road, via the NH.39? The evening dinner at Jhaklabanda could stir up your academic tidiness. The following morning stoppage at the Tadubi or Khoijuman, brushing the teeth or washing the ‘thing’ with the stream water could refresh your academic journey. When you reach Imphal, please take time to listen to the radio programs of the AIR Imphal. Or watch a Manipuri video film. At best you can take out time to watch a Shumaang Leela. These would add another good list to your frame of reference. Take a walk at the ema keithel, have a komkwa. For those who are not used to it, any verities of the kaboks would serve well. The best thing of all would be to stay during the time of any protest marches on the street, or during the election time. This could add light in your quest for the answers to the question, which you have gathered in the cosmopolitan library or your reading room. Please do not mind. We have come up with these kinds of weird proposals so that you can have a dose of reality, which could temper feral accusations based on ‘ground reality’. Your reading of the local paper from the website everyday would serve a little. We congratulate a lady speaker who came up with the issue of translating the discourse into a practical reality. She was deeply concern of the missing link between the people on the street and the people on the microphone, indoor – dissecting – re dissecting, thinking – re thinking. One possible solution is: all our English speaking Akhang Ahei should start writing in vernaculars, nothing to be ashamed about it. People like Tagore and Amartya Sen writes brilliantly in their mother tongue. We know, you are comfortable in English (same with this column), but at times we have to be uncomfortable if situation demands. And don’t tell us that you do not know how to write in Manipuri. Many of you have done your earlier schooling in a Manipuri medium. That would be hypocrisy of a crude kind. Unless you try to explain the issues in a comprehensible manner, we believe it will lead to theoretical dogmatism, to academic anarchism; some of the very important issue like the ‘Right to Self Determination’ would remain a scholarly myth ballooning nowhere. We understand the profundity of theoretical moorings when we try to universalize a particular or vice-versa. We know you are an Akhangba, time to show that you are also an Aheiba.
FOOTNOTE: the authorities claimed to have tightened up their security belt to check untoward incident during the Yaoshang; whereas a young boy got killed from the bullet fired by a son of an Angam-Athou, that too in broad daylight. Leipung Ningthou calls it, “chimbaal thong gi santri, asibadani maangjaba”.
Deplorable condition of IT road wanes transporters from road
IMPHAL, March 27 (NNN): The passive way of approaching things in an attempt to get their problems addressed by the people living along the IT Road and Tamei subdivision under Tamenglong district seems to be the reason for their woes to get compounded.
The IT Road, the sole transport link to the outside world for the people of Tamei subdivision and major chunk of Sadar Hills, is one of the oldest roads of Manipur but it is arguably the most deplorable and dangerous road for the people to use.
Bus owners and taxis are reluctant to ply along the IT Road as there is no business benefit. Every third day of plying along the road, the vehicles are found dumped in motor workshops. Those few buses that are in service along the IT Road are actually rendering a humanitarian job.
From Imphal till Tamei headquarters, the distance is 115 kilometres.
During the dry season, the transporters experience the ordeal of bumpsraggedness and dust. One cannot drive faster than 10 kilometres per hour.
During the raining season, worries of the drivers are numerous—-the landslides, to push off the half-buried wheel vehicle from the muddy and slippery potholes, to navigate between boulders of the fresh slides and of course, the extra-careful handling of steering wheel when a vehicle negotiates along the narrow road with one side is the deep gorge.
Every year numerous lives have been claimed by accidents caused by bad road condition and yet the people depending on this road have no complaints. Except occasional appeals by certain groups through the media requesting the government to repair the road, no physical pressure tactics are practised as have been done by others elswhere to address their plights.
The accidents continue to occur, more lives will lose and transporters patience is being tested to the limit but no social organisations nor pressure groups worth their names have pulled up their loins to shoulder the aam admi woes.
