Editor,
Bisheshwar Das who was battling for life for seventeen days in a Guwahati hospital has succumbed to burn injuries on 4th December. The tea stall owner sustained 45 percent burn injuries after miscreants set him on fire on November 16 in Shillong. After elderly Devi Chokhani and young trader Vikash Nandwal, Das has become the third victim of ILP violence. The murderers of the 50 year old innocent tea shop owner are cowards. They are shameless. No condemnation of this inhuman and barbaric act is sufficient.
The police have arrested four suspects including two other KSU members. The booked perpetrators must be tried and punished as per provision of law so that others don’t bring more disrepute and disgrace to this State.
Yours etc.,
Albert Thyrniang
Via email
Keep religion out of ILP debate
Editor,
Of late many letters published in your editorial have religious overtones. This is not in line with secularism. Writers have been quoting religious scriptures to make a point or condemn ILP related violence and in today’s letter from Nesfield Sangma for example , the term Christian State has been used to label Meghalaya. As per the Constitution of India, this is a secular country where people have the right to practice and propagate any religion of their choice. There is no concept of state religion. A religion can be in majority but that does not mean the state has to be labeled by its religion specific dominance. Imagine if every state of India begins to identify itself by its religious majority, what kind of communal politics would this give birth to? As it is, religion is a hugely complex and very sensitive political subject for this nation.
We should take an example from United States, a country which has a Christian majority but you would rarely find an American calling his or her state by its religious context. American media, schools, colleges, business establishments in fact everything pertaining to the state is strictly secular with no reference to any religious context whatsoever.
Let us keep our faith , scriptures and the religious institutions with which we are affiliated to ourselves if we really want to be secular. The democratically elected legislative assembly of Meghalaya is a constitutional body so it is objectionable to label the state government as being Christian or Un-Christian for the events related to ILP violence. This ILP has social, racial, political , economic and many other overtones. It would be good if we do not infuse religion into it.
Yous etc.,
A Shome,
Via email
Suggestions to resolve the ILP stalemate
Editor,
I suggest that Government of Meghalaya constitute a body headed by an eminent academician or a retired Judge or even a retired bureaucrat . I would have liked to add even an eminent retired politician, however, I am not aware of any politician who retires. Heading a body of this kind with highly surcharged emotional undertones by an active politician means there will always be a political axe to grind. Extraneous nomenclatures like High Level Committee should also be avoided.
The issues that need to be included and addressed are
a) that there is a genuine concern of a demographic threat to the local population in Meghalaya
b) any safeguards in place should take into account
i) its enforceability in practice
ii) not adversely affecting economic progress which can only harm the local population even further
iii ) the trans-border realities of modern globalization and the technological forces at play
iv) within the ambit of the Constitution of India and
v) how other countries are dealing with the subject of migration. This website may help http://esa.un.org/unmigration/
Other members of the body may include people from institutions like ICSSR, Center for Policy Research and any other persons who have no axe to grind. A timeline of three months for the report to be submitted may be stipulated.
Yours etc.,
Rudi Warjri,
Via email