[Assam] Where will be Assam?

[Manash Baruah]

>
> I believe, the demands for such disintegration is the result of a constant
> feeling of dissatisfaction among the people of one community as a whole. And
> dissatisfaction cannot be termed as right or wrong.
>
>  Although my pervious writeup was itself a little sarcastic, the need of
> the hour is to see these developments in a positive light, do a causal
> analysis of the dissatisfaction, take positive steps to help attenuate the
> dissatisfaction and learn lessons from the whole process.
>
>  Primarily, the vary division of the country in states, on the basis of
> language was a wrong move. With so many different languages and dialects
> been spoken in the country there would be grudges in people who are not
> speaking one of the major languages. But that cannot be undone now.
>
> The other reason of the dissatisfaction is not hard to observe. The
> development of the country in general and Assam in particular has not been
> consistent throughout. There are pockets where all the development is
> concentrated resulting in ghettos of less qualified and underdeveloped
> communities. This could definitely be reversed.
>
> One example- In the last one decade around 10 new engineering colleges have
> been opened in and around Guwahati. Why on earth can't we open a couple of
> engineering colleges in other parts? Lets say one in Kokarajhar, one in
> Chirang and a premiere medical institution in Bongaigaon. This will help the
> people from these areas take education in a different light. And I believe,
> education will play a big part in solving the problems. It will not be
> immediate. But no big change in society has been sudden. Society changes
> with generations getting more educated. Slowly but steadily.
>
>  Plus we need more job opportunities. In assam, industrialisation is still
> in the nascent stage. The three great revolutions of modern India (Green,
> White and IT revolution) which have gone a long way in shaping the present
> socio-economic upliftment of the country, have not exactly touched Assam. As
> a result, people of Assam have not benefited economically as much as the
> people of other parts of the country. Our main strength is tourism. But we
> are not leveraging on this. How many foreigners or people from other states
> really visit the Kaziranga or the Manas national park? People hardly know
> about the awesome archaeological value of the Rang Ghar, Talatal Ghar,
> Kareng Ghar, Kamakhya temple or Surya pahar in Goalpara. The world’s biggest
> and smallest river islands- both are in Assam. And we are yet to take steps
> to arrest the erosion of Majuli. We can create a tourist package covering
> all these places (may be also including Shillong and Tawang). This will open
> up huge employment avenues.
>
>  And we need to learn from these cases and start taking actions so that
> these situations do not arise again. Our policies need to be inclusive. And
> the attitude of the people needs to change too. We hate to admit, but our
> country is a racist country. He is a Barpetia- speaks dhek axomia, oh., he
> is a jorhatia, doesnot pronounce the 'r'. Are we speaking of the people of
> the same state? Have we not created pseudo-states in our minds already?
>
>  And finally, we need a true Assamese leader at the national stage. We
> don’t have a single leader from Assam who can be called a national leader. I
> don’t remember when was the last time an Assamese became an important member
> of the union cabinet. B. K. Handiq is union minister for the development of
> the North-eastern region. Why exclusive and why not a minister for the whole
> nation? We need someone who can unite us with the nation and with ourselves
> too.
>
>  Sorry,  had to write a lot on this, but due to paucity of time, just
> penned down as much as I could while waiting for my flight. (I am mailing
> from the Delhi airport, got a flight to catch for Paris).
>
>  Joi Axom..err., I still don’t know which state I belong to.
>
Manash Baruah
+91 9971303146
Gurgaon


> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:09:58 -0600
> From: Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Assam] Where will be Assam?
> To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the
>        world   <assam at assamnet.org>
> Message-ID: <E1992483-ECEC-4154-97D5-135CDCE89AAB at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> Do you have any thoughts on what causes such a disintegration? Any
> ideas on how to prevent it ?
>
>
>
>
> On Dec 12, 2009, at 2:57 AM, Manash Baruah wrote:
>
> > The announcement of the creation of Telengana has opened a pandora's
> > box.
> > There are demads of creation of new states from all over the country.
> > And not surprisingly, various organisations and political paties in
> > Assam
> > have also shown
> > re-energised interest in breaking Assam into many new states.
> > The last count was- Kamatpur, Dimaraji and Bodoland.
> > It seems by the time I decide to retire and move back to my home,
> > it may not be in Assam. The assamese community is so diverse that
> > with this
> > pace,
> > what will remain of Assam will be Dispur secretarat.
> >
> > Joi Axom...err..sorry, dont know which state I will belong to.
> >
> > Manash Baruah
> > +91 9971303146
> > Gurgaon
>
>