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The Karnataka assembly results have firmed up the Madhya Pradesh Congress leadership’s resolve to join hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party before the assembly poll in the state due in November this year. The Congress has learned useful lessons from the fractured mandate in the southern state which could have been a clear majority for the alliance had the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) entered into a pre-election pact. That the two parties still managed to cobble together a post-poll alliance to form a rag-tag government is a matter of only poor consolation for the party. Like Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka, the BSP could prove to be a spoiler for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh unless they agree on seat sharing before the elections.

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The dismal state of today’s higher education especially in engineering courses in India itself is very much alarming. There are almost two million students getting enrolled in various engineering courses in government and private colleges. It is estimated that 1.7 million engineering graduates are produced every year and keeps adding in to the numbers year after year, which is more than the USA and China combined.

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Letter from the Editor

The Tug Of War for the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Northeast of India and more so in Assam is an issue which will decide the faith of the entire Northeast of India and more so the country in the times to come. We have tried to give brief details about the bill and take the views from both the parties who are for and against the bill.

The Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016 amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship. What is interesting is the Christian dominated state of Meghalaya has also out rightly rejected the bill. One can understand it is not about religion but about saving ones way of life. In Assam the only state today where NRC is being updated in the country, what does this bill mean? The division of the state into two fragments who are supporting and against the bill can be seen by just how the demography has changed in those regions since the settlement of the refugees of the Bangla Liberation War. Representatives from approximately 159 organisations and political parties, including Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) – (the coalition partner of BJP in the state of Assam), met the 16-member JPC team headed by Rajendra Agarwala which was recently there in the state of Assam to know the ground realities. The Bill contradicts the Assam Accord of 1985, which clearly demarcates the cut-off time of illegal immigrants from the state on March 25, 1971.

Interestingly India is not a signatory of the United Nation Refugee Convention; therefore it is not required to provide safe haven to people seeking asylum from persecution in other countries. However, the specific use of particular religions and excluding the other religious minorities who are also being persecuted in the neighboring countries is missing in the Bill. One can only wonder, if the outright motive was humanitarian then why instead of mention the religions in the Bill, the simple two words of ‘religious minorities’ was not included? Also if the idea is to support prosecuted religious minorities then why ask the states of Northeastern India to shelter even one and I repeat even one refugee when all our economic indices are in negative and we need funds to support our sustenance from the center? Why don’t the bigger economic powerhouse States of our great nation come forward and say ‘Yes, don’t worry we will settle all the incoming refugees with us and no one will be allowed to settle in the Northeastern region”?

This battle of the Citizen’s Amendment Bill is not about being a good human or not. IT is all about the survival of a distinct, beautiful way of life that is not known in most parts of the world. The northeastern part of the country cannot bear the brunt of refugee’s influx in the states. If this happens, history might repeat itself, as the unemployed youths may become even more delusional then before and all the unwanted events of the past, as well as the weaken separatist movements existing, may get the shot in the arm that they need for their survival.

The issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill is not only sensitive but also very complicated in nature. As the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has re-iterated that all the Hindus who migrated from Bangladesh will be granted Indian Citizenship, but the indigenous Assamese communities and people of northeast India are simply not willing to accept this as the probability of them becoming minority in their own states is significantly high. There is also the feeling of threat to their Indigenous Language and Culture. In such circumstances, political maturity is required to settle the issue. We have to wait and watch.

Harsh Jhunjhunwalla

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The plague of reservation is failing to produce proficient citizens in this developing nation. Political parties have harvested its profits for their own benefit and not for whom it was introduced which is very much evident in every election manifesto of different parties. Indian constitution was adopted by the republic of India in 1950, where it is enacted that reservation should be given for those who were left out of society due to caste based discrimination. It was based on the principle enshrined in the constitution for equal opportunity. Although, initially the time frame was fixed for a period of 10 years, however it has been elasticized more than six and half decades by now either due to social reasons or to reap political mileage. Instead of thinking of its abolition, new additions are still happening. This reservation system was launched to upgrade poor and backward people living in different parts during and after the transition period of independent India so that, they can come up to a certain level of others. Policy makers of earlier and succeeding Govt. have failed to achieve its value till date. Today the condition is such, instead of trying to lessen the gap, the gorge of this caste based reservations systems is deepening and also spreading amongst the different communities.

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She is the supreme manifestation of Naari Shakti: the women power. The entire nation is proud of her. Her name will forever remain in the history of Indian mountaineering.

Why not? Muri Linggi conquered the world’s highest peak Mt. Everest. Just see the indomitable courage of this 40-year old Muri, she trekked the mountain even during the night to cut short her time to reach at the top of Mt. Everest.

At 8 am on May 14, 2018, Muri conquered Mt. Everest after trekking 29,029 feet thus creating a world record. Residing at Roing in Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh, Muri is the third woman from the state after Tine Mena and Anshu Jamsenpa to achieve this distinction.

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For Leisang village in remote Kangpokpi district of Manipur, this tweet opened the floodgate of media attention to their extreme backwardness, deprivation, and difficult lives. For the last 46 years, they have literally lived in darkness, without connectivity, without water supply, without access to quality healthcare. For the children of Leisang, if it were not for the private schools in the neighboring villages, the right to education would have had no meaning. Mid Day Meal is an alien concept with the only accessible government primary school some 3kms away by foot and for the sick and ailing, the only Primary Health Centre is at Waichung, located 8kms away. On 25th April of this year, Leisang came under the national power grid and according to Prime Minister Modi’s Government, it became the last Indian village to be electrified under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

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Assam, if not the Barak valley, is definitely burning. At least, if someone follows the media reporting and related contents, it’s convincing that the Brahmaputra valley of the Northeastern State has been witnessing an uproarious situation for a few weeks now. Few observers may compare the situation to the days of Assam agitation, which culminated in 1985 with an accord signed by the agitators and the Union government in New Delhi. Millions of participants in six years long agitation wanted to deport all illegal migrants from Assam, but the leaders agreed in the accord to accept all the migrants till 25 March 1971 in the State. The agitation witnessed the sacrifices of over 850 martyrs and thousands of others in different shape and sizes, who all wanted to deport the illegal migrants with the national cut off year (1951). But the accord agreed to identify only those people, who entered Assam after 24 March 1971, as illegal foreigners. Need to be mentioned that the accord was never placed in the Parliament for endorsement. After more than three decades of the signing of the accord, the people of Assam (more precisely the civil society group representatives and media stalwarts in Brahmaputra valley) are fantasizing of another uprising. This time it is against the Centre’s initiative to grant citizenship to those religious asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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BSF collaboratively conducted blood donation camp

The BSF continuing its efforts to extend helping hand and social responsibility, a blood donation camp was organized by Border Security Force (BSF) in collaboration with NEIGRIHMS, Meghalaya AIDS Control Society and Meghalaya State Blood Transfusion Council. The camp was attended by large gathering from BSF, MACS & NEIGRIHMS doctor and staff. The border guards living to its expectation of winning the hearts of the local populace by organizing such public outreach programs to contribute in the noble cause and serve humanity in Meghalaya. More than 80 BSF serving personnel donated their blood in the blood donation camp which was organized at Composite Hospital BSF, Shillong.

Shri. U. K. Nayal, DIG/PRO of the Meghalaya Frontier said that in future more such Blood Donation Camps in collaboration with NEIGRIHMS, Meghalaya AIDS Control Society and Meghalaya State Blood Transfusion Council will be organized by Border Security Force in Meghalaya.