*** First off, I was only being facetious :-).
It was an absurd proposition to begin with . I
can't believe how a segment of Assam
intelligentsia, particularly the internet set,
that continue to make that argument.
Having said that, just because I am not ULFA, my
explanation, if sound could not be accepted by
ULFA as their own? After all it is not like
dealing with intellectual property issues, where
they qwill have to pay me if they use it.
In fact thinking people ought to promote the
notion of incorporating the best practices,
wherever available from. One of a functioning
democracy's main benefits is to be able to make
the best use of the collective wisdoms of the
people and something that Indian democracy has
proven to be eminently incapable of.
At 6:24 PM +0100 10/8/07, uttam borthakur wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>And in this era of globalization, where
boundaries of state is an obsolete
concept as you all declared, the fact of my being
an ex-pat ought not to be an issue.
If we all agree on this, where is the question
of adding a new 'state' in the map with
'boundaries' and 'colours'? Will this 'state'
also not 'wither' away?:-)
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Utpal:
I have found what I was looking for.
You wrote that you were reading my responses to
SH with a lot of interest. I feel honored,
considering that many tell me they never read
what I write or give a damn.
I will attempt to answer your questions, but
NOT as in an inquisition or interrogation, where
you ask the questions and I am required to give
the answers, while "---dont wish to join you in
a debate".
SH also refuses to debate me. I understand he
has no time for such. I like to think that you
have at least a little more time than SH,
considering you put together that exhaustive
list of questions for Rubi Bhuyan. And I have no
reason to think that you all prefer to pick on
easy targets only.
SH declared on your behalf that your
"--- purpose was a DIALOGUE, and that too of the
"sincere" variety and the best way we could have started was by
seeking answers to questions that are plaguing the minds of most
"educated", "middle class" Assamese people.
Taking his word for it, before I give any
answers, would you kindly share with us what the
primary objective of your ( and others' too, if
you share theirs) question/s was/were?
I ask, because it was not clear. I am no
journalist, just an ol' homespun observer. But
I know from observation, that dedicated and
effective journalists ask questions with an
objective in mind and keep asking, seeking until
they arrive at the objective or find the answers
that help them achieve their objective/s.
What was your objective, your AIM?
After that I propose to engage in a give and
take, ask/answer/follow-up and so forth, as in a
civil dialogue between two mature persons. I
promise not to ask anything personal or call you
names or question your intelligence or
integrity, comment on your language skills and
indulge in other such confrontational or
condescending tactics. If you wish you can
appoint one or more ombudsmen/referees of your
choice monitor the dialogue, but only for
form/tenor of the discussions--not on the
subject matter/s.
Is that a fair deal?
You are also welcome to have others in your
team, perhaps no more than say two more persons.
I don't want to get into what I termed the other
day a feeding frenzy of scavengers.
I am hoping that you will not decline on account of your sixth question below:
6. Since you say you do not speak for ULFA and am NOT PRIVY to
its policy-making, would not it be
better if ULFA talks directly to all of us?
with regards,
The answer to that is this:
Let us assume that ULFA is incapable of
answering your questions, as was concluded
by many of the inquisitors. But that does
not mean these are unanswerable. I can
field those questions. We will let you
and the netters judge how well or how poorly.
You are interested , after all, in seeing
if these resolvable issues. If I can answer them
satisfactorily, and if ULFA does not have
anyone in its policy-making body capable
of dealing with them, they can always
HIRE me. I will be pleased to help them,
having proven in this forum that I am up
to it. That is the kind of work I do for a
living,
as a consultant, solving other people's
problems. And in this era of globalization, where
boundaries of state is an obsolete
concept as you all declared, the fact of my being
an ex-pat ought not to be an issue.
Shall we ?
c-da
Chandan-da, I have been reading with
great curiosity your mails arising out of
Shantikam Hazarikas comments on my questions
posted to ULFA on another online group of
Assamese people. I dont wish to join you in a
debate on the exchanges you have been having
with Hazarika or others, but I would be
grateful if you let me know:
1. How you deduced that my questions to ULFA
were constructive (as you put it, So, even
though you have been evading the points I
raised, you can correct yourself, and tell us,
that Utpal's
ploy was not a constructive one).
2. I had asked ULFA some stratightforward
questions, and HAD given the reasons why I was
asking them. I am not sure if you saw / have
seen the questions while questioning the motive
behind them, because I have posted them on
another group and on this group it just took off
on the basis of Hazarikas comments. (I am also
not sure if you are a member of the other group,
since you have not participated in the debate on
the other group, though you have said in this
forum As I wrote earlier, Utpal's questions
were virtually the same as those posed to this
writer by Chittaranjan in May of this year.)
3. How did you arrive at the conclusion that the
questions were an inquisition and an
interrogator's talking points, and that it was
not designed to have a SINCERE DIALOGUE?
4. If the ULFA dispatcher might have been
farther handicapped by not being in on ULFA's
policy making or communicating team (I would
like to know how you arrived at that conclusion,
or whether you are privy to some inside
information on this, since Ruby Bhuyan is a
member of ULFAs central publicity committee, as
is mentioned in the ULFA press release emails),
s/he should
have told me that. My questions were not
directed at him/her, but at the ULFA, so s/he
could have taken some time maybe even
collecting all the questions of all varieties
(pro/anti/whatever) from more questioners and
come up with an overall response from the
leadership, the one which makes the policies. If
the ULFA dispatcher is not part of ULFAs policy
making or communication team, n that context,
there is no use in sending any question to ULFA
through Ruby Bhuyan
5. ULFA, for your kind information, did not even
attempt to reply to a single question in a
straightforward manner it just inserted some
words in different colours, adding some caustic
comments and remarks. I would have appreciated
if it had replied to my questions even if it had
been in the manner you had argued with
Chittaranjan Pathak. I am not sure if you have
seen the so-called reply before questioning my
motive.
6. Since you say you do not speak for ULFA and am NOT PRIVY to
its policy-making, would not it be better if
ULFA talks directly to all of us?
with regards,
Utpal Borpujari
I fully agree with Mrinal that for the first
time, at least one section of Assamese (those
with access to the Internet and part of this
e-group) are being able to have a direct
interaction with Ruby Bhuyan (or as Mrinal says,
a person assuming the identity of Ruby Bhuyan
since the original RB has already surrendered
quite sometime back), and through 'her', the
ULFA. So, let both sides ask questions and get
replies, without being uncivilized.
I want to ask ULFA a few questions - as an
Assamese whose extended family includes my late
grandfather Suresh Goswami (the director of 1953
film Runumi) who along with my mother's uncle
Jibeshwar Goswami for the first time had tried
to institutionalize Sattriya Dance through the
Prachin Kamrup Nritya Sangha, Lakshminath
Bezboruah from whose family my maternal
grandmother came, filmmakers Siba Prasad Thakur
(my father's cousin) and Bidyut Chakraborty
(Thakur's son-in-law), Mamoni Raisom Goswami
(who is a relative through my bhai-bowari). I am
giving all these examples to prove my 'purebred'
credentials to ULFA before asking the questions
- so that Ruby Bhuyan can reply to them without
attributing any motives. Also, I am a journalist
who have been working outside Assam for last 14
years after starting my career in Assam, with a
close tab of Assam's events, and have been done
my best to promote particularly Assamese cinema
outside Assam. I had been in touch with several
former ULFA spokespersons as a journalist in my
professional capacity. But here I am asking
these questions as a common Assamese who want to
see Assam excel in every field, without any fear
that he or she might not return home alive in
the evening.
So, here are the questions. I hope there will be
straightforward answers to my straightforward
questions:
1. In your last mail to this group, you
mentioned "By the way--Assam's West is Korotoya+
Jomuna, North is Tibet, East is Yunnan, South is
Maan". Does this mean that in ULFA's map of
Assam, Bhutan/Arunachal
Pradesh/Nagaland/Manipur/Mizoram are all
included as an integral part of Assam? Asking
because between Assam & Tibet are Bhutan &
Arunachal, between Assam & Yunnan is Arunachal,
and between Assam and 'Maan' are
Arunachal/Nagaland/Mainpur/Mizoram. And the
southern borders do not mention Bangladesh.
Can we have an image of the independent Assam that ULFA wants?
2. How does ULFA's Assam plan to run its
economy? The oil & natural gas are not going to
last forever and tea sector is facing a lot of
competition already. Please give us a detailed
plan of action, not theory.
3. What will be the place of Bodoland, Karbi
Anglong autonomous council and many other such
demands in ULFA's Assam? Has ULFA found out from
all the communities demanding autonomy whether
they want to be / would be part of ULFA's Assam?
4. How do you justify the killings of the
Dhemaji children, the scores of innocent people
going to market places in various towns and
cities, bus & train passengers all these years
through bomb blasts, etc? Is this ULFA's way of
waging war against the 'colonial' rulers of
India? If you are fighting the official
machinery in an armed struggle, you are supposed
to fight the armed forces directly, isn't it?
5. What will be the political system of ULFA's
Assam - will it be a democracy? will discordant
voices be allowed to be heard or will they be
sougth to be subjugated like some of your
replies on this forum sought to do with a lot of
taunt to people who all want good of Assam (like
calling Nayanjyoti Parasara a Bihari - even if
he is one, what difference does it make, though
for the record he is as pure an Assamese as any
ULFA cadre could claim to be; or calling
Santikam Hazarika 'the best management guru east
of Suez' or some such description)?
6. With reference to the killing of Bihari
settlers in Assam, what is the definition of
outsiders for ULFA, because many of those killed
have been residents of Assam for over 50 years,
with their children even going to Assamese
medium schools. What is the cut off date,
basically? Because it can be stretched to
include the family of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, the
late Lalan Singh (whose forefathers had come to
Assam from Bihar, and who became a president of
AASU in the early 1970s), singers like Pulak
Banerjee and Banikona Ghoshal, actress Seema
Biswas, all the brahmins and many of the
kayasthas in the states who were brought to
Assam by the Ahom Kings, the saah bagan mazdoors
who were brought in by the British from the
present-day Telengana, Orissa, Jharkhand... and
many more people.
7. ULFA has banned Hindi film screenings in
Assam as it is part of 'colonial propaganda'.
Does its definition also include films made by
Assamese directors in Hindi (Jahnu Barua's
'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara', Anshuman Barua's
'Dooor' which is yet to be released), or even
venturing into Hindi film world by people like
Zubeen Garg, Saswati Phukan, Kalpana Patowari
(who is, incidentally a superstar singer in
Bhojpuri though she is a 'purebred' Assamese),
Seema Biswas and others? Does the bad influence
films also include those by people like Shyam
Benegal, Govind Nihalani etc which talk of
common man's concerns?
8. Does ULFA's ban mean that it would seclude
Assam from 'outside' world through such
censorship, by preventing its people from
accessing any form of art form as they want,
especially in today's globalized world?
9. Is there a possibility of ULFA extending the
ban to literature, dance and other art forms
from outside? What is ULFA's cultural policy?
What has it done in all these years to inculcate
in people love for indigenous art & culture
(people still see Bollywood potboilers more than
they go to see Jahnu Barua's Hkhagorloi Bohu
Door, isn't it?)? I am particularly asking this
in context of poetry of people like Mithinga
Daimary, whose writings talk of an open world
with freedom for all.
10. Would ULFA ban people from Assam from
participating in talent hunt shows (however
trivial they may be) of TV channels from 'India'
- for eg Saregamapa which Assam's Debojit Saha
won last year?
11. What are ULFA's views on mass organizations
like Axom Sahitya Sabha, AASU, AJYCP which have
all opposed its demand for independence and
opposed the killing of innocent people? What is
ULFA's opinion about public protests against the
killings of innocent people in bomb blasts,
allegedly carried out by ULFA? (Please don't
refer to the atrocities carried out by Indian
Army on innocent people and families of ULFA
cadres - we all know about that are condemn that
fully).
12. What are your views on NSCN-IM's demand for
Greater Nagalim which includes parts of Assam,
Arunachal and Manipur?
These are just a dozen. If I have more, I will send them in my next mail.
And yes, I must congratulate Rubi Bhuyan for the
sudden improvement in English - if anyone has
noticed, the language and grammar in her latest
mail was really outstanding - not like the angry
outbursts without a care for grammar in her
earlier mails.
Utpal Borpujari (New Delhi / Guwahati)
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam@assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Uttam Kumar Borthakur
Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage.
<http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_mail_2/*http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html/>Get
it now
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam@assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam@assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
