David Buhril
Let us put our minds together
And see what kind of a future
We can make for our children.
-Tatarika
Yotanka (Sitting Bull)
Red
Indian Chief
Keivom called to inform me
about the inevitable trip. We were supposed to visit Sinlung Hills (Mizoram),
Tipaimukh (Manipur) and the strings of villages downstream where we would
finally come to halt in Hmarkhawlien (Barak Valley, Cachar, Assam). Development
induced turbulence, in the name of every possible, beautiful disguise, is yet
to rock these invisible constituencies if the progresses for
Tipaimukh Dam and other dams criss-crossing our rivers were allow to begin. I
cannot stop wondering who will give the green signal!
Under the 2006 Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) notification, the Union environment ministry asked
states to form States EIA Authority (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal
Committee (SEAC). SEAC was to srutinize applications for environment clearance
and provide technical support to the SEIAA and SEACs. The notification also
laid down that the SEIAA must comprise three members nominated by
the state government, including a chairperson and a member secretary.
Bureaucrats head more than half the SEIAAs. There is no specification of the
number of members of the SEAC. It is a serious concern as we have no
"experts" or "professionals" in our own bureaucratic
structure. This will only open the floodgates for the decentralization of
corruption by risking our vulnerable geological realities and everything that
we have been inheriting as a people. The new world has just open a bigger
chapter of work to get done at home. Call that homework. We are
responding to that. Slowly but certainly. In the name of development, we will
be deprived of our every base for survival as a people. This will be a focus of
study for David L. Keivom for his BD thesis and so the purpose of our visit.
Unstiring and invisible excitement
took hold of me after Keivom called. I was always weigh down to earth after
visiting these villages, which I have done so many times. They are the most
left out peoples by everything big such as democracy, welfare, health, road,
education, public distribution system, water, governance,etc. The governments
of these areas are fortunate that Che Guevara bike trip did not trek into the
deprived hills. But it remains our responsibility to witness them so that we
wake up with the need to see for change and ideas. That has always been the
compelling reason to take me inside the wounded hills and mountain villages.
Had Gandhi and Guevara visited these peripheries, they still would
do what they did religiously, however differently. They will find
every reason, every right to activate for the vacuum and gaps left behind by
the state.
The more you see, the need for
bigger sacrifice takes hold. The places bulged with unanswered questions.The
answers are not blowing in the wind. It will depend much on our activism.
Treading that path would draw anyone closer to salvation. That's when I am
often reminded by Mother Teresa's saying:"The hands that serve are holier
than the lips that pray".
Much against my worries the Keivom's
(L. Keivom and David L. Keivom) landed in Lengpui on time.I was a little
doubtful as the weather has been beating science for the past five days without
any flight landing. Keivom's arrival coincided with the HPC(D) diktat to the
YMA's in Sinlung Hills to surrender their official seal and letterhead to
protest the central YMA president's off-sided statement. Some subjects are, of
course, meant for some subject. There is a morsel of the pie for Caesar and for
Him. It is always the evil that sought to have a tongue in everything in the
quest of vain power and glory. I am reminded of a man who puts his tongue at
the wrong place and ended up convinced that the whites are the best in
savouring foul smell. Putting the tongue at the right place makes a man wiser.
Keivom's coincidental visit draw us
closer to the intelligence radar. The coincidence, however, did not hold any
water. They must have, otherwise, succeeded in constructing an impressive story
to score a good, if not excellent remark from their superiors. For some time
now there has been a series of communal plot, which we should never bow to
accept. If these plots are staged, Zoram Khawvel may get to see the sort of
spring that recently shook the Arab belt and spilled. They have tightened the
security ring, and even to the extent of frisking and checking anyone. Any
Hmars actually. The target is clear. It smells foul though. The security knot
is only making the Christian, peaceful and dry state more thirsty. The
underground liquor importers are the ones negotiating the security ache. I was
told there are more than one way to keep the state from running dry.One foul
mouth is likely to slap everyone. Think of Supandi's wisdom. Make peace to make
way for the free flow of the spirits to quench the thirst.
(To
be Contd.)
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