[Assam] Crybaby

[Chan Mahanta]

I think the author of this eminently forgettable piece can at least 
take credit for doing justice to the title
* Land of Whiners*  by proving it beyond a reasonable doubt by his 
own example, if tiny sampling can be used to make such a broad based 
conclusion.


The whole idea of the piece is : "The problem with things like this 
is we cannot blame the Centre for it!"
He did not need to go to these lengths to absolve his masters of 'blame'.


If anyone thinks it is something worth paying even a cursory 
attention to , let us hear why.

cm

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At 5:51 PM -0500 3/21/09, kamal deka wrote:
>     *Land of whiners
>- Arup Kumar Dutta**A*s whiners we folks of Assam have no competition. No
>doubt we have plenty to whine about. The indifference of the Central
>Government, the lack of job opportunities, the inability of Delhi to solve
>the insurgency problem and restore peace to the region, the unresolved issue
>of annual floods et al. Truly, there is no end to our grouses!
>
>The latest of these is the inexplicable fact that the Election Commission
>has scheduled Lok Sabha polls in this State smack in the middle of Rongali
>Bihu festival. This has been due either to the fact that the Commission is
>absolutely ignorant about the cultural life of the North-East, or that it
>could not care less. Understandably, this Bihu is the most important
>festival of Assam. Apart from reinforcing tradition, it also helps to
>strengthen family and community bonds, with every household endeavouring to
>get together at least once a year to celebrate an age-old festival.
>
>That the Commission chose to ignore the emotive appeal of this festival has
>rightly aroused indignation, with a section calling it yet another instance
>of neglect and indifference of the Centre. The possibility that thousands of
>Assamese will miss the festival this year appears to be of no concern to the
>Commission. Though political parties as one have protested and requested the
>Commission to change the poll dates, there is no indication so far that such
>a change is being envisaged. If the Commission ignores the protests and
>sticks to the announced schedule, it would only serve to underline the
>whiners' accusations of indifference!
>
>However, of late we have taken to whining so much that our own shortcomings
>seem to have taken a back-seat! That the exploited is as much to blame as
>the exploiter is a reality that cannot be ignored. If today the Assamese
>identity is under threat, Assamese politicians are as much to be blamed as
>those of Delhi. If Bangladeshis have inundated the land, Assamese
>businessmen and contractors are as much to blame as the migrants. If
>Assamese culture has suffered degeneration, a smug and self-serving Assamese
>middle class is as much to blame as anyone else. If the new urban generation
>is losing touch with our language and culture, it is the elders who are
>culpable. If bright young minds are leaving in large numbers for educational
>institutions outside the state, it is our intellectuals and academicians who
>to a large extent are responsible.
>
>The true worth of any community is the manner in which it tussles against
>adversity and turns it into prosperity. Though I have no love lost for
>Israel, I have always held the Jews as a supreme example of this. This
>religious community had suffered untold persecution in Europe since ancient
>days. Held in contempt as an effeminate trading race, the nadir in their
>destiny had come in the form of the holocaust in the Hitler era. Yet today
>the same Jews have been transformed into a militant race, having turned the
>legacy of their adversity into a positively charged future.
>
>But not us, the whining Assamese! It has been the other way for us - a
>downslide from the legacy of Saraighat and the reputation of Assamese
>soldiers as being unbeatable in war, to the pathetic whiners that we have
>become today. The Generals we have in Dispur are a travesty of the likes of
>Lachit. They roar like tigers at home, but meow like tame cats in Delhi. Our
>bureaucrats, with some rare exceptions, area bunch of incompetents, more
>keen to feather their own nests than take the state towards development.
>
>Not only are we whiners, we Assamese have become masters at destroying
>whatever worthwhile we had. The benighted city of Guwahati is the best
>example of this. Blessed with green and mountainous surroundings, with a
>mammoth river cutting through it, Guwahati could have been developed as the
>Paris of the North-East. Instead, we have converted it into the Dharavi of
>the North-East. From a once naturally beautiful township we have reduced it
>to the dirty, dusty, stinkinp, garbage dump it is today.
>
>The problem with things like this is we cannot blame the Centre for it!
>Delhi has been relatively generous in dispensing money to the State. If much
>of the given amount goes back unspent, or find its way into undeserving
>pockets, it is Assamese politicians and bureaucrats who are responsible. Had
>we the will and the enterprise, there are a million steps we could have
>taken to better the quality of life in this region. Yet we have chosen to
>sit on our backsides doing nothing, putting out our begging bowl towards
>Delhi even as we whine away.
>
>For instance, Assam today has become an ethnologically and culturally
>fractured State, with the tiniest of communities forsaking the common
>Assamese identity and asserting its individuality, thereby falling into the
>divide and rule trap that the powers that be in Delhi are forever devising.
>Yet, till just a few decades ago, we were all a part of the pan Assamese
>mosaic, a pattern that had been slowly building through centuries. The
>apotheosis of this broader identity had been all too visible during the
>mass-movement against influx of foreigners, when almost every true blue
>Assamese, no matter from which part of the State or what background, had
>embarked on a unified struggle to rid the region from a menacing scourge.
>
>It has taken just a couple of decades to shatter that unique bond of oneness
>forged through centuries. Surely, it is not the forces inimical to the
>interests of Assam who are solely to be blamed for this state of affairs?
>What has been the role of our so called national institutions which had been
>invested with the task of keeping the bonds strong? We, particularly the
>Assamese middle-class, need to introspect about what has gone wrong and
>rectify the shortcomings we ourselves had displayed.
>
>No doubt others have taken advantage of our past innocence and equable
>temperament to exploit our resources and keep the region underdeveloped,
>thereby sowing the seeds of insurgency and consequent violence. But, even
>under existing constraints, we could have done much better in
>socio-cultural, political and economic spheres. We too are guilty of
>squandering our resources, misusing Nature's munificence, indulging in
>fissiparous games of one-up-man-ship. Above all, we are guilty of not
>sacrificing enough for the land of our birth and giving up selfish pursuits
>for the common good.
>
>Incessant whining has not changed things for the better. It is high time
>indeed that we change our ethos as well as approach if we are to aspire for
>a brighter future.
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