Editor,
In the wake of the killing of Burham Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen-Commander on July 8, by our security forces, there followed the biggest funeral procession seen in 26 years of insurgency in Kashmir. It is said that more than 2 lakh sympathizers attended that massive gathering in honour of the slain militant. This incident has decidedly proved that the spirit of attaining the goal of self-determination of the Kashmiris cannot be doused by the Govt of India’s uncompromising stand with all its formidable armed forces and state-of-the art arsenal at its disposal applied with full force. I visualize that this struggle exemplified by the Kashmiris would long sustain them synchronized with an orgy of bloodshed and untimely death on either sides of the warring factions that is, between the militants and our security forces. No wonder, the ultimate sufferers would be the living relatives of all concerned who have but to grin and bear ad infinitum, unless New Delhiboldly comes out with far reaching acceptable formula on the pestering issues of Kashmir which has been bedeviling this state since independence.
What pains me the most on the on-going unrest in Kashmir is the wanton use of pellets fired from the security forces’ guns against the restive public. It is reported that such deadly pellets have not only disfigured the victims’ faces but have made hundreds to go blind for life. I can’t figure out how our well-trained forces didn’t aim at the agitators’ less fatal body parts, but targeted instead directly at the face to effect maximum casualties.I do believe that what I see on TV visuals is only the tip of the ice-berg given the fact that even the Principal press foreman and two staff of Greater Kashmir, a leading English daily published from the valley were arrested, newspapers were prevented from hitting the stands, media houses were raided, cable TV services were disrupted and all telephone facilities like mobile and landlines networks went kaput. I dread to think how people are being ruthlessly dealt with by our armed forces, giving scant respect to sanctity of human rights. This is no naïve or simplistic statement I’m making but garnered from my very own personal experience when I experienced a similar fate in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Shillong was rocked by the anti-foreigners’ movement and I was a helpless witness to so many of our youth and even senior citizens being beaten black and blue by the Central Security forces at the slightest slip-up during curfew. It was virtually a reign of terror unleashed on Meghalaya’s citizens. Meghalaya was then under the B.B. Lyngdoh dispensation. However, what outraged me and caused grief in those years and which lingers in me to-date was when I visited a close friend of mine at the Shillong Civil Hospital for being severely caned by the CRPF personnel. Owing to the excessive thrashing, he could scarcely recognize me as he was totally disoriented. Indeed, it was a heart-rending experience for me. Incidentally that victim was then a lecturer in English Department at the St. Anthony’s College, Shillong, which also happens to be my Alma Mater. He is also a prominent Khasi literateur. Hence, what is currently taking place in the valley of Kashmir, reminds me of similar incident forty years ago in Shillong. I pray that I shall henceforth never witness such police brutalities.
Yours etc.,
Jerome Diengdoh
Shillong – 2
Turrified!
Editor,
Ooooh yes, yes, now I remember that TUR had opposed coal and limestone mining in Jaintia Hills!!! Regarding invitation to TUR’s small, rented, pentagonal office to collect their legendary manifesto and quiz members, I thought that the Pentagon existed only in USA but then we also have one here in remote Shillong. And dear Editor, the column (TUR on the warpath, ST, Jul 25, 2016) was aptly titled because ‘pentagon’ and ‘warpath’ are synonymous. The world disorder that we get to see in the form of wars, ISIS, ISIL, foreign invasions, mayhem, terror, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Dacca and everything else that makes this earth a dangerous place to live in is a creation of the Pentagon to a greater extent. The ghoulish minds that man the Pentagon in USA are there for all of us to see. The other day I was watching an interesting discussion in a news channel where a psychology expert observed that those who work in five-sided polygon sized buildings are more likely to make disastrous decisions and orders than their counterpart in circle, square, hexagonal or other sized buildings. This we saw in the Pentagon in USA and one fear we are just perhaps eyeing the risk of turning Meghalaya, ‘Turrified’. However, thanks to the author from whom we learnt lessons on ethical journalism, pseudonyms, freedom of press, hijacking of the fourth estate and what have they. The author also used the platform how to market their manifesto through postal addresses and what they would assume if the letter writers don’t respond within a week. For a moment it looked like a notice being served on a tax evader. What is this invitation to meet you all in your office and email postal address etc? You will get both flowers and fire in your chosen line and in today’s world you will have to face more fire than flowers. So why bicker? We want to see a gutsier TUR here perhaps the same amount of guts that you displayed during Amit Shah’s visit to town when the beef ban was at its height and when you all protested with beef eating palates in far off hills targeting his entourage. It is another thing whether Shah saw your men eating from inside his vehicle. The author also assumes that I am suffering from a grand Brahminical / Vedic ignorance to which I can see that the author is almost ‘Turrified’ and looks to be suffering from a Christian hypocrisy by drawing conclusion about a person’s faith and practice from his surname. Just imagine how many you would get correct if you start predicting your brethren’s faith on the basis of their surnames. So why bring faith, religion, practices into a debate which is about black diamond, uranium, effluent infested streams and all the rest of it which is more about geology and geography than the subliminal matters, which are purely personal?
Yours etc.
PK Dwivedi
Shillong – 1