- Sport without power
Laishram Devendro Singh
Imphal: When 20-year-old Army boxer Laishram Devendro Singh takes on Paddy Barnes of Ireland in the quarterfinals early on Thursday, his family at Yurembam Awang Leikai village in Imphal West district will watch the bout without worrying about any interruption. How at all?
With Manipuris getting power for only six hours, though an improvement from 3-4 hours in 2011, the family has arranged a generator to ensure that they don’t miss out on the action in the ring and get to cheer for Devendro. Till early last year, the state used to get power only for three to four hours daily.
“Before and after his (Devendro) two bouts at the Olympics, my son called me on the phone. He always said he would do his best to bring laurels for the country and the state. We also encouraged him to give his best,” Devendro’s father Laishram Jugindro said. “I hope that he will call me before his crucial fight to take blessings from me and my family, especially his mother.”
- Perils of Migration
New Delhi: The volatile debate in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday on the continuing conflagration in Assam cast the spotlight on “illegal” immigration and the sharp divide it has caused in the state. Allegations of ethnic cleansing and demographic change marked the sharp exchanges with representatives of Muslim outfits crossing swords with tribal leaders.
The North-east
In the Lok Sabha, government business was suspended to take up the issue through an adjournment motion moved by BJP leader L K Advani, which was shot down by a voice vote after a five-hour debate. The debate is significant as illegal immigration from Bangladesh, which had great traction in the 1980s and the 1990s, had appeared to have lost its salience in Assam. However, the current round of violence has belied the assessment that Assam was at ease with the new demographic normal where Muslims are in the majority in several districts of the state.
The debate also brought to the fore fears that the large-scale immigration is a threat to the indigenous people of Assam and their way of life. S Bwiswamuthiary of Bodoland Peoples’ Front objected to the term ethnic cleansing bandied about by Muslim leaders and contended that the unrest in the region was due to “blatant kind of aggression by illegal hostile Bangladeshi immigrants”. He pointed out that earlier, the tribal belts and blocks in Assam were restricted for outsiders.
The member said the population of the Bodoland Territorial Area District was 30 lakh out of which indigenous people comprised 60% and the rest were non-Bodo communities. Bwiswamuthiary said that if the Centre did not check illegal migration from Bangladesh, there would soon be a Bangladesh-occupied Assam on the lines of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.