BTC post-poll violence claims 1

Kokrajhar, April 10: Post-poll violence in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) claimed its first victim today, a day after the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election was hailed as the most peaceful ever.

With more reports of disturbances coming in, the state election commission today ordered repolls in nine more polling centres. With this, repolling will now be held in 25 booths under three districts of the BTAD on Monday, a day before counting is scheduled to take place.

The victim, Deepak Narzary, was the president of the Gossainichina unit of the All Bodo Students Union (Absu), which falls under the union’s Ramfalbil anchalik area. Sources said Narzary was a polling agent for the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF) at a polling station under Dotma constituency and was allegedly chased and assaulted by supporters of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) while returning home. The incident took place about 150metres from the Serfanguri police station in Kokrajhar district around 5pm, an hour after polling ended, yesterday.

Sources said a BPF member, Kanaklal Basumatary, was also seriously injured at the same place and time in a clash between the BPF and the ceasefire group of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB). The BPF, a partner in the ruling coalition at Dispur, has accused its rival, the BPPF, of taking the help of the NDFB, which is in ceasefire with the government, for the BTC polls.

Narzary succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Bongaigaon today while Basumatary is still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kokrajhar.

In the neighbouring district of Chirang, five BPF activists were injured when they were attacked by BPPF supporters at Bauraguri under Bijni police station around 8 this morning, sources said. The injured have been identified as Babul Sikdar, Kalil Nagari, Abdul Awal Pramanik, Jakir Hussain and Mafidul Nagari.

Elections officials in the BTAD said repolling had been ordered in 25 polling centres in the three districts of Udalguri, Baksa and Kokrajhar. No repolling has been ordered in the fourth BTAD district, Chirang.

Repolling would be held in 13 sensitive polling centres under four constituencies of Udalguri, seven polling centres under three constituencies of Baksa and five polling centres under two constituencies of Kokrajhar.

In Udalguri, repolling will be held in six polling stations each under Kairabari and Bairabkunda constituencies and one under Routa constituency.

In Baksa, repolling has been ordered in four centres under Koklabari constituency, two under Baganpara and one under Salbari constituency.

In Kokrajhar, repolling will be held in five centres — two each under Guma and Baukungri constituencies and one in Jamduar.

In another post-poll incident reported from the Bodo belt today, a village headman, his son and daughter were attacked by goons who came on two motorcycles at Santipur under Paneri police station in Udalguri district around noon. Sources said the unidentified youths came to the residence of the village headman, Joseph Daimary, and assaulted him after accusing him of voting in favour of the BPF in exchange of money. They also beat up his son Marcus and daughter Manaki before fleeing. The three have been admitted to Udalguri civil hospital.

Dum Dum touches 41, heat wave in Calcutta

Meghdeep Bhattacharya, TT, Calcutta, April 10: A heat wave swept through Calcutta today with Dum Dum recording a maximum of 41 degrees Celsius.

It is officially a heat wave if the day’s maximum is at least five degrees above normal.

Usually, the mercury mark recorded at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore is considered Calcutta’s temperature. In Alipore, the maximum — 40.1 degrees — today was a shade lower because of a cloud cover, but the weatherman said the reading at Dum Dum station this afternoon meant the city was officially experiencing a heat wave.

“Dum Dum’s recordings show the condition of large parts of the city and its outskirts. So when the maximum crosses five degrees above normal at Dum Dum, it is safe to say the city is in the grip of a heat wave,” said G.C. Debnath, director of the Regional Meteorological Centre.

Such nitty-gritty wouldn’t bother ordinary people. For them, it has been a heat wave for the past few days, made worse by long and frequent power cuts. There was no relief from the twin torments today and neither the weatherman nor the power babus offered hope.

“Calcutta is experiencing a very unusual weather right now, much like a Delhi summer. Dry heat, with loo in the afternoons, is expected to stay for at least two more days,” Debnath told The Telegraph.

Relief could have come in the form of a Nor’wester, but there is none on the radar.

“No Nor’westers are ex- pected till at least April 15. The moisture content in the air has to be much higher for Nor’westers,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department in Delhi.

A scientist of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Noida, called it “one of the most notable weather anomalies this year, which will be studied in the context of climate change”.

The peak-hour power deficit went up to 750MW in the districts and 225MW in Calcutta.

While most of the state suffered power cuts for six to eight hours, the city and its suburbs went without power for two to three hours from noon.

“Till the state utility’s generation returns to normal, it will be difficult to meet peak-hour demand in the city,” a CESC spokesperson said.

Of the total 1,470MW demand, CESC provided 1,245, that too after importing 121MW.

By 5pm, almost every Calcutta neighbourhood had experienced power cuts.

Across the state, peak-hour demand hovered around the 4,100MW mark. “There seems to be no end to the crisis. We have faced power cuts for six to eight hours every day the whole of this week. Elders and children are falling ill in this heat,” said Suprita Basu, 32, a homemaker in Salt Lake.

The state-run West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL), which supplies the bulk of the power to areas under the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), generated much less than capacity and put the blame on inadequate coal supply and technical glitches.

Two 210MW units at Bakreswar and Kolaghat were expected to resume generation today but that did not happen.

Tamangs are different

SNS,  9.4.01:Subjugated and abused by Nepal’s first Hindu monarch, willfully referred to as ‘Tamangs’, this community has suffered much and continues to worry about what else must come, writes Furba Lama

MAHAYANA is one type of Buddhism and the other, Nyingmapa, was created by Gurupadmasamva, affectionately called Guru Rinpoche by Tibetans in Tibet, in the seventh century. Before this, there no Buddhism in Tibet and all Tibetan communities and sub-sects were followers of Bon Dharma. The Tamags were the first Tibetan sub-sect to embrace Nyingmapa Buddhism in Tibet at Palyul, where the first Nyingmapa Buddhist gompas (monasteries) were built. The word Tamang is wrong; neither is it a Nepali nor a Tibetan word. In fact, Tamag is the correct word and its pronounciation is correctly mentioned in the Tibetan-to-English dictionary (page 980) prepared and published by Sarat Chandra Das of Lhasa Villa, Darjeeling, in 1834 and it is also mentioned in the same dictionary (pages 780 and 781) that fifth Panchen Rinpoche invited Das to Tibet in 1879 and 1881. It also mentions that Panchen Rinpoche died of smallpox in 1882 and that the sixth Panchen Rinpoche took over as an infant in 1883.
   The veracity of the word Tamag can be proven from its meaning: Ra-ta-ta=Ta; Dau-ma-ga-mag=Mag; therefore, the letter or word Ta, meaning horse, and Mag meaning army, gives the word Tamag, meaning Mounted Army (in Nepali Ghorchari Sena, Risalla, Aswarohi Sena). There were so many Tibetan sub-sects of which the Tamags were the main security and protection force of the palace and king. That is why Tamag is a Tibetan word that was willfully mispronounced and intentionally changed to Tamang by the so-called first Hindu monarch just after the creation of Nepal. Tamang is neither a Nepali word nor a Tibetan one.
   Before the creation of Nepal, there were Tamags in the Temal  Hill in the seventh century and since Nepal is not more than 244 years old, it means and proves that Nepal was created in 1767 after the tribal kings of different buffer states were subjugated by the so-called Hindu king who integrated their holdings into one nation called Nepal. But even after this unification, there was no common language in this newly created country. Of course, there were the Khas and Parbatay languages that were spoken by the Kamis, Damais and Sarkis, and even the Chettris, Bahoons and Thakuris spoke the Rajput and Rajasthani languages in 1767 when these were introduced in those buffer tribal states by the Rajasthani Rajput King of the Saha clan.
   Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta also belonged to the Bahoon community, also an intruder from Rajasthan, and the common mother tongue and language of these people were Rajasthani and Hindi. When these communities intruded into those tribal buffer states where the Khan and Parbatay languages were used by the Kamis, Damais and Sarkis, they introduced their languages which Bhanu Bhakta employed and translated the Ramayan in a very easy language which he called Nepali. Bhakta collected the script from Deonagari Lipi of Hindi and prepared the Nepali script and wrote on home-made Nepali paper. At the time that Bhakta created his language — called Nepali by the first Hindu king of the first Hindu country called Nepal 244 years ago — he was 29 years old. Therefore, from the 193rd birth anniversary celebrated by Nepalis all over the world on 13 July 2009 we can easily find that the age of the Nepali language is thus: 193-29 (Bhakta’s age at the time) = 164 years.
   The Tamag community and their language is more than 1,067 years older than that of the Nepali/Gorkha community and their language, culture, costumes their religion. Therefore, this proves that the Tamags are a different tribal community, with their own spoken language and script that is approved by the Language Research Institute, government of India, at Mysore (Karnataka): Tamyig language. Since 2005 this language has been implemented in schools in Sikkim, and for which that state government has appointed Tamyig language teachers in different schools. Tamags have their own costumes, culture and eating habits. The community embraces and follows Nyingmapa Buddhism. In the seventh century, the Tamags were compelled by the so-called first Hindu king of “unified” Nepal in 1767 to give up their culture, costumes, language and main festivals (Sonam Lochar). Defiance invited severe punishment from the so-called Hindu King’s forces, who intruded from Kanauj (Rajasthan) and included the Rajputh communities of Chettris and Bahoons. This explains why the Tamags lost everything after the unification of Nepal.
Therefore, we still have doubts here in the Darjeeling Hill areas. Will the same be repeated here? Will Tamags be safe and secure, allowed to retain their culture, language, costumes, religions beliefs? The present Tamag generation is just uplifting itself, developing in Darjeeling, Sikkim, Assam, the Dooars and so many places elsewhere.
   Tamags should come forward and do something about the preservation of Nyingpapa Buddhism and their culture, rituals and lifestyle. If these vanish, all Tamags will face an identity crisis. Each and every Tamag must keep in mind that they different than the other communities.