Letter from the Editor - in - Chief
Letter from the Editor - in - Chief
January 2010
By the time the January issue of Eastern Panorama hits the stands, we would already have entered the year 2010. This is a very important part of the year, a time for introspection and resolutions, in other words, a time to take active role to better ourselves and the situations we live in. However, while envisioning our personal nirvana, we should keep the big picture in sight and resolve to undertake long – time goals while forgetting trivial pursuits. Maybe this is what should have been done during the recently concluded International Climate Conference at Copenhagen, Denmark which, we dare say, did not live up to expectations. Our leaders, they who had the world’s future in their hands, failed to take advantage of a great opportunity to remedy the colossal damage we have done to the environment and mother Earth. They rather decided to hold the interest of their respective countries above the fate of the world as a whole. I strongly feel that here, they lost sight of the big picture. One has to ask them how our countries will exist when man made boundaries are torn asunder by the ravages of Mother Nature when she has taken all that she can take.
Change seems to be the key word here. Obsolete ideas have to be discarded to pave the way for a new and better tomorrow. This is what seems to be happening in the North East today particularly with regard to the militant groups plagueing the region. 2009 was a year in which we saw an unprecedented number of militant groups laying down their arms and opting for peace. The surrender of two of ULFA’s founding members at Dawki in Meghalaya is a very significant milestone in the history of Assam and the ULFA’s age old struggle for a sovereign Assam. This surrender is perhaps the dying breath of ULFA.
The people of the North East know only too well the effects of militancy. Development is hindered, countless lives are lost and the damage done to property, both personal and public is immense. The railways operating in the North East have in particular been subject to acts of militancy and the cover story of this issue of Eastern Panorama looks at the effects of militancy on the railways operating in India’s North East Region.
The need of the hour is to change the mindset of the youth so that they are not swayed into such acts of barbarism. The youth have to be inculcated with a sense of right and wrong and have to know that they are accountable for their actions. Meghalaya was recently the scene of such an attempt to bring about accountability. A Bill was introduced in the Winter Session of the House of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly which proposed the compulsory registration of marriages in the state. This was done with the object of making the youth accountable as marriages in the state have become transitory as, devoid of legal and religious binding, they are easily dissolved and discarded. The issue is a very important one as these failed marriages have led to a social crisis wherein single parents (among the youth) vastly outnumber dual parents. We feel that this matter needs to be pursued.
Let us keep in mind that our actions of today shape the situations which we end up in tomorrow, let us all make changes for the better.