Editor,
The spokesperson of the Grand Council of Chiefs, John Kharshiing, who is also the general secretary of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee and will perhaps contest the coming election from Nongkrem has questioned the NPP’s Conrad Sangma for saying that the Party is not an ally of the BJP. First things first. Are the traditional institutions which are part and parcel of the Grand Council of Chiefs (a self created nomenclatures of John Kharshiing) not supposed to be politically non-aligned or non-partisan? Isn’t that a prime reason why the heads of traditional institutions resisted the Panchayati Raj saying that they did not want politics to fragment the voters at the village level? Then how is it that the chieftains (syiems) have no objection to being represented by a member of the Congress Party? If that is so, then are we to deduce that the Grand Council of Chiefs is itself aligned to the Congress Party? These issues need to be clarified before the public.
Meghalaya has lost much by not implementing the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts which introduce self governance in rural and urban India. The Act forms the basis of the Panchayati Raj which empowers local bodies to govern themselves and to plan out their own need-based development plans. In Meghalaya, people have had no opportunity to participate in the planning and implementation of development projects. If we had implemented the Panchayati Raj ever since it was launched across the country nearly two decades ago we would have seen many changes on the ground. One of the reasons for the poor performance of the municipal boards is because instead of elected ward commissioners we have government officials running the show. Many efforts were made by people like Mr Toki Blah to explain to the headmen the importance of municipal elections but all that effort went in vain. An insidious campaign was instead started that elections to the municipal boards would mean some non-tribals being elected, as if non-tribals should not have any stake in governance. Successive Congress governments did not have the courage to hold elections even if that is for the greater good of the people and for better civic governance.
For how long can Meghalaya continue without the 73rd and 74th Amendments and lose out on the development funds meant for better grassroots governance. The hypocrisy of the Congress Party and its general secretary John Kharshiing needs to be exposed.
Yours etc.,
KL Laloo,
Via email
Time to rise above religion!
Editor,
A star of humanity was born at 3 Gourmohan Street in Kolkata on 12 January 1863. He told us to serve human beings as God. Yes, he is Swami Vivekananda. If we try to realize his teachings, we will find that his is diametrically opposite of any orthodox religion. Now, let us recall the incident when Swami Vivekananda was in Kashmir in autumn of 1898. He prayed to a poor Muslim boatman for allowing his four year old daughter to be worshipped by Swamiji himself. The boatman was overwhelmed. He thought as if God was asking him a favour through Swamiji and he readily agreed.
Swami Vivekananda worshipped the girl as Goddess Uma on Mahasaptami day during Durga puja. Then he knelt down and touched the feet of a poor Kashmiri Muslim girl. With this singular act he defied divisions of religion, region, race, caste, class, creed, occupation, gender and generation to hoist the flag of universal humanhood.
As a matter of fact, Swami Vivekananda did a Sri Ramkrishna who himself practiced Islam, Christianity and other religions to live his words ~ “many opinions, many paths.”
Swami Vivekananda hammered hard at the wall of religion. He did it to make us realize the true meaning of all religions. But what is it? Let us hear it in his own words, “The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted – let these be your God. Know that services to these alone is the highest religion.”
We need to respond to Swami Vivekananda’s clarion call to ~ “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. ….Arise, awake, let minor things, and quarrels over little details and fights over little doctrines be thrown aside, for here is the greatest of all works, here are the sinking millions.”
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata