HIMALAYAN GUARDIAN Wednesday
March 20-26, 2013
DALAI LAMA TO VISIT SIKKIM NEXT WEEK
Buddha Statue consecration on March 25,
White Tara Tsewang at Ravangla on
March 26
Gangtok, March 19: His Holiness the Dalai Lama will perform the much-awaited
consecration ceremony of the Buddha Statue at Ravangla, South Sikkim, on Monday
(March 25).
The
Tibetan spiritual leader, who will arrive in the former Buddhist kingdom, will
perform the Vajrakilaya (Dorjee Phurba) ceremony at the Buddha Park (Tathagata
Tsal) on Monday morning. In the afternoon he will give teachings on 37
practices of Bodisatva in Ravangla, an official release said.
On
Tuesday, the Dalai Lama will bestow White Tara Long Life Empowerment. The State
Government and the Tibetan community of Ravangla will offer long life offerings
(Tenshuk) to the Dalai Lama on the same day. After lunch on Tuesday His
Holiness will depart for Gangtok.
He
is expected to leave for Salugara in Siliguri on Wednesday morning, the release
said. In Salugara, His Holiness will give teaching on Je-Tsong Khapa’s Concise
Stages for the Path to Enlightenment (Lam-Rim-Du-Don), and Kun-Kyen Long-Chen
Rabjampa’s Relaxing the Mind Itself (Sem-Nyid-Nye-Sol).
He
will also confer Avalokiteshvara Initiation (Chen-Re-Zig-Wang-Chen) on Friday
(March 29) at Salugara.
Bhutan says no to Situ Rinpoche visit
New Delhi, March 19: Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has
asked India not to allow Situ Rinpopche to visit his kingdom.
The
Home Ministry, therefore, may not allow Situ Rinpoche, a high incarnate lama of
the Kargu order of Tibetan Buddhism, to visit Bhutan, sources said.
The
Bhutanese King has requested the Indian government to restrain Tai Situ
Rinpoche, mentor of 17th Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje, from
travelling to Bhutan, top government sources said, The New Indian Express reported.
It
is learnt that Situ Rinpoche, who resides in Himachal Pradesh, wants to visit
Bhutan.
The
Centre is understood to have rejected Rinpoche’s request on the pretext that he
could “meddle” with the clergy (Drukpa Kagyu) in Bhutan.
Bhutan
is also said to be “wary” of Tai Situ’s visit, although he holds a Bhutanese
passport. Situ Rinpoche reportedly sent the request to Delhi recently asking to
be allowed to visit Bhutanese monasteries and then return to India.
New
Delhi has imposed some curbs on Dorje too — especially on visits to the Rumtek
monastery in Sikkim. Rumtek monastery is the exiled seat of the 16th
Karmapa.
Beijing supports Nepal’s ‘sovereignty’: Wu Chuntai
Kathmandu, March 19: The newly-appointed Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai said Beijing
respected Nepal’s unity and sovereignty.
Briefing a select group of
the media here on Sunday, Wu said, “The Chinese policy is to support Nepal’s
sovereignty and unity,” and added that China intends to build long term ‘comprehensive
cooperative partnership” with Nepal.
The new Chinese Ambassador
took his Kathmandu assignment only last week after the energetic but highly
arrogant Yang Houaln was recalled by the top level Chinese administration.
Wu said that there has been
significant growth in people-to-people relations and cultural exchange between
the two countries.
Bhutan to hold general
elections next month
Thimphu, March 19:
The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan will go to polls for the second time in
its history next month for elections which will consolidate its transformation
to democracy, according to a royal decree.
A vote for the 25-member upper house will take place on
April 23, said the decree which was posted online. An election date for the
larger and more influential lower house has yet to be announced but is widely
expected in May.
“It is important that all voters take their right and duty
seriously, exercise their franchise and choose the most competent and deserving
candidate as their representative,” said the decree, AFP reported.
The landlocked Buddhist nation wedged between India and
China held its first vote in 2008 after its beloved royal family opted to step
back and peacefully turn the country into a constitutional monarchy.
Almost 80 percent of Bhutanese turned out to vote, handing a
landslide to the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) or Bhutan United Party led by
Jigmi Thinley — a two-time former premier under the previous royal governments.
Political parties have flourished since the last polls with
a total of five parties set to contest the elections in the lower house, two of
which are led by women.
Bhutan follows a unique home-grown development model focused
on boosting Gross National Happiness instead of economic growth, putting
respect for the environment and well-being of citizens at the heart of its
policy-making.
The Kuensel
newspaper said voting for the new 25-member National Council would take place
at 850 polling booths dotted around the mountainous country, with results to be
declared on April 24.
Dissident Tibetan writer
faces further restrictions
Dharamsala, March 19: Chinese authorities have further tightened
restrictions on Beijing-based Tibetan poet and blogger Tsering Woeser, moving
police guards to the floor of her apartment building a day ahead of a US State
Department ceremony honoring her for her courage in striving to uphold Tibetan
rights.
Beijing has blocked Woeser
from traveling to Washington to receive the award, which she has dedicated to
the more than 100 Tibetans who have self-immolated in protest against Beijing’s
rule in Tibetan-populated areas.
Woeser said she and her
husband have been placed under 20 days of house arrest at their Beijing home
while meetings of China’s National People’s Congress, the country’s
rubber-stamp parliament, are in session.
Restrictions on her
movements, already strict, have now been tightened, Woeser told Radio Free Asia by phone on Thursday.
“Today at around 7:00 p.m.
[local time], I saw that two security officers were stationed at the door to
the elevator of my apartment building,” Woeser said.
“They look friendly, but my
movements are now even more restricted than before,” she said.
“They suspect that the U.S.
Embassy might organize an event [for me], and that if that happens there could
be media people present. So I was told that I cannot go out.”
“If these restrictions last
for just a few days, I can cope, but it will be difficult for me if they go on
for 20 days,” Woeser said, adding, “If they block my Internet and website, that
will be a real problem for me.”
A total of 107 Tibetans have
set themselves on fire so far in protests challenging Beijing’s rule in Tibetan
areas and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader,
who lives in exile in India.
Woeser has said that the
self-immolations have given her the courage to continue with her own struggle
for Tibetan freedom.
Woeser “has emerged as the
most prominent mainland activist speaking out publicly about human rights
conditions” for Tibetans, the State Department said this week in a statement.
Her website Invisible Tibet,
together with her poetry and nonfiction and writings on social media have given
voice to millions of Tibetans “who are prevented from expressing themselves to
the outside world due to government efforts to curtail the flow of
information,” the State Department said.
Jammu and Kashmir not part of India: Gilani
Srinagar, March 19: In occupied Kashmir, the veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani has
said that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and has never been a part
of India.
Gilani in response to the
resolution passed by Indian Parliament about Kashmir said that the rulers,
opposition and media in India had been deceiving their own people by keeping
them in dark about the reality over the Kashmir dispute.
He maintained that the
Kashmiris had been struggling for implementation of the relevant resolutions of
the United Nations to decide their political future by themselves through
plebiscite.
Senior APHC leader, Bilal
Ghani Lone in a statement in Srinagar welcomed the passing of a resolution by
the Pakistan’s National Assembly supporting the Kashmiris’ movement for
securing their inalienable right to self-determination, Kashmir News Service reported.
People staged a protest
demonstration against the continued arrest, harassment and atrocities committed
by the Indian Paramilitary forces in different areas of Langate in Handwara.
An APHC delegation comprising
Zafar Akbar Butt, Hakeem Abdur Rasheed, Syed Bashir Andrabi and others visited
illegally detained Hurriyet leaders, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and Ghulam Muhammad
Nagu, at Central Jail in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities
continued to place the APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, veteran Kashmiri
Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman,
Mohammad Yasin Malik and APHC leader, Mukhtar Waza under house arrest. The
Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party castigated the authorities for
prolonging the detention of the party Chairman, Shabbir Ahmad Shah.
The Chairman of Jammu and
Kashmir People’s Freedom League, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, in a statement said
that historically and legally Jammu and Kashmir had never been part of India
that had illegally occupied the territory in 1947.
Editorial
HOPE IN ASIA
Suu Kyi’s Next Challenge
Myanmar’s general elections in 2015 is critical for a nation
that has lived under an iron fist for decades. The outcome of the elections
also pose a big challenge to its two giant neighbours – China and India. The
elections will also have a direct bearing on the economy in Thailand and
Bangladesh. Hopefully, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel
Peace laureate, will come to power after the polls. Over the years she and her
National League for Democracy (NLD) have come to symbolise the struggle of Burma’s
people to be free.
Suu Kyi's struggle for democracy now enters a new phase. She
was recently re-elected Myanmar’s opposition leader at a landmark congress of
the NLD. It is heartening to note that Myanmar President Thein Sein, who
recently visited the United States for attending the UN Genral Assembly
session, is doing all that he can to bring change and reforms in Myanmar. Suu
Kyi has tremendous support in the West and this will surely not only help her
to win the polls but to bring peace, freedom and prosperity to Myanmar. One of
the toughest challenges that Suu Kyi faces comes from Kachin tribals and Muslim
Rohingyas.
Myanmar has been under military rule since General Ne Win
seized power in 1962 and remained so still now even though the regime claims that
it has a representative government following the 2010 controversial elections.
It is a nation where Suu Kyi, known as "icon of democracy", has been
struggling for last many years for establishing popular rule and her difficult
task for democracy earned her the Nobel Peace Prize. But Aung San Suu Kyi, who
earlier was denied power despite winning the elections way back in 1992, still
remains midway through the complex task of democratisation of her country.
China appoints new Tibet Governor, hardline policies
to remain
By BEN BLANCHARD
Losang Gyaltsen, new Tibet Governor
China appointed a new
governor for remote and restive Tibet on Tuesday, naming a hardline ethnic
Tibetan in a signal that the government has no plans to ease up on its tight
control on the Himalayan region.
Losang Gyaltsen, 55, was
elected at the end of the annual meeting of Tibet's largely rubber stamp
regional assembly, and replaces previous governor Padma Choling, according to
an announcement by the official Xinhua news agency.
Losang Gyaltsen is a former
mayor of Tibetan capital Lhasa and once taught Marxist theory, according to his
official biography. His name is also spelled Losang Jamcan in English.
He reports to Tibet's top
official, Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo, a position which traditionally
has always been held by a Han Chinese rather than an ethnic Tibetan.
"He's rather hardline,
but all officials at that level are the same," said prominent Tibetan
writer Woeser. "There will be no real change in Tibet."
China has defended its
iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the mountainous region suffered from dire
poverty, brutal exploitation and economic stagnation until 1950, when Communist
troops "peacefully liberated" it.
A post in Tibet is one of the
most challenging positions for Communist Party officials, but can also be a
route to higher office if they are judged to have performed well.
President Hu Jintao served as
party boss in Tibet from 1988-1992, while rising star Hu Chunhua, recently
appointed party chief in booming Guangdong province and seen as a possible
future president, has some two decades of Tibet experience.
Speaking to Tibet's
legislature on Tuesday, the new governor, Losang Gyaltsen, said the government
would "resolutely struggle" against exiled Tibetan spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama, who China accuses of promoting violent separatism, charges he
denies.
"We will unswervingly
protect the unity of the motherland and ethnic harmony ... and maintain harmony
and stability in Tibet," the China News Service quoted him as saying.
"Harmony and stability
are the basic guarantee of Tibet's development and prosperity," he added.
China has tightened already
strict controls in Tibet since an upsurge in self-immolations by Tibetans
protesting Chinese rule over the past two years, though most of the burnings
have happened in heavily Tibetan areas outside of what China calls the Tibet
Autonomous Region.
Almost 100 Tibetans have set
themselves alight since the protests began in 2009, most of whom have died.
Despite expectations for improvement,
the crackdown inside Tibet could become even worse once Chinese Communist Party
boss Xi Jinping becomes president in March as he seeks to cement his rule, said
an overseas Tibetan rights advocate.
"I wouldn't be surprised
if at the beginning of his tenure things might get worse before they get
better, because he will want to stamp his authority early on," said Kate
Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet.
Xi's late father, Xi
Zhongxun, a liberal-minded former vice premier, had a close bond with the Dalai
Lama before the monk fled into exile in 1959 following a failed uprising
against Chinese rule. (Reuters)
New Delhi floods northeast with cash to
appease locals
Not
treated as equals, India’s north-easterners can still feel like foreigners
IN
THE evening shadows television crews line the way to room 305 in Manipur House,
in Delhi. Perched inside, tiny on a leather chair, is Irom Sharmila. A long
plastic pipe is taped inside her nose. An activist usually confined to a
hospital in Manipur itself, a state in India’s north-east, she is dazzled by
the camera lights. Microphones are thrust towards her mouth. She murmurs and
stutters, her head gently rocking. But the aim of her protest is clear: India
must scrap a law giving impunity to soldiers who rape, abduct, murder or
torture her fellow north-easterners.
On
March 4th Ms Sharmila was charged with attempted suicide. This has become an
annual routine, punctuating what has become the longest hunger strike by anyone
anywhere. The “Iron Lady of Manipur” has not willingly eaten or drunk since a
Sunday in November 2000 when she learned of the killing of ten civilians at a
bus stop in Manipur by men of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force supposed
to fight separatists. The soldiers enjoyed the protection of the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act, a crude law applied in much of the north-east for over half
a century (and more recently in Kashmir).
Until
the law goes, Ms Sharmila will accept only food that her jailers force through
that tube. For how much longer? “That I can’t say.” Her protest should shame
India’s elected leaders, army and highest courts. The law’s defenders point to
the continuing low-level insurgencies that plague Manipur and parts of other
north-eastern states, notably Assam and Nagaland. For locals, it means dread
and uncertainty. Many leave. A few speak out.
Lift
the law, as the United Nations and others demand, and a modestly hopeful story
could be told of the north-east, a long-neglected corner of India with 46m
people, connected to the rest of the country by a thin strip of land to the
north of Bangladesh. Most of the region’s dozens of armed insurgencies are
dormant or defunct. In February three states—Nagaland, Meghalaya and
Tripura—completed untroubled elections, with high turnouts voting incumbents
back in. Corruption and cynicism over politics may be spreading, but everyone
prefers that to bombs and bullets. Soldiers are mostly kept to barracks, so
their abuses are now thankfully getting rarer. Yet the army insists on the
utterly free hand the act allows it.
Delhi
pays some attention, and lots of cash. Eight small, poor states—mountainous
Sikkim, and the “seven sisters” of the north-east—enjoy annual allocations of
public funds ($4.7 billion in 2010-11, the most recent year for which figures
are available). A diplomat who watches the area talks of a “devil’s bargain”,
as money floods in to appease ex-insurgents and uppity local politicians. They
squander much of it on cars and mansions, while dependency on the central
government grows.
“Insurgency
has become a cottage industry for all,” says a journalist and poet in Dimapur,
Nagaland’s main, dusty, trading town. Its streets are filling with new shops
that sell pricey handbags, electrical goods and luxury accessories. Election
time, when candidates hand voters wads of notes, is a bumper shopping season.
More darkly, a psychiatrist in Kohima, Nagaland’s hilly capital, talks of
addictions to alcohol, heroin and other drugs, and the spread of HIV and other
infections through shared needles. Some ex-insurgents prosper through
extortion, crushing businesses. Organised crime often moves in where conflict
winds down and guns are plentiful. Yet it hardly justifies deployment of
soldiers, rather than police, against Indian citizens.
India
boasts a “look East” policy, partly intended to enrich the north-east by
increasing trade with South-East Asia. The plan has been boosted by reform in
Myanmar, which borders Manipur and three other north-eastern states. India’s
and Myanmar’s armies this year began joint border patrols. Palaniappan
Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, says talks are at an “advanced stage”
with the Asian Development Bank on financing new roads to allow large-scale
trade across the border. There is even a plan for a road, and perhaps even a
railway, all the way to Thailand.
Some
natives of Nagaland fret that their forested land could become a mere corridor
for others’ business. Probably more important are ties back west, to the rest
of India. Cheap private airlines represent rapid change: over 250 weekly
flights now connect the region to the rest of India. Improving roads, mobile
phones, broadband and television broadcasts all bind the north-east in a way
hard to imagine even a decade ago.
Meanwhile,
people leave. In Khonoma, a hillside village of stone houses and Baptist
churches surrounded by paddy fields, a graduate boasts of plans to teach at a
university in “mainland” India. He says a third of his village have left. The
train from Dibrugarh, a region of tea plantations in Assam, the north-east’s
most populous state, is crammed with youngsters eager to work or study in
southern India. Better educated, on average, and proficient in English,
north-easterners are prominent among the staff of many of India’s technology
firms, call-centres and hotels.
Yet
discrimination goes on. Too many Indians make racist remarks about
north-easterners’ “chinky eyes”. Strict Hindus and Muslims shun north-eastern
Christians fond of beef and pork. Violence in Assam last year between Muslims
and Bodos, a tribal group, led tens of thousands of north-easterners in
Bangalore and other cities facing threats to their safety briefly to flee.
Sanjoy
Hazarika, an Assamese writer in Delhi, says it is more revealing that hundreds
of thousands chose not to flee and that anxiety dissipated fast. The sense of
belonging to India could grow stronger. As a senior civil servant in Kohima
puts it: “We have had 50 years of insurgency basically because people here
don’t feel Indian.” That attitude, he says, is evolving—though slowly. A good
way to help it change faster would be to give in to the Iron Lady’s demand. (The
Economist)
China to finish Tibet rail line close to Sikkim soon
Beijing, March 19: China will finish its rail network in Tibet up to Xigaze (Shigatse)
city located close to Sikkim by next year, allowing its military to move men
and material with relative ease besides beefing up transportation in the
strategically important Himalayan region.
The extension line of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway to link provincial capital Lhasa to Xigaze, second
largest city in Tibet, is expected to be completed by next year, Chairman of
the Tibet regional government Losang Jamcan said.
"Hopefully, the
Lhasa-Xigaze rail line will be completed at the end of this year or the
beginning of 2014," Jamcan said in a group discussion of the government
work report at the annual session of the China's parliament here, PTI reported.
He said the completion of the
project would facilitate the development of an ecological tourism zone that
covers Lhasa, Xigaze and Nyingchi cities.
Xigaze and Nyingchi are the
Tibetan city located closest to Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. Xigaze
City is the administrative centre of the Tibetan prefecture of the same name, a
182,000 square km area that borders India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city is close to
Sikkim and has historical links with the former Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim.
It is also famous for
Qomolangma (Mount Everest in the West), which rises up from within it.
China began the construction
of the 253-km line from Tibet's capital Lhasa to Xigaze in September 2010.
China has extensively
developed road rail and air infrastructure in Tibet connecting remote parts of
the the Himalayan region to the mainland, which in turn helped the development
of Tibet.
China so far built five
airports in Tibet at Gonggar, Lhasa, Bamda, Xigaze and Ngari, which is located
close to Himachal Pradesh.
Stretching through five
counties as well as over the 90-km long Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) Grand Canyon,
the line is expected to bring rail network for the first time to the south
western parts of Tibet, which now rely solely on roads for transport, state-run
Xinhuna news agency said.
This is the first extension
of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that opened in July 2006.
The Lhasa-Xigaze railway,
with a budget of 13.3 billion yuan (about USD 2.1 billion) is capable of
transporting 8.3 million tonnes of cargo every year.
It is also regarded as a
noted major engineering achievement as its designed route detour around nature
reserves and drinking water sources to better protect the fragile plateau
environment, the report said.
Jamcan said Tibet will
continue to boost infrastructure construction to bring out the potential for
tourism while protect the ecological environment in the region.
Tibet received 11 million
domestic and overseas visitors last year, bringing in a total tourism revenue
of 13.2 billion yuan (USD 2.1 billion).
Xigaze, with a history of
more than 600 years, is Tibet's second largest city and the traditional seat of
the Panchen Lamas.
Sikkim Cong chief, Pro-Sikkim
editor hospitalized in Delhi
.jpg) |
| NB Bhandari |
Gangtok, March 19: Both the two well-known Bhandaris of Sikkim – NB Bhandari and Hem Lall
Bhandari – have been hospitalized in Delhi and undergoing treatment.
While Harvard-educated Hem
Lall Bhandari has been in Delhi for treatment of his spinal chord for over a
month, the former chief minister and State Congress chief, has recently been
hospitalized for his ‘back problem.’
.jpg) |
| Hem Lall Bhandari |
Hem Lall, who took over as
editor of Pro-Sikkim after the death
of its editor Tenzing Bhutia, fell into a gorge near his home in Rawtey
(Rumtek) recently. He was hospitalized at Manipal Hospital and STNM and later
referred to Delhi. According to the editor, his spinal chord has been badly
damaged.
Thailand keen on investing in northeast: Thai Minister
Taveesin
“Northeast a bridge between
India and ASEAN”
Shillong, March 19: Thailand seems eager engage the peoples
of the northeast to ensure the success of India’s Look East policy.
During her tour of the northeast and eastern region Thai
Minister Nalinee Taveesin stressed the importance of her country’s active
participation in trade and economic activities in the region involving the
northeast.
“I am glad that north
east is showing active participation in this tri-lateral trade between India,
Myanmar and Thailand and I assure that we will invest on what north east market
has to offer”, Taveesin said here on Saturday.
Addressing a gathering at a summit on Integration Bay of Bengal
Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC),
organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce at Pinewood Hotel, the Thai Minister
stressed on the need to improve connectivity in all spheres, be it
infrastructural or technological connectivity to ensure a healthy trading
relation and create synergy between the integrated Asian countries.
Stating that north east is blessed with rich resources, Taveesin
said that this provides immense opportunities for both the countries and that
they are looking forward to tap these energy resources.
Pointing out the fact that Thailand and north east shared a
similar ethnicity, Taveesin said “This is a common thing that can take us
forward with a sense of belonging besides proximity with neighbouring countries
like Bangladesh is also another opportunity for the investors”, she said.
Taveesin, who had her schooling in Darjeeling’s Mt. Hermon
School, however, stated that no matter how plentiful the resources and how keen
the investors might be, without the support of respective governments, nothing significant
can be achieved, The Shillong Times
reported.
Highlighting on the current perspective of BIMSTEC, Joint
secretary (South), Union Ministry of External Affairs, Sanjay Bhattacharyya,
said northeast has many chances to progress and become the focal point for all
BIMSTEC activities.
“The government is focusing not merely on external economic
policy but on strategic shift (Look East Policy) of which northeast has been
identified as a bridge between India and the Asian countries”, Bhattacharyya
said.
Stressing more on connectivity in the region, Secretary General
of International Chamber of Commerce of Bangladesh Ataur Rahman said Bangladesh
is looking forward to help build and improve connectivity and developmental
infrastructures.
He also stressed on the need for public and private partnership on
successful implementation of India’s Look East policy.
Earlier, the delegates from different Asian countries also met
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma here on Saturday to discuss on issues to strengthen
trade relations between the State and the neighbouring countries.
The summit was also attended by delegates from Korea, Singapore,
South Asia Department, Myanmar and experts from different parts of the country.
INTERVIEW PA Sangma
“Northeast doesn’t matter in national politics”
P A Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker and President
of the National People's Party, tells Business Standard’s Gyan Varma he
has joined the National Democratic Alliance for the general election next year.
Gyan Verma: It was quite evident
from the beginning that Pranab Mukherjee would win the presidential election
because the Opposition did not have the required number. Why did you agree for
a token contest?
PA Sangma: It was not a token
contest; it was a contest to send a strong message that the 100 million tribals
have been ignored, and the country should seriously think things over
henceforth. We have been able to achieve this goal. Now, people have come to
realise that tribals have been ignored in the past. In the last 66 years, candidates
from different communities, except from a tribal group, have become presidents
of the country.
Q: Till the point of the
presidential election, you held the record of never having lost an election.
But all that changed with the big loss against Mukherjee. Do you think you run
out of luck?
A: I don't think it's a question of
luck. Yes, it's true that I had never lost any election. I won parliamentary
elections nine times, and Assembly elections twice. But the presidential
election was different. It's an indirect election by the elected
representatives of the people. Had it been a direct election, perhaps the
result would have been different. Therefore, I don't think it is serious.
Winning and losing are both part of the game. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
gave me its full support during the presidential election. I knew we didn't
have the necessary numbers. The election was an aspiration of the 100 million
tribals that needed to be articulated.
Q: The National People's Party
(NPP) didn't perform well in the Assembly elections. It was the very first
election of this new party. You're the only national face from the northeast
region and yet, it did not work for you? What do you think went wrong?
A: Well, several factors went
against us. First, it is a newly formed party, and voters are not very familiar
with the symbol. The change of the symbol was a big factor. Second, the ruling
Congress has the power of money both in the Centre and the state. I had
challenged the leadership of the Congress by running for the presidential
election. I was certainly a target of the party. It's a conspiracy - the party
used its monetary strength, while I didn't have any money at all.
Q: Of the 33 candidates the NPP
had fielded, only two won. In fact, your son, too, lost the poll. What lies
ahead for you and your party in Meghalaya and outside?
A: When people asked me whether the
Meghalaya election was a make-or-break affair, I said in politics, there was no
question of "do or die" or "make or break". It is a
question of up and down. We have lost the election but it doesn't mean we will
lose the election next time, too. In 1977, the world thought Indira Gandhi was
completely out and finished. But in three years, she came back with a thumping
majority. That's how politics works.
Q: It has been long speculated
that you will join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and will lead
the alliance during the Lok Sabha election from the northeast...
A: The question of joining the BJP
doesn't arise. As far as the national politics is concerned, since the country
is now divided between the NDA and the UPA, I have to be somewhere. I cannot be
in the UPA because it will not accept me. Therefore, the only choice left with
me is to join the NDA. I insist on saying "at the national level"
because it has nothing to do with the State level. At the State level, we can
go on our own. I have already spoken to leaders concerned, and joined the
alliance formally at the national level.
Q: You have demanded a 10 per
cent reservation in the Central jobs for the northeastern states. Was it only a
demand to win over voters during the Assembly election, or would you try to
build a national consensus on the issue?
A: It was not committed for the
purpose of the State election. It is a genuine demand of the people from the
northeast that they must have their due share in employment in the Central
government. We will pursue this matter further. In fact, the NPP as a party is
meant for everybody, but I must admit it is certainly tribal-centric and
northeast-centric. And this is the forum through which we will fight for our
rights.
Right from the beginning, the northeast has not been considered an important
part of the country because of its small population. Every northeast state has
either one or two members of Parliament, and it doesn't matter much in the
national politics.
Q: Your decision to contest the
presidential election against Mukherjee in hindsight appears to have cost you
dearly. Your daughter Agatha Sangma was dropped from the ministerial post and
the Nationalist Congress Party was ready to take disciplinary action against
her...
A: I have not lost anything by
contesting the presidential election. In fact, I have gained. So long, people
had been saying I was a national leader from the northeast region; now, by
contesting the presidential election and forming the NPP, I have perhaps become
a leader of the 100 million tribals in the country. So, it is not a loss; it is
a gain. You can see the kind of response the new party is getting in Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. As far as my children are concerned, I never
told them to do politics in my name. If you want to do politics, you do it on
your own merit. It is good that some are losing and some are winning, that's
part of the game.
Q: The Congress came back to
power in Meghalaya, the Naga People's Front (NPF) won in Nagaland and the
Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M) returned in Tripura. It seems
anti- incumbency is not an issue at least in the northeast...
A: As far as Tripura is concerned,
there is practically no alternative to the Left. In West Bengal, the CPI (M)
was ousted and the Trinamool Congress came to power in the last state election.
But one year later, and people are repenting. It's the same with Tripura.
Besides, the Congress has no leadership in Nagaland. As far as Meghalaya is
concerned, the State never had a stable government for the past 35 years. It
was expected that there would be a fractured mandate, but it is true that we
never thought that we will perform so badly.
FASHION
Prabal Gurung: From Nepal to global fashion stardom
New York City stands to make over $400 million this week at
New York Fashion Week and designer Prabal Gurung's runway show will be among
the most anticipated of the global fashion event.
And Gurung is taking his look from the runway to the real
world, going mass market with his new line for Target.
"I have this ... niche audience, it's at a certain
price point ... for me, it's it more about, 'How do I get to the audience, the
larger audience, the rest of America and let them know my own story?'"
His rise to success is a story of ambition -- since
launching his own line and company just four years ago, his designs have been
worn by some of the world's most famous and powerful women -- from the first
lady, to the Duchess of Cambridge, to the Oprah Winfrey, who unknowingly helped
push Gurung to begin his design journey, according to CBS News.
"I was in Nepal and I watched Oprah Winfrey's show. I
had no idea as a kid in Nepal who she was. But I remember watching an episode
of hers about living your dreams. And I still remember telling my sister, 'You
know what? I've never been to America. I want to give it a shot and if it's a
mistake, it's a mistake but at least it's my mistake."
Gurung left his family in Nepal 14 years ago, gaining entry
into the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York. The up-and-coming
designer then worked his way through the fashion ranks alongside the likes of
Donna Karan, Cynthia Rowley and Bill Blass, before he decided to start his own
company.
"Everyone had told me not to do it," he said of
the risky choice to start his own line, "I had no savings, no investors,
So I went on unemployment. It is challenging and I'm a creative person, I come
from a design background. I don't come from a business background."
But soon enough, Hollywood starlets from Rashida Jones to
Zoe Saldana to Demi Moore took note of the young designer, helping to catapult
Gurung to star status.
Some of his big breaks have been outside of the traditional,
Hollywood-centric fashion world, like when Michelle Obama donned his dresses in
2010 and 2011. Gurung acknowledges he has worked closely with the White House,
but shied away from offering details about the working relationship.
He told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell that he was again
"shocked" when Kate Middleton took Gurung global, wearing his dress
on her official trip to Asia. He had not sent the clothes to the Duchess, and
recalling the moment, he said "I don't know how it happened and I was in
shock."
Despite his staggering success, he remains acutely aware
that his in an industry many consider "frivolous," a claim he says he
understands. However, he said, "Let's not forget that the fashion industry
is a billion dollar industry. It generates employment."
Over the weekend, celebrities flocked to Gurung's show in
New York as expected and this week, his style will be available at a much lower
price point through his Target collection.
So what would Gurung say to his younger self, the little boy
in Nepal?
"I'm a little emotional about it," he said,
"I would say, 'You'll turn out just fine.'"
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