Imphal Times Supplementary issue 32 National & International News PM Narendra Modi visits Nepal’s 19 dead in fighting between army,

power in 2016, but she shares iconic Muktinath temple; offers rebels: military power with the military that Agency military source said, adding that Independence Army and the fought the insurgencies for special prayer , May 12 two dozen had been injured. military broke down in 2011. decades. Thaung Tun, a local NGO Those fleeing violence have Ms. Suu Kyi managed to bring Agency At least 19 people have been leader who helped carry the been sheltered in tents and even two ethnic groups into a New Delhi, May 12 killed in clashes between injured to the hospital, said the churches in Kachin, which is ceasefire accord in February, Myanmar’s military and an dead included one police officer, mainly Christian, as rights adding to eight others who had Prime Minister Narendra Modi ethnic armed group on Saturday one rebel fighter, four members groups accuse the military of inked the deal before she took today visited Nepal’s iconic in northern , of a state-backed militia, and two blocking aid. office. Muktinath temple and offered Myanmar army and local women civilians. Myanmar’s patchwork of ethnic special prayer there. sources told AFP, the most Pictures of burned-out vehicles groups make up round a third Situated at 3710 metres above deadly flare-up in recent years and armed men running for of the population, but the Bamar Imphal Times is the sea level in Mustang as fighting in the borderlands cover spread quickly on social or Burmese have filled the looking for two trainee district, Muktinath temple is intensifies. media. Buddhist-majority country’s reporters. Minimum regarded sacred by Hindus Rights defenders say clashes in TNLA spokesman Major Mai power structures since qualification Graduate and Buddhists. Mr Modi wore northern Myanmar near the Aik Kyaw told AFP that the independence in 1948. in any stream. a Buddhist traditional red dress border have ramped up group attacked joint military Civilian leader Suu Interested candidate and carried out rituals both since January as the and militia posts in the Shan Kyi said ending Myanmar’s can apply for the post according to the Hindu and international community state town of Muse and on a long-running conflicts was her Buddhist tradition. After focuses on the Rohingya crisis road to Lashio. main priority after she took during office hour. praying, he also greeted and in the west of the country. “We fight because of thorough interacted with people waiting The military stands accused of fighting in our region and the at the temple premises. Mr carrying out an serious offensive in Kachin Modi has become the first campaign against the stateless State,” he said, referring to Assam: Bus skidded off, world leader to pay homage at minority in Rakhine. fresh confrontations in the main sanctum of Saturday’s violence was Myanmar’s northernmost state injuring eight in Boko Muktinath temple. between the military and the between the army and the In a short while from now, Prime Ta’ang National Liberation TNLA-aligned Kachin Lampara, May 12 Most of the passengers are Minister will visit world famous Army (TNLA), one of several Independence Army. reported to be Nepali. Pashupatinath temple in attend a reception to be hosted hosted in his honour by the insurgent groups fighting for 90,000 people in IDP camps A Night Super bus (AS 01 HC Kathmandu and worship Lord by the Indian Ambassador Kathmandu Metropolitan City. more autonomy in the north. Upwards of 90,000 people reside 9036) tumbled into a ditch 3 killed in Shiva. Mr Modi will also meet Manjeev Singh Puri. Mr Modi arrived in Nepal Two dozens injured in IDP camps in Kachin and early in the morning at leaders of various political Prime Minister Modi will also yesterday on a two-day visit “Nineteen [people] were killed since a ceasefire Lampara under Boko Police landslide in parties of Nepal. He will also attend a civic reception to be to the Himalayan nation. in fighting,” the Myanmar between the powerful Kachin Station. It is reported that the bus was heading to Mizoram Shillong from Siliguri, Agency ferrying 21 passengers Aizawl, May 12 Rahul asks people to participate in ‘festival of democracy’ by voting including the driver. The mishap led to the injury of At least three people, Agency “Voter exercising his right with fervour, and make it state as part of his party’s face during the three children who were including a minor girl, were Bengaluru, May 12 without fail is the sign of successful,” he said. ‘Janashirvada Yatre’. He campaign. rushed to the nearby killed when a landslide hit functional democracy. I The Congress chief had had addressed roadside Siddaramaiah tweeted, Bamunigaon Model Mizoram’s Zemabawk area, Congress president Rahul welcome all my young extensively campaigned meetings and rallies and “Today people of Karnataka Hospital, Boko Hospital. police said. Aizawl District SP Gandhi today urged the friends who are casting their across the state with an aim taken part in road shows are standing in queues to While five found in critical C Lalzahngova told PTI that people of Karnataka to vote for first time in to bring the party back to across the state in a create history and show the conditions were referred to three persons were confirmed participate in the “festival of Karnataka,” Gandhi said in power in Karnataka, which customised bus. nation the way to liberal, Guwahati Medical College. dead in the incident and efforts democracy” by voting in a tweet in Kannada. is the only large state ruled The Congress has not progressive, peaceful and According to Officer In were on to recover the bodies. large numbers. “I request people of by it after Punjab. announced any chief compassionate politics and Charge of Boko Police The number of casualties Gandhi also welcomed first- Karnataka to celebrate this Gandhi had made nine ministerial candidate but governance. I thank them for Station Jogendra Barman , could rise as people are still time voters to take part in the biggest festival of visits, each one spanning maintains that incumbent their support and wish them the bus was fell into the feared trapped in the landslide, electoral process. democracy in large numbers about three days, to the Siddaramaiah will be the well. ditch due to over speed. police said. Contd. from Page 2 Sovereignty Struggles in : Where are They Going? Ideas Do Not Die, Ever most powerful of the oppression, have developed the modestly well-heeled suggestion, for I honestly do separatism and insurgency, that reality that stares one in the I return in this section to two nationalities, the Serbs. One some stakes in the system – ‘conscience-stricken’, at least not know the ground reality there are strongly entrenched face, separatism not so much points made in the previous may see some corresponding have little objective cause for for form’s sake, intellectuals, even in Assam, my home for and powerful forces in the as an idea but as self- section where I have tried to similarities in the way Centre- feeling alienated or even writers and artists, the NGOs many years, let alone in Manipur region well integrated into the destructive insurgency deal with some events and State relations have worked, or diminished in terms of their briskly networking with where I have always been a patronage alliance of the Indian persists. To take the situation developments of contemporary have not worked, in India. individual or collective identities international donor agencies visitor, not a resident. One is not state who have developed a in this very state which I now history (that many in my Interestingly, and to the extent may be dead, or may only be and so on, maybe I should also sure of the reverse correlation vested interest in the find is utterly, totally, different audience would know more I remember, the Chapter on dormant. This is certainly not a add journalists and the media, between separatism and continuance of separatism and from what I vaguely three or about) to amplify some other Centre-State relations in the live issue. However, they came had for long been able to insurgency, and economic insurgency, only which can four decades ago. During my features of what I call varieties Indian Constitution does not into the public domain and contain discontent taking an development. As that trite explain their persistence, first visit to Kolara during the of separatism. The first is that even use the term, federal and stayed there for awhile before explicitly political direction. The wisdom says, fair economic despite many grievous Puja holidays in 1963 a little over separatist sentiments, real or derivatives thereof, in any of its dying out – or staying dormant. developments in recent years in development touching the setbacks. Perhaps it is possible a year after I moved to Guwahati opportunistically manipulated, articles, though commentators The reason why Tamil what the glossies breathlessly people is a necessary, but not a to draw such inferences from to spend some time with my are sometimes used as a and judicial pronouncements nationalism and separatism are describe as ‘abujland’ pose a sufficient, condition to meet the this or that rather superficially mother, I was asked the bargaining tactic in areas where on its provisions use the term not live issues is not because challenge to this happy situation. After all, Punjab, a argued articles, for I am no strangest of questions by the objective reality provides no freely. such sentiments are fully dead coexistence. It is not for nothing restively prosperous state also theorist, much less a thinker, but friends. The family doctor, for rationale for such separatism. In In other words, the decisive – my own reading is that ideas that the Prime Minister has been was a fertile ground for separate that ‘harmless hack, a mere instance, asked me if he had to such areas separatism dies away contribution to the unravelling do not die, ever – but that they frequently speaking of LWE as insurgency. The problem is that journalist’. But certainly, some put extra postage stamps on the sooner or later. The second and disintegration of the cannot be an issue to be the ‘greatest threat’ facing India. one knows so little about the inference may be drawn from envelope addressed to me in point, that the primary cause for Federal Republic came from pursued By Whatever Means I am not sure this is the case. correlations between the Indian the very instructive trajectory of Guwahati. A person from the unravelling of the Yugoslav within Yugoslavia, from the Necessary (to use that cliché), Poverty, inequalities of income State and the complex network the Dravidian movement which Guwahati was in those days a state was the overweening Serb dominant because the objective situation and opportunities, structural of security agencies it has in its origins had a strong bit of a novelty even in chauvinism that led inescapably that, like other great in the land of the Tamils does discrimination against the created to defend itself against separatist, if not secessionist Bangalore. Now people from to the barely dormant nationalisms, degenerated to not admit such extreme vulnerable and defenceless, forces committed to subvert component but whose two this region are setting up chauvinisms of individual little Serb chauvinism. The process manifestations of non-existent gender and caste oppression, this State. However, this very major political manifestations businesses not merely in nationalisms. This happened did not stop in 1991; it went on grievances. Put simply, it is not alienation of the religious Indian State has also sometimes are now the two natural parties Bangalore but in other cities and despite the fact that the and eventually forced possible to rouse the Tamil minorities, these pose the been found complicit in the of government, vying with each towns as well. There are scores Socialist Federal Republic of Montenegro which had not people into discontent on the greatest challenge to even the creation of factions of such other but shutting out all other of stories I can tell about the Yugoslavia formally comprised seceded in 1991 but had ground that they are a despised kind of India that this alliance is subversive forces, players, including major players strangest of encounters from six Socialist republics and two remained as the Republic of and diminished minority that trying to build even if the manufacturing grievances at the national level, from having persons of this region in the most autonomous provinces, a clear Serbia and Montenegro to walk just does not count. The partners of this alliance carry when necessary. Examples any significant role in the unlikely of places and recognition that the Yugoslav away in 2006. One wonders if numbers, not to speak of the different signboards. The recent abound in this very region, not politics of Tamilnadu. circumstances in Bangalore and state at least in its constitutional these seemingly obscure reality, are simply against such setbacks to the organised left to speak of the by now well- Thou hast committed even small towns in Karnataka. provisions was truly federal in developments in an area so arguments. This is the case in have emboldened this predatory known origins of the Khalistan Fornication: This is only a small instance of a letter and spirit, had recognised removed from India have some the rest of India which is well class even further. movement. but that was in another much larger process of the reality of the complex ethnic relevance for process of integrated into the path of Could it be, therefore, that a Some friends have challenged country; integration of this region with the mix of its population and had nationality formations in India, capitalist development that measure of economic such formulations, especially and besides, the wench is dead. rest of the country, working both mandated the required and the problems that this is India has made its own, this development, even if it were to the one suggesting that As a distant but friendly ways, though the influx of non- constitutional provisions. encountering as much in despite the reality that is also be very modest and benefit separatism or insurgency is a observer I have sometimes Manipuris into Manipur has However, this constitutional Assam as in other parts of this routinely reiterated in the very further the pitiful ‘creamy layer’, bargaining counter, or that it is wondered about the persistence been a process and enterprise recognition of the uniqueness region. structures created by the same that one has to look hard to find an instrumental agency of the separatist mindset and going on over a much longer of the identities of the various Separatist sentiments or Indian state (like the NAC) that in this region, and a reigning in cynically used (if not actually sovereignty aspirations, even period, having ramifications constituent autonomous aspirations in most parts of inequalities too are growing. of the tendencies I have constructed) by those who while bearing in mind the going far beyond merely trade republics and autonomous India whose people – always This happy coexistence of a mentioned in the preceding have benefited from the Indian epigraph to the previous and investment, and having provinces meant less than meaning by the term ‘people’ predatory class whose paragraph weaken what state, or that even the kind of section. Yes, one admits the profound cultural implications. nothing in practice when about half the population or less composition is too complex a separatist sentiments that still development that this part of eternal durability of ideas, but No need for me to spell these confronted by the national many of whom, even while subject to go into, but broadly persist in the region? I am the country has seen would not one also wonders why ignoring things out to this audience. chauvinism of the largest and suffering from denial and comprising both the amoral and reluctant to make any have been possible without the the all too obvious objective ( To be contd. tomorrow)

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