Editor,
Your query, calling for a public vote titled “Do you think the BJPs anti-Christian moves will dent the Party’s image during the elections?” has brought out the inner world of your daily to the foreground as what you are seeking to uncover is not the truth but to put an opinion into the minds of those who will participate in the poll. Your call in the poll is not really a fair question at all, but a leading one. Most certainly the Party that has been taking the religious agenda as its main poll strategy will be all out to thank you for your poll vote. And so will other political parties who have nothing at all to speak against the BJP and therefore fall back on their favourite religious rhetoric every election season.
Have you noticed that not a single leader from any church, be it Catholic, Protestant or Evangelical has raised any question concerning any Political Party being pro-Christian or anti-Christian apart from anti-BJP political parties and your daily? Have you noticed that among the political parties contesting the polls the only Party that has visited church leaders and sought to understand the problems and the issues that the church leaders and their congregations are facing is the BJP? There is every reason for me to believe that the questioner of the above poll knows what it wants as an answer and the questioner knows how to get there. It is so evident from your query that there is a voluntary attempt at dragging down a Political Party, and in this case the BJP, which is a crying shame, because now it is no secret that there is a malicious, self- deceiving instinct for belittling the BJP and even an unhidden attempt to distract the electorate from supporting the cause of development which is the greatest strength that the BJP has over every other Party in Meghalaya.
Your biased poll is branding the BJP as anti-Christian in the question itself, which is deplorable, despicable, and showcases a very low standard of journalism. We hope that The Shillong Times is better than this, and that you will immediately re-word you poll on your online portal, and issue an unconditional apology to your offline readers. Either it is the above or is it possible that it is the pessimistic suspicion, the mistrustfulness of a disappointed idealist grown spiteful and gloomy, or a petty subterranean hostility and rancour against the BJP that has perhaps not even crossed the threshold of consciousness, or even a taste for the grotesque, the painfully paradoxical, and the questionable absurdity of having to fight off a Party that now seems to be growing in leaps in bounds in Christian dominated states especially in Meghalaya and Nagaland regardless of whatsoever antipathy some have against it? Or finally is it a bit of something of each of the above and above all a high degree of anti-BJPism, a terrible itching to hurt the Party and thereby bring some spice into life’s goals? Even as I jot these suspicions down, I feel that maybe, just maybe, I’ve made a wrong calculation somewhere, and if one may be allowed to hope where one does not know, then I hope from my heart they may be the reverse of the above, because between this and that the truth does exist
Yours etc.,
Gregory F Shullai,
Spokesperson BJP Meghalaya
Horrific traffic jam in the city
Editor,
On Monday February 6 the traffic scene in Shillong city reached its limit. People experienced horrific traffic jams and were stranded on the road for hours (including critical patients, office goers, students, infants, etc) owing to the series of grand processions by various political parties, I would like to state that it’s time this age-old tradition of ceremonial filing of nomination is being dumped for good in the larger interests of the public.
I would like to convey this to the Election Commission and the East Khasi Hills DC that it is simply not acceptable in today’s digital era that the city is being held to ransom for a reason as petty as this. For God’s sake filing of nomination is just a simple procedure where a document is being submitted in the DC’s office marking the nomination of a candidate. The same can be easily done online without any hassle!
Meghalaya should show the way to the entire nation and come up with online filing of nominations.
Yours etc.,
Raghav Bajaj,
Via email
Joshimath: Lessons to be learnt
Editor,
Barnes Mawrie ‘s editorial on Joshimath should wake us up. A city in Zone V in the middle of the fragile eco-sensitive area of Uttarakhand had received attention from India’s top geologists and environmentalists from 1972 but the government of the day chose not to pay heed to early warnings. Now watching people having to abandon their homes built out of sweat and toil is painful indeed. In 2021 the Tapovan hydro power dam was flooded with workers in tunnels and drowned in great numbers. Public uproar caused the state government to stop the project.
Joshimath like the entire North East is at seismic Zone V but while Joshimath is recent the north east region recalls only the 1897 earthquake which had devastated Sylhet, Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Hospitals, schools and government buildings were levelled to the ground and people lay buried in the debris. 1897 was not 2023. At the time buildings were of lime and mortar and single storeyed. Transport was by pony cart. And houses were few and far apart.
In the 1990s Doordarshan organized a three-day discussion with public and seismologists. One student perhaps from the coal belt seemed very worried to hear facts. But what could he do in a world of politicians with no vision or farsightedness? Rat hole mines are most vulnerable in case of an earthquake as the cavity resonates and multiplies the disaster. But it’s a tragedy that from 2014 till date rat hole mining continues unabated right before the eyes of the NGT and enforcement agencies.
The Government of India too was embarrassed by headlines of illegal coal mining and summoned the CM to grant scientific mining rights as per the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act. But on his return to the state he backed off as the cost of mining far exceeded the profit. Finally, a coal baron took up the challenge of scientific mining with a square kilometre of a hillock at Lumiakhih. With scientific mining, an influx of engineers, technocrats and trained miners will displace the people of the area. Right now it is the hottest election issue in Khliehriat. But again Khliehriat is 104 kms from Shillong and too distant for their issues to be heard across the 3 districts.
Recalling the article by Emica Nongkynrih, “Smart city, unsmart public utilities and voters” (ST Jan 18, 2023), the heading itself tells us loud and clear of unsmart public utilities and unsmart voters. How I wish voters were smart enough to look at those unsmart public utilities and vote the NPP out of power.
It is now 126 years since the last big earthquake of 1897. On January 3, 2023, Jammu and Kashmir had a mild quake which destroyed 12 houses at Doda. J&K too is in Zone V. As far as rat hole mines are concerned the Disaster Management Authority right now needs to look at what steps should be taken should the big one strike. For instance even when there are fires, there is delay because Fire Brigades cannot access the narrow roads in localities. This would pose huge problems in a disaster. There are too few hospitals and with no medical colleges to produce doctors, the shortage is going to be worse. One only wishes that people care enough to keep disaster management kits ready in case of an emergency.
Yours etc.,
W. Passah,
Nongkrem