Editor,
Taking queue from Morning Star Sumer’s ‘Legislators’ immaturity’ (ST 13/03/2013) raising a question on the HSPDP MLAs’ mode of protesting against the choice/election of Mr. A.T. Mondal as the new Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, may we remind ourselves that the HSPDP MLAs had no other option to air their protest against the above election since Mr. A.M. Basaiawmoit’s candidature for the Speaker’s post had been rejected by the Assembly Secretary with the valid reason that his (Basaiawmoit’s) candidature has not been seconded by any other MLA or his party colleagues. This does not mean that the HSPDP MLAs do not support Mr. Basaiawmoit in the race but the fault lies with the inexperienced Mawshynrut MLA, Mr. Witting Mawsor, who was perhaps given the onus to second the candidature of Basaiawmoit but who came in late to do so. Had Basaiawmoit’s name been accepted, then A.T. Mondal would not have been elected unopposed and perhaps Basaiawmoit could have garnered a few sympathy votes from the Opposition bench as well besides the votes of his party men. Moreover, besides Basaiawmoit there was no other opponent to A.T. Mondal.
Having said that, it can be mentioned here, that as per Article 178 of the Indian Constitution, the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly is to be chosen by the House and not elected. This does not mean that the Speaker cannot be chosen at the whim and fancy of the ruling party but by the common will of the House. The spirit of this Article is that the Speaker must have the acceptability of the House. It is only when such consensus cannot be met that the election for the Speaker’s post is to be conducted by the House. I have nothing to say about the action/reaction of the HSPDP MLAs on the above matter but what I would like to urge here is that the newly elected/chosen Speaker must not only be non-partisan but neutral in conducting the business of the House. In fact, paragraph 5 of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution has a guideline that the Speaker can even resign from his/her party and may resume to the party after he/she has demitted the office. Can you do that Mr. Speaker Sir? Neutrality of the Speaker’s chair does not depend on the Speaker alone but much is to be maintained by the ruling party(s) also. We hope the ruling party does not exert undue influence on the Chair for its own interest. For the past few years Meghalaya Assembly is infamous for conducting short assembly sessions, be it for the budget or any other legislations. Can we have comprehensive assembly debates during your tenure Mr. Speaker Sir?
Yours etc…
Airpeace Rani
Shillong-04
Drop the archaic officialese
Editor,
Its is very unfortunate to see that official letters of not only MCS but most officers start with outdated mode of address like “I have the honor state that …..”. This format was in vogue during the British Raj when we Indians were deemed inferior or second class citizens and it was common to see bowing or standing up when the white gods were passing by. That era has gone now but strangely this habit has stayed on. In other developed places like Mumbai (where I worked as an officer with IAAI),such feudal address have long stopped. You don’t need “honour” to address someone officially. I find this habit disgraceful and degrading. It would be a definite improvement if in-vogue present offiacialese in use in other states (not NE where I’m sure we are still following this archaic habit) were to be imparted to officers of Meghalaya. I’m sure officers coming from other states-and there are many these days- must be finding letters emanating from Meghalaya amusing.
Yours etc.,
Nesfield B Sangma,
Via email
Super VAS from BSNL
Editor,
BSNL has done it again! Over a fortnight ago, I got my prepaid BSNL recharged with a top-up of Rs 100, only to find it reduced to a talk value of zero after 5 minutes. The horrifying fact is, that I did not even send a single text message nor made a single call. Thanks to the so called VAS (Value Added Services) of BSNL which get activated without any subscription from the customer, Health Messages, Cricket Messages, Dating Messages, Dictionary Messages and the like keep appearing regularly on my mobile. They are the ones that extort from me.
Annoyed and irritated, I went to the BSNL office to lodge a complaint. There, I was instructed to write down my number, name and the type of messages that came to my mobile. It is ironic but till date the messages continue to visit me regularly. It seems that my complaint was not taken seriously and no sort of deactivation/un-subscription was done from BSNL. My friends, colleagues and relatives who are using BSNL also share this misfortune. Through this letter I want to bring to the notice of higher BSNL authorities that a lot of people still trust this national telecom enterprise and such day-light robbery such as unwanted VAS would only erode this trust in BSNL.
Yours etc.,
E. War,
Via email
Double standards
Editor,
The Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar, deserves praise for his success in ensuring good governance, less corruption, relative peace and significant progress in the North-Eastern state. But the hypocrisy of the media in general is appalling Gujarat ranked 13th among the major Indian states in State Hunger Index, “boasts” of 47 percent of underweight and malnourished children in its midst, plays host to innumerable poor and unemployed and regularly gets hit by droughts leading to farmers’ suicides. And the less said about the failure in containing the pogrom against Muslims, which remains one of the greatest scandals and horrors of independent India, the better. Still the dismal record of Narendra Modi is forgotten in a hurry and instead he is projected as the “best” Prime Ministerial candidate just because of his success in scoring a hat-trick in the Assembly elections! It is simply ridiculous to witness how mere electoral success in just three consecutive Assembly elections is being exploited by vested interests as the ultimate yardstick of Modi’s “greatness”!
Another darling of the media – Nitish Kumar’s drastic failures in almost all sectors is also consigned to oblivion and he is projected as the future Prime Minister just because of his success in returning to power in Bihar for merely the second term! But when Manik Sarkar leads his party to win for the fourth successive term in Tripura, that too by bagging 50 of the 60 assembly seats, the national media hardly cares to report about his superb achievements, that too without exploiting religion or caste unlike the Modi-Nitish duo. When will India learn to rise above bias and prejudices so as to act neutral and appreciate the qualities of the silent workers of the “remote” North-east India like Sarkar, instead of pampering the “glamorous” politicians of the “mainland” who are all epitomes of rhetoric.
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata -114