|
>BTW, the group you put together here demonstrates that your associative
skills are, well, how shall we say it--work in >progress perhaps?
*** Of course I do. I surmise you don't. Will you care to explain
why?
Don't try to mis understand me. I
am not showing an association of like minded people here. I am just trying to
show here the entire range of intellectuals in present Assam political thinking,
from one extreme to another - from Litikai-Pro-GOI-Mai-Bap to Democratic
Independent Assam to Communist Independent Assam. The conspicuous missing
link is that there none in between group.
Now is this what you call
Enlightened Assam intelleingia that you plan to pick whom you DREAM to lead
India?
Please do Enlightened
the ignorant folks like us who are trying hard to see the
light.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 12:42
PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] DEMOCRACY HARMING
INDIA: LYNGDOH
>Do you see this
'enlightment' in the Tarun Gogoi-Arabinda Rajkhowa-Mukul-Chandan
Mahanta-MamoniRoysom- >Group?
*** I don't know about others, but I sure do. BTW, the group you put
together here demonstrates that your associative skills are, well, how shall
we say it--work in progress perhaps?
>Do you think it
IS?.
*** Of course I do. I surmise you don't. Will you care to explain
why?
>Or you are talking of some
some future DREAM.
*** I am talking of a PRESENT dream.
>May be your trip was too
short.
*** Indeed it was. But I take in a whole lot, even in a short trip.
Luckily I get to commiserate with unimportant people - the REAL ones. I have a
lot to share, and hope to do just that in the days and weeks to come. It was a
very useful and productive two weeks across the length and breadth of Assam,
including areas I never set foot before.
>Don't try to torture and
humiliate Dukhuni Ai any more.
*** Didn't get that. Why do you see it that way?
At 10:23 AM -0600 12/23/05, Barua25 wrote:
**** Not possible?
The
question should be IS or IS NOT.
It
is not a question of POSSIBLE or NOT
POSSIBLE.
Do
you think it IS?.
Do
you see this 'enlightment' in the Tarun Gogoi-Arabinda
Rajkhowa-Mukul-Chandan Mahanta-MamoniRoysom- Group?
Or
you are talking of some some future DREAM.
Please Wake up and smell.
May
be your trip was too short.
Don't try to torture and humiliate Dukhuni Ai any
more.
She
has enough.
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: Chan
Mahanta
To: Barua25 ;
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [email protected] ; Chan Mahanta
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] DEMOCRACY HARMING INDIA:
LYNGDOH
At 9:30 AM -0600 12/23/05, Barua25 wrote:
>And once again I hold out the hope
for an enlightened Assam to lead the way in the sub-continent
with a reformed, true >democracy.
enlightened Assam ????
RB
**** Not possible?
----- Original Message -----
From: Chan
Mahanta
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [email protected]
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 7:49
AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] DEMOCRACY HARMING INDIA:
LYNGDOH
Dear BK:
What do YOU think of Lyngdoh's comments?
I see them this way:
* He mistakes 'desi-deomkrasy' with Democracy.
* 'Western-style democracy' is an animal of the same
genre'
as 'Indian Secularism'(as distinct from the real
'secularism'),
an aberration, a semantic creation to explain the
disorientation
that desi-demokrasy has degenerated
into.
* It is quite obvious that Lyngdoh is just as discombobulated
as
so many other desi-intellectuals, politicians and
assam-netters
by what goes on in the name of democracy in India and is
clueless as
to why it is so.
But he does make some good points about the US push to
open up markets for mega-corporations to go peddle useless goods to
developing societies in the guise of promoting 'democracy'. However,
the two are not inseparable. If anything, true grass-roots
democracy ( as opposed to desi-demokrasy) would be an effective means
to combat this particular evil.
Lyngdoh's comments underscores, once again, the very
disturbing reality that Indian pretensions of democracy is profoundly
broken and that even India's best cannot seem to realize why or how
and how to turn things around.
And once again I hold out the hope for an enlightened
Assam to lead the way in the sub-continent with a reformed, true
democracy. But we know it cannot happen
under the current, degenerated Indian
system.
Best,
c
At 1:51 AM -0500 12/23/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="UTF-8"
Content-Language:
en
Dear Netters
I
reproduce the synopsis of the following talk as reported in the
Assam Tribune today. It is an eye-opener to all the right-thinking
people of India, I think. Hope there will be comment on
it.
Bhuban
![www.assamtribune./115299A4.gif]()
Guwahati, Friday, December 23,
2005
![]() Democracy
harming India: Lyngdoh
By Ajit Patowary
GUWAHATI, Dec 22 - The present rot
in our polity is the result of the electoral politics we are
practising in our country. Elections have done great harm to the
country. The electoral interests of the politicians are dividing the
people more and more. Politicians are specialising in all ethnic and
caste problems. They don't want to solve the problems. This may push
one to surmise that perhaps democracy has done more harm than good
to the country.
This was the observation of former Chief
Election Commissioner of India James Michael Lyngdoh, the recipient
of the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award. He was talking to The Assam
Tribune here on December 18. He was on a three-day visit to the
State since December 18 to deliver the Dr Amitabh Chowdhury Annual
Memorial Lecture on ethics and good governance.
He said that
it was also important to note that more democracy, as has been
suggested by some leading intellectuals of the country, is not the
cure to the ills afflicting the country and its polity. Democracy
has now been reduced into a disguise to promote capitalism.
Capitalism is what matters more in today's world.
When the
authorities in the countries like America advocate democracy, they
in fact advocate capitalism- the interests of the big companies of
their countries. Love for the people always takes a back seat in
their schemes of things.
India is also treading the same
path. The western form of democracy has destroyed the Indian
tradition of democracy. The western system of democracy does not
suit our society. The western way of judicature is also not suitable
to our people. Some of the institutions that we have today are also
not best suited to our life or people, he
said.
Modern
technology does not create jobs. It rather cuts jobs. In the United
States of America also, the growth rate of the country has nothing
to do with the common people. The growth rate of eighth per cent
that has been often boasted of by the rulers of our country as their
achievement, is rather a product of the information technology. It
has nothing to do with agriculture with which majority of the
Indians are involved. The American type of development that has been
sought to be pushed through is not suitable for our country, he
said.
But, for all
the ills afflicting the country's polity today politicians are to be
blamed first of all. For, they are put in the helm of affairs by our
Constitution. If they become corrupt, everyone becomes corrupt.
Politicians are the yardsticks in this matter. No doubt, bureaucracy
in our country is worst than the politicians in matters of
corruption, said Lyngdoh.
Politicians have also led to
distortion of human nature in regions like the NE region. One
example may suffice to explain this. In Ladakh, both the Muslims and
the Buddhists do not practise family planning. The desire to emerge
as the decisive group in electing the lone MP from the region is so
dominating the psyche of these two communities that each of them now
wants to beat the other in the number game.
The situation is
such in the country today that on one-third of the country's area,
the sovereignty of the country is not in effect. This part has gone
either to the militants or to the anti-social elements. We are very
close to the time of Robert Clive, when everyone in India wanted to
be separate.
Commenting on the genesis of the present rot
that has affected the Indian society, he said that the present
insanity for placing the individual interests ahead of the
collective's started quite some time after the death of Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru.
Indira Gandhi spoilt all the institutions,
including the Supreme Court. Communalism also raised its ugly head
during her rule. There is no comparison between the father and the
daughter.
After the death of Nehru, we have a different type
of politicians. Many of them were not even properly educated. They
made politics their profession. They were out to make money and
nothing else. There of course was and still there is, a number of
young educated and professional people in politics. Many of them had
or have their own businesses. But their interest lies in the
corporate sector. Some of them see the USA as the land of
opportunities because of their education in that country. Though
they have come back from the USA, their hearts are still there in
that country.
With such
people in the helm of affairs and capitalism going mad and running
wild, money is everything today. At the expense of the group and
community, it is now the glorification of the individual, which is
putting everything on the back burner, said the former
CEC.
And hence, there is no public investment practically in
agriculture, education and health. There is no emphasis also on
these sectors by the Government, he said.
Then what is the
way out from this morass? He said that with the corporate sector
advancing and the state retreating in recent times, days are not far
when the corporate sector will discipline the politicians of the
country. But, that is in no way going to help the common people of
the country, he said assertively.
_______________________________________________
assam
mailing
list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
_______________________________________________
assam
mailing
list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
|
