Ram temple must not become a symbol of victory or defeat: Theja
New Delhi
Hours before the Jan 22 mega event at Ayodhya, an eminent Naga social activist and former Naga Students' Federation Speaker, Theja Therieh, said on Saturday that after the Ram Temple inauguration, the BJP government in the centre should ensure that "there is absolutely no mixing of religion with governance".
"People say Prime Minister Narendra Modi reads people's pulse well. But he should also read the pulse of minorities like us.
I may be the last Christian, and my community may be the last Christian community left in the corner of the north east...But he should ensure that even if there is 99 percent Hindus in India, but there is absolutely no mixing or overlapping of religion with governance".
Talking to 'Nagaland Page', he said, "I will not answer directly whether it (mixing of religion in governance) is there for the last nine years or it will come in. But it is true religious minorities in India including Christians and Muslims have their own faiths and own social practices. To make India achieve greater heights, as a national leader, he has to take all of us along".
(Story appears in 'Nagaland Page', Jan 21, 2024)
To a question, he said, "Yes, I also agree to a large extent to a debate being propagated that after Jan 22, the Ram temple should not become a symbol of Victor-and-vanquished story.... It is a reality, but we should be matured enough to understand that it is also a passing phase....The march of a nation towards greater glories is beyond one Temple event or one or two elections...Christians and Muslims are also patriots and the leadership should take all along".
To another question, he said, "India is a growing economy....But Corruption is a social menace.The Govt of India cannot be selective in eradicating corruption. Since 2014 one can argue whether the scale of mass level corruption has come down. But we find there is no accountability in some places. I know of Nagaland, huge money is spent but only on papers."
He said, " If funds are provided, the centre should effectively ensure the monitoring of that fund. From houses to roads, hardly anything is visible in Nagaland. Central projects can have some dividends. That's it. A truly accountable and efficient Prime Minister cannot have corruption in one part of the country and try to eradicate it in the rest of India".
Theja said, "The Prime Minister had said, there will be no corruption under him and he will not allow corruption by anyone else...I think he needs to sit back and examine some of the papers from the north east."
"Real governance issues are many and they are much more than a temple inauguration or so," Theja said adding, " I am not undermining Hindu sentiment; but the country should be matured to handle all situations including euphoric moments. We must discourage jingoism".
More than 31,000 people from Myanmar, mostly from the Chin state, have taken refuge in Mizoram following the military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021.
Four Indian states — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, share a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar. Mizoram has a border of 510 km with Myanmar.
Mizoram’s largest civil society organisation Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) and the state’s apex students’ body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and also the state government have voiced their opposition to the Centre’s decision.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Saturday said his government does not have the authority to stop the Centre from fencing the India-Myanmar border and scrapping the Free Movement Regime (FMR), but maintained that he was opposed to it.
Addressing a press conference hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the announcement in Guwahati, he said the border with Myanmar in Mizoram was “imposed” by the British, and the Mizo people living on the two sides of it do not accept it.
“If the Centre goes ahead with its plan to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR, we have no authority and we cannot stop it,” he said.
Lalduhoma said that his government and different organisations in the state were opposed to the fencing of the border and scrapping of the FMR as Mizos share ethnic ties with the people of the Chin community in Myanmar.
He said that Mizos living in different parts of the world “dream of reunification”, and fencing the present border will amount to approval of the boundary “imposed” by the British.
The chief minister said that he had discussed the matter with PM Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister during his visit to Delhi recently, and they did not oppose his appeal regarding it.
The Free Movement Regime allows people living on both sides of the border to travel 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa.
He said the idea of scraping the FMR mainly stemmed from cross-border trafficking, and that he also believes that the smuggling of drugs and other contrabands has increased due to it. Shah, while addressing a programme in Guwahati, said the Centre will end the free movement of people at the India-Myanmar border, and fence it completely so that it can be protected like the country’s boundary with Bangladesh.
“The Narendra Modi government has decided that the India-Myanmar border, which is open, will be protected by barbed fencing. The entire border will have barbed fencing like what we have at the India-Bangladesh border,” he said.
“The Indian government is rethinking the free movement agreement with Myanmar. Now, the Government of India is going to stop this facility,” he added.
Centre to fence Myanmar border soon, restrict movement into India: Amit Shah
While speaking at the passing out parade of Assam Police commandos in Guwahati, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government will soon fence India's border along Myanmar in a bid to restrict free movement into the country.
This also means the Free Movement Regime (FMR), which allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other's territory without a visa, will end soon.
The Manipur government headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh was working on this line.
"India's border with Myanmar will soon be protected like the border with Bangladesh," Shah said.
Amit Shah's remarks came a month after India raised its security concerns with Myanmar, especially the challenges along the border including the influx of Myanmarese refugees in the country.
"I want to tell my friends in Assam that the Narendra Modi government has decided to fence India's open border along with Myanmar just like we have fenced the country's border along with Bangladesh," the Home Minister said.
"The government is also reconsidering India's Free Movement Regime (FMG) agreement with Myanmar and will soon end the free movement into India," he added.
India shares a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar which passes through states like Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. All these states currently have FMR, which was implemented in 2018 as a part of India's Act East policy.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, now a trusted colleague of Shah, had recently raised concerns about the neglect of the northeastern state by previous union governments, citing the 390-km border with Myanmar as a focal point.
He also partly attributed the ethnic violence between the Metei and Kuki-Zo tribes in May 2023, which resulted in the loss of 175 lives, to this neglect.
Expressing strong opposition to the border fencing proposal, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Nagaland, Y. Patton, has asserted that sealing the borders along Myanmar will goes against the wishes of the Naga people.
He highlighted the complex living arrangements of the Naga people, with many Nagas residing on the Myanmar side of the border.
Patton stressed that the Nagas would never accept any proposal for border fencing, and he underlined the unity of the Nagas and the Mizos on this matter.
Patton shared his ideas with newly installed Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Laldudoma during their meeting in Aizawl. Both the leaders also discussed about matters related to the development of the North East states.
It may be mentioned here that Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, also a BJP leader, has made a strong pitch for the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and the fencing of the Myanmar border to address security issues and safeguard the interests of indigenous Manipuri people.
Blogger
Print media and challenges:
The decline of newspapers is not new, but it will still feel bleak until a reliable source of funding for proper reporting is more readily found, says an article in 'The Guardian' newspaper.
Most news organisations are struggling in or with an 'online world that does not prioritise fact-based reporting'.
News Corp cut 1,250 jobs around the world last year, according to the Press Gazette.
When internet came, it was like the atomic bomb for newspaper business models in general.
While a crisis in trust online is endemic, some of the newspaper’s travails have been self-inflicted, notably an overreliance on digital advertising revenues alone. Its reaction to a revolution also shows why newspaper ownership really matters.
While the Mail and the Sun have flirted with paid-for online models, Reach is almost entirely reliant on digital advertising revenues. Since arriving as CEO in August 2019 from gambling group Ladbrokes, Jim Mullen has incentivised reporters with targets based on the numbers of clicks they have to achieve, for example, as well as introducing AI bots to write stories.
In an email to all staff the day after Phillips’ departure was announced, Mullen said page views would continue to be important despite a 16% decline in six months last year, mainly owing to Facebook changing the way it sent viewers to newspapers, wrote Jane Martinson, a Guardian columnist and author of 'You May Never See Us Again: The Barclay Dynasty'.
 |
| Blogger : In Nagaland not far from Myanmar border |
No comments:
Post a Comment