[Assam] Dissection of Sentinel editorial-1

[Chan Mahanta]

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 
><<mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>cmahanta at charter.net> 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?
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