"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes;
chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire."
'Aristotle'

Gone month of July had been very eventful and disdainful for more reasons than one. The month has witnessed international, national and regional news affecting Indians and India that hit head lines affecting the nation as a whole and NE region in particular. But these happenings have number of lessons for the central polity, regional polity, security forces and the commoner.

Dr Haneef was blamed by Australian Government, to be a part of terror plot (burning Chirokee jeep hitting Glasgow airport terminal) but released later as a mistaken identity. Mr Howard, honorable PM of Australia has candidly refused to apologize for the mistake despite maligning the image of an individual and the nation.

More so, when no Indian Muslim had been named as part of terror plot any where in the world till date. President is the first citizen of our country and is supposed to be apolitical and secular appointment elected by the Electoral College. Sadly this image has been politicized. The type of controversy and mud slinging, before Madam Pratibha Patil took the baton, forced our People's President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to say NO to the second term.

Famous character Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) has been sent to six year Rigorous Imprisonment for possession of illegal arms 14 years ago. Not to forget the offenders who possess and use illegal arms in the insurgency affected states of North East India, Jharkhand and Andhara Pradesh and other states. Moreover, these offenders who contribute negatively to the society get away with impunity with a status boost in the eyes of onlookers.

At regional level, especially North East India; NSCN(IM) has entered into an Indefinite Ceasefire agreement with GoI on 31 July 07 to be effective from 01 Aug 07. Previously it was being extended on six monthly basis or one year basis dependent on progress of talks and mood of the negotiators. The word indefinite has both positive and negative connotations.

Positively the progress march of Nagaland, continuing for a decade can go on uninterrupted. Negatively, there is a fear of this being abrogated at any time based on the progress of political talks. Even ceasefire with UPDS has also been signed for another six months. Better silver lining in the horizon is; Government of Manipur (most troubled state) has also decided to invite the UG groups to negotiating table. A draft is being worked out that will be finalized in consultation with MHA at Delhi. Hope this materializes soon.

In addition to above, elected representatives of the people were annoyed by the commissions and omissions of security forces. Shri Ph Parijat (a cabinet Minister of Manipur) was quizzed by Maj Thacker of 7AR at Wangoo Sagang post. The minister's motorcade was stopped for security check to total dislike of the dignitary and an avoidable verbal duel took place between minister and the post commander. The incident had upset privilege and prestige of honorable minister.

Similarly Shri Salam Joy an MLA made head lines when UGs decamped with the weapons of his security guards by overpowering them. DGP Manipur had been admonished to the extent of demanding a serious action against the official for pointing out the complicity on the part of MLA. A matter of interest, the MLA has now been promoted to post of general secretary of All India National Youth Congress.

Anyway! These are political matters. He had moved out of Imphal Municipal Limits without informing the state Home Department and without taking extra security cover as laid down. Not only there was violation of security precautions he had also followed a more vulnerable route on return journey when his convoy was ambushed. Various nexus, associations, disassociations, affiliations and disaffiliations can not be ruled out.

Now the lessons that this month of Jul 07 has in store for the society. There is a need to stand up to the national pride to avoid Indians being taken for granted. Honourable PM, Dr Manmohan Singh has shown grit and steadfastness by not bowing to US designs in case of 123 Agreement.

The result; India has entered the agreement by negotiated removal of redundancy in all the clauses to meet civil and strategic nuclear needs of the nation. Therefore, do not take soft spoken people lightly. There is lot to learn from our people's President Dr Kalam. He transformed erstwhile imperial Viceroy's Bhawan to People's Bhawan. He displayed apolitical nature of that post in a very transparent manner.

Elected representative are for the people and by the people. Their status should help in smooth functioning of the government administration and not hinder the same. Security forces must remain with in their domain but not compromise the concerns their duty demands. Privilege and prestige of our elected members should be weighed against the security concerns the nation faced in Dec 2001.

Here attackers made use of this privilege and prestige clause of honorable members of parliament and succeeded in threatening the august and highest decision making body of our nation. Probably if our elected representatives had permitted security procedures, the incident could have been avoided that brought India and Pakistan almost to the brink of war.

The need of the hour is conservation of energy at all levels. Honourable ministers and legislators are requested to conserve their personal energies and not waste on fragile issues. They need to spend their time and energy more on countering under development, unaddressed issues, monitoring uncompleted projects, understate and over perform.

Probably the situation to deploy security forces and hurting privileges and prestige of citizens will not arise thereafter. Security forces need to remember; at no stage their cheeky behavior will be pardoned.

O Boy! You may not get pat on your back for things going right but you will get brickbats for things going wrong. We all need to contribute to make our society a better society and not stop due to fear of being alone.

"I am only one. But still, I am one. I can not do everything but still I can do something. And because I can not do every thing, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
'Edward Everest Hale'