In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. About 3 minutes: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. At 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. At 45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. After 1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He...
(Continued from part ….........I)
To start with; let me correct some points in my first chapter,Irom Sharmila witnessed the killings that prompted her to fast unto death till the AFSPA repealed; the victims were not all ladies there were male members too. This has been corrected by one of my friends who has been closely watching the developments since long. Now let us see what AFSPA is all about. This law was passed by Indian Parliament on 11th September 1958 conferring the special powers on Armed Forces to act on Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Trupura as they all were declared disturbed areas. Later this law was extended to Jammu & Kashmir on July 1990.
Now what are the special powers! The Constitution of India empowers a state government to declare it disturbed or a state of emergency is called upon. The reasons could be failure of stated administration and police to tackle the situation as the scale of unrest is too large. As a consequence; the Central send the Armed Forces to control the situation under Armed Forces Special Power Act. This empowers the officers of Armed Forces “ to fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law'/ against 'assembly of five or more persons' or on anyone found in possession of deadly weapons. They can arrest with the use of 'necessary' force anyone who commits certain offense or is suspected to have committed without any warrant and can enter any premise to search and make such arrests.
Just imagine if such law is imposed in your surroundings; how the life would be! Further if it continues for decades; obviously the most peace loving amongst you would turn violent and condemn it. In a free country, as India is, other than those states, no where else human rights are so nakedly violated. Unfortunately the very reason of indifference attitude in the majority of states that they are neither affected nor can visualize an iota of torture and persecutions. Sitting in our drawing room; reading morning news papers; somewhere in 6th or 7th page's bottom some news of north-east's turmoils mostly escape our notice. Our evening telecast news rarely cast any light on the plight of our fellow country men in North-east! Even after six decades of independence; we remain mostly ignorant about them and their ravaged human rights. Our ignorance is bliss for us but for them it's curse!
(to be continued..................)
To start with; let me correct some points in my first chapter,Irom Sharmila witnessed the killings that prompted her to fast unto death till the AFSPA repealed; the victims were not all ladies there were male members too. This has been corrected by one of my friends who has been closely watching the developments since long. Now let us see what AFSPA is all about. This law was passed by Indian Parliament on 11th September 1958 conferring the special powers on Armed Forces to act on Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Trupura as they all were declared disturbed areas. Later this law was extended to Jammu & Kashmir on July 1990.
Now what are the special powers! The Constitution of India empowers a state government to declare it disturbed or a state of emergency is called upon. The reasons could be failure of stated administration and police to tackle the situation as the scale of unrest is too large. As a consequence; the Central send the Armed Forces to control the situation under Armed Forces Special Power Act. This empowers the officers of Armed Forces “ to fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law'/ against 'assembly of five or more persons' or on anyone found in possession of deadly weapons. They can arrest with the use of 'necessary' force anyone who commits certain offense or is suspected to have committed without any warrant and can enter any premise to search and make such arrests.
Just imagine if such law is imposed in your surroundings; how the life would be! Further if it continues for decades; obviously the most peace loving amongst you would turn violent and condemn it. In a free country, as India is, other than those states, no where else human rights are so nakedly violated. Unfortunately the very reason of indifference attitude in the majority of states that they are neither affected nor can visualize an iota of torture and persecutions. Sitting in our drawing room; reading morning news papers; somewhere in 6th or 7th page's bottom some news of north-east's turmoils mostly escape our notice. Our evening telecast news rarely cast any light on the plight of our fellow country men in North-east! Even after six decades of independence; we remain mostly ignorant about them and their ravaged human rights. Our ignorance is bliss for us but for them it's curse!
(to be continued..................)
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