[Assam] From Tehelka

[Rajib Das]

Would it be logical for a thinking person to support
something without knowing what that thing is about?

Would you buy an MP3 player or a camera before judging
for yourself based on the information made available
to you which is best for you?

If Assam's intelligentsia and the establishment (at
least sizable sections of it) have to show any
inclination, it has to be given reasons to do so. And
the reasons almost always would be in those details.

If I were in ULFA's shoes, it would be foolish not to
do so. 

Everyone has to sell, even revolutionaries! And in the
selling process, if the product is attractive enough,
it reaches a tipping point. It holds true for
revolutions as much as for iPods.

While in Sydney recently, I chanced upon a Lebanese
cabbie. A Lebanese Shiite Muslim from the South of
Lebanon near the the Israeli border - no less. He was
a walking, talking advertising model for Hizballah.
What struck me was the simple clarity of his position
and why it was attractive for him to be on Hizballah's
side. I am no fan of the fundoos in the Arab world -
but I did have to grudingly admit it was a formidable
force.  



> 
> The answer to it probably have been easy to get, had
> Assam's 
> intelligentsia and the establishment showed any
> inclination, to 
> provide even a conditional support to ULFA's goals
> for Assam. Support 
> conditioned on the RIGHT form of a system of
> governance; truly 
> democratic, secular and so forth. The ones who have
> supported ULFA 
> steadfastly all along have been those who are
> disenfranchised, at the 
> bottom of Assam society, and a few of the rare breed
> from the ranks 
> of the middle and upper-class, highly educated,
> informed and with the 
> intestinal fortitude to stand and fight for what is
> right.
> 
> Expectations for answers from those who would not
> give ULFA an inch, 
> very obviously, would be completely ignored.
> Wouldn't you, if you 
> were in ULFA's shoes?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At 4:28 PM -0700 8/16/06, Rajib Das wrote:
> >Yes, I agree completely. Labels of any kind don't
> >amount to much. The Indian political class has only
> >now started to shed labels. Within those, the ones
> to
> >do so thoroughly were the Indian nationalists
> however.
> >
> >If the Indian nationalists are green with envy of
> >China, it is great. At least envy might lead to
> >something sustainably productive - as opposed to
> >labeling China's progress as a CIA ploy or some
> such
> >thing.
> >
> >The questions beneath the labels however are
> >important.
> >
> >It is important to know what would be ULFA's agenda
> in
> >an independent Assam (and that includes how they
> will
> >govern, what "freedoms" would be allowed or
> >disallowed, how will the government be run etc.).
> >Wouldn't we all expect to get those answers to form
> a
> >complete opinion? And wouldn't we be right, in the
> >absence of any such answers, in determining that
> this
> >would spell anarchy, no less?
> >
> >And no, the Oracle's (Mike Da) monologue, "Main
> Hoon
> >Na" is not enough :-)
> >
> >
> >
> >--- Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
> >
> >>  If so, those labels are that much meaningless,
> >>  aren't they?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>  At 3:14 PM -0700 8/16/06, Rajib Das wrote:
> >>  >I thought that wasn't really Marxism (or for
> that
> >>  >matter Maoism) that did it in China - it simply
> was
> >>  >sheer capitalism.
> >>  >
> >>  >Before they started off on this Capitalist
> route 20
> >>  >years before India, they were reeling off from
> yet
> >>  >another one of the Maoist (or is it Marxist)
> >>  >endeavors.
> >>  >
> >>  >
> >>  >>  Also, even though Marxism might not be your
> cup
> >>  of
> >>  >>  tea or mine, can
> >>  >>  you go tell that to Chinese? A nation way
> worse
> >>  off
> >>  >>  than India 50
> >>  >>  years back, now has no one going hungry or
> >>  homeless
> >>  >>  or without health
> >>  >>  care, leaving Indian nationalists green with
> >>  envy,
> >>  >>  isn't it?
> >>  >>
> >>  >
> >>  >
> >> 
> >__________________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
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> 


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