Editor,
With the police version claiming Shaheen Bagh shooter, Kapil Gujjar being an AAP member, the plot thickens and the murky whereabouts surrounding the shooter becomes byzantine. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, “There is no point in releasing such photographs. This is part of BJP’s dirty politics. Crime should be investigated and stern action should be taken against the culprit.” Singh also said that his party will move the Election Commission seeking action against deputy commissioner of police(Crime Branch) Rajesh Deo for naming AAP in the matter.
The disclosure by the police about Kapil’s alleged links with AAP comes just four days before the Assembly elections in Delhi, in which the 50-day protest at Shaheen Bagh against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act has become a key issue. In a quick retort, BJP chief JP Nadda said, “The country and Delhi today saw the dirty side of the Aam Aadmi Party.” Thus, the blame game continues unabated and the people of this country are totally confused as to which party he actually belongs to. Meanwhile, the family of Gujjar has also denied that he is linked to the AAP contradicting the police and intensifying the raging political fight between the BJP and the AAP.
The hue and cry over this issue is unwarranted- it’s all much ado about nothing. There are a lot of burning issues which are plaguing the country. Why can’t the political parties take up those issues and find solutions to such problems? Those who take the law into their own hands must be punished. I don’t think any political party in our country is supposed to support the people who breach the laws of the land. Also, there may be certain people in political parties breaking the laws. No political parties are immune from that. So, the present hullabaloo about an unimportant matter is not going to make any impact on people. On the other hand, if it is a matter that affects the welfare of the people, it can be welcomed wholeheartedly.
Kapil Gujjar may be a mentally unstable man whom the doctors have to check to find his mental soundness. In the USA where people can carry guns under normal condition, there were a lot of incidents in which gun-toting men went on a killing-spree. Such perpetrators of crime were either mentally unstable or carrying out mayhem for some unknown terrorist organizations. Here, Gujjar, the shooter, was nabbed red-handed and sent for interrogation. The issue had to be stopped there without resorting to mudslinging between political parties. It is better for the political parties in our country to focus on quality change and all their activities must be centered on nation building. How many political parties are actually serious about nation building?
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Via email
Should Naga tribals be called Miyas?
Editor,
The debates and protests on the controversial Citizen’s Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 have been muted to an extent in Nagaland, due to the assurances by Home Minister Amit Shah that Nagaland State will be excluded from the purview of the CAA. In a tweet on December 10, 2019, Mr Y Patton the Deputy Chief Minister of Nagaland, had categorically asserted that Nagaland shall “remain protected from any fallout of CAB Bill 2019 and Article 371.” While neighbouring Assam rages on in with incessant protests, especially on the issue of the ‘Miya Poems,’ interestingly and shockingly there is a new salvo being fired on the Miyas by Y Patton, the BJP Legislature Party Leader of Nagaland. He specifically mentioned that He was referring to illegal Bangladeshi migrants when he mentioned ‘Miya.’
An old controversy was stoked by the Deputy Chief Minister Of Nagaland, Y Patton, while addressing a gathering at the General Conference of the Lotha Student’s Union, Wokha at Maratchu Village (also known as Merapani) on January 27- 28, 2020. In his speech (an audio recording and transcript of which is freely and widely circulating),he referred to the Lothas of Ralan Area Sub-division as “ Miya Jaat “ and thereafter ‘Dalals.’ The reason he gave was primarily political. However the inference and logic has not been the same. Firstly, Y Patton also belongs to the same Lotha tribe as much as the people of Ralan Area sub-division. Secondly, as the then sitting MLA of the ruling Congress party in 2003, he had accompanied Dr SC Jamir, the then Chief Minister of Nagaland, to Bhandari for the Assembly Election campaign. In his recent speech it was quite apparent that he had nursed a long held grudge of getting lesser number of votes from Ralan Area during the Assembly Elections which led to his defeat during the 2003 Assembly Elections.
In April 2002, Dr SC Jamir, then Nagaland Chief Minister, denied press reports that a new tribe ‘SUMIYA’ has emerged in Nagaland State following suspected infiltrations from Bangladesh into Nagaland. He later clarified that, it was unethical for journalists to put words into his mouth. He denied having said anything about a new tribe or tribes supposedly emerging in Nagaland. In a strange twist of definition and context, the term ‘miya jaat’ as Y Patton used in his speech recently, is intentionally used to connote a ‘most appalling and derogatory category of humans’. In fact it is in essence a ‘racist, inhuman, anti-semitic’ outburst and with a ‘fascist mind-set’.
According to experienced observers, for a people who have been recognised by the Government of India as having a ‘unique history’ calling people from his own Lotha- Naga tribe ‘miya jaat’ tantamounts to undermining that honourable recognition for the Nagas as a proud race. The debates over the CAA have definitely transformed the political positions of some MLA’s in Nagaland. However, using the term ‘miya’ to denigrate and besmirch people definitely exposes a ‘stained Nazi and Hitlerite mentality’ and the appropriation of such words is definitely taking the Indian political discourse on race, community, tribe and politics to a very low and unimaginable ebb in this free and democratic country like India.
Yours etc.,
Hayithung Bill Lotha,
Former National Secretary, BJP
&
Former NPP Lok Sabha M P candidate, Nagaland