Letters to THE EDITOR

fly over flyovers?

Guwahati is the hub of the Northeast and gateway to the Northeast India, future gateway to Southeast Asian countries etc. It's a common expression among politicians and a section of the media that Guwahati now has a number of completed flyovers. But as a common citizen of Guwahati, I've two questions to ask – first, do you really think Guwahati is getting all its required infrastructure to be recognized as a smart metropolitan city with international networks? Second, do you really think we as citizens are becoming smart enough to live in a smart city? With more than 6 completed and 2 under construction flyovers, are we as Guwahatians being able to click office / workplace on time? Most of the time flyovers are a matter of one-minute pleasure of cruising through no cars. Flyovers are not the only mode which will help us in easing traffic congestion across the city. As responsible citizens of the city we also have lots of responsibilities and must always be ready to lend our civic sense in the roads for smooth functioning of traffic throughout the city. Guwahatians tend to block half of the road by angle parking their vehicles or many a times double parking without even thinking twice about the ongoing traffic which may be affected. Most of the time we get stuck in long traffic due to just one illegally parked vehicle. Angle parking should be banned across the city as it is not suitable for congested city roads like that of Guwahati. It is only good for large parking space. The authority concerned in this case can impart necessary training of parallel parking to the people and afterwards impose fines for those who fail to comply with the system. On the other hand, government needs to work to install traffic signal lights all over the city which is budding to be one of the major downsides in terms of traffic control infrastructurey. When the authorities are spending crores and crores of rupees in temporary arrangements why can't they complete the signal light installation which will be permanent and help the public with smooth movement of their vehicles? Sometimes it's very hard for riders or drivers to locate the hand of the traffic personnel at an intersection and as a result we end up in violating traffic rules. Installing these lights will be far more better change in the beautification of the city than connecting colourful Diwali lights around the streetlight poles.

Utpal Saikia,

Bhetapara, Guwahati

Ethics in journalism

Ethics means moral principles that govern a person's behaviour dealing with proper knowledge. It is important to understand ethics because without proper study about ethics, one cannot be a journalist professionally. Ethics are important for examining someone's role in society. Journalism codes of ethics are intended to ensure reliability of reported information by defining acceptable practices and provide guidelines about circumstances to avoid that could interfere with, or appear to interfere with the reliability of reported information. Journalism is the profession which is different from any other profession; its main purpose is the welfare of the society and country. It plays a very important role as means of mass communication in the modern world. They try to inform the people what is happening in their community, country and the world at large. It's very much important to know what rights the journalists' posses and how to make use of it. The discussion should include issues of the responsibilities of the press, since media has become very prominent and very powerful. It is important because a journalist protects the rights to a fair comment and criticism, a journalist issues correction and refuses a task that is related to the violation of the law or contradicts his or her views. A journalist is responsible for the truthfulness and impartiality of information. Ethics are important for scaling the public rights to know verses the individual rights to privacy. A journalist must be particularly careful when the situation involves minors, they must have the knowledge of copyrights and must be aware of what should be and should not be done as a citizen of a country and a media person. Media laws are very much important to understand because people are much dependent on media and so media must have some responsibilities towards the society and for that they have to understand media laws. Media laws provides the knowledge about the socio- political scenario of a country, it ensures the cultural diversity in media content and provide a free space of public access and various options and ideas.

Sanjana Begum,

Dibrugarh.

Spreading lies

This time Dr. Hiren Gohain is getting very involved with the elections. Almost on daily basis he is getting very vocal against the BJP and at the same time lending his support to the AIUDF. From adviser of Raijor Dol he has turned into an astrologer as of now. In a recent press conference he said that all the public welfare schemes would stop six months after the elections if the BJP alliance storms back to power. The million dollar question is: how is he sure and certain that BJP-led alliance are coming back to power? The Left leader is using all false and fake propagandas to mislead the people. When dreaded terrorist Sharjeel Imam was planning to cut the chicken neck of India, the veteran Leftist leader quickly stood behind the terrorist and said that Sharjeel Imam said all these due to exuberance of youth and even went ahead to say that such statements should be ignored. Now the gentleman is busy in issuing certificate of loyalty to Badruddin Ajmal. According to this leader, the Assam politics is incomplete without Badruddin Ajmal. This same Leftist Dr. Hiren Gohain vehemently opposed the setting up of war memorial in Dighalipukhuri citing some absurd reasons. Dr. Hiren Gohain is a curse for Assam.

Manthan Rudra Kashyap,

Boko.

Indo-US relations

It is a matter of great pride that the newly elected Vice President of Indian descent, Kamala Harris, has become very close to President Biden, who was sworn in on January 20 this month. Kamala Harris, the daughter of a black father and a mother of Tamil Nadu, has already gained worldwide fame as a very popular and powerful Vice President. It is also significant that an Orchestra with ties to India was selected to perform music at President Biden's swearing-in ceremony. President Biden has included 20 Americans of Indian descent in his top administrative positions. The Biden administration is expected to be able to further improve India-US relations. There are differences of opinion with the Indian government on a number of issues, although the Biden government will not allow its friendship with India to be disrupted. However, as Indian citizens, we seek the cooperation of the Biden administration in foreign affairs.

Heramba Nath,

Kamrup.

Queen got vaccinated

The 94-year-old Queen and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip were administered Coronavirus vaccines last week, The Buckingham

confirmed. The vaccinations were administered by a royal household doctor. The palace usually does not comment on the royal family¡Ã private health issues. But it is understood Queen wanted the public to know about their vaccination to prevent speculations and misinformation. It is not known which vaccine the Queen and the Prince were given.

Putul Sarma,

Biswanath Chariali.

MP with 'remote control'

The elected representatives – MPs or MLAs – are supposedly to be among the people of their respective constituencies. But in Assam there is a parliamentary constituency named Dhubri whose MP Badruddin Azmal resides in Mumbai. Occasionally, at his convenient time Azmal sometimes visit his constituency. Azmal's son, who was also an MLA of Jamunamukh once in a year or two, visits his constituency. Does the father-son duo have remote control in their pockets by which they look after the respective constituencies. I feel pity for the electorates of Dhubri and Jamunamukh as they are served by two remote controls.

Lanu Dutta Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

The government interprets the increased GST collections to suggest a buoyant economy. But is that true? Are GST collections really something to crow about? Just consider the Rs. 20 lakh crore Aatmanirbhar fund injection that the Finance Minister spoke of in May 2020, even though some of the financial schemes were being doled out from January itself. People often forget that any amount spent automatically generates GST collection. So, if you give Rs. 100, you get back Rs. 12 on an average money is spent, there will be no GST collection. Second, the money was siphoned away. This is quite a possibility in India because as these columns have pointed out in the recent past, the Government itself has created a brilliant money laundering avenue by insisting that Aadhaar and PAN cards be linked. A third cause could be that the recipient of such money locked it away in their bank accounts or vaults, thus not spending it. Hence no GST became payable. Why the hype about the GST receipts?

Chandan Kumar Nath,

Sorbhog.

Post-Trump world era

In a complex puzzle of existing racial divisions to economic inequalities to democratic politics, the United States of America has entered the post-Trump world era after the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States of America, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and the 49th Vice-President of United States of America, Kamala Devi Harris.

While everything seems apparently fair with hopes and aspirations for restoration of good old liberal order in global geopolitics with the democrats taking the driving seat once again, I believe things aren't changing much in the near future.

The inauguration event speaks volumes. Washington DC turned out as a military garrison in the inauguration address with a huge military force. Seriously? The world's oldest democracy needs such protection with 25,000 National Guards guarding the event from projected assaults at home. Irony is the tag of Banana Republic is hanging over the USA!

Dreamers of the "American Dream" are going gung-ho over that Trump has exited and liberal world is now reset. America has entered the next phase of its democratic politics after a roller coaster trip of the Trumpian era. Also, after a mad-rush it is apparently expected from all quarters that international policy stability in geopolitics and the standards of multilateral organizations are all set to push the reset button with the restoration of a global liberal order.

While the world looks for liberal American policies vis-à-vis immigration, etc., which Donald Trump has undone, it is highly unlikely that Joe Biden would be interested to open up the borders. The clarion calls for, "Buy American!", "Make it in America!", "Invest in All of America!" etc. only shows that Biden's agenda would be all an extension of Trump's "Make America Great Again!" a redesigned version MAGA 2.0!

'Trumpism' , Protectionism and isolationism are here to stay. And the Big Brother USA has to manage itself more because the house of the world's oldest democracy isn't in order.

The deep disconnect is visible after the January 6 assault at Capitol Hill and the absence of the outgoing President at the inauguration ceremony reflects the diverging degenerating ethos of democratic politics of the USA!

Abhilash Borah,

Naharkatiya, Assam

Vulgarity in Bhogali Mela

Recently at Medhitari village in Barpeta district the local people organized a Bhogali Mela. The said Mela had nothing connected with the Magh Bihu, barring the banner where it was mentioned 'Bhogali Mela'. Vulgarity was at its peak in the said Mela. It needs to be mentioned that the place is inhabited by people of suspected nationalities. Bar dancers from Kolkata were hired to perform indecent dances at the Mela. The people who gathered there were seen clapping with the beats of vulgar Hindi music. The video of the Mela which went viral brings tears into our eyes as people of suspected nationalities were insulting our culture and tradition. Though police swung into action and arrested the organizers, yet our so-called 'jatiyo organizations' like AJYCP, AASU, LACHIT SENA, etc kept mum. The pleaders of this community and torchbearers of anti-CAA agitations likes of Ajit Bhuyan, Shringkhol Chaliha, Barasharani Bishoya, Sikha Sarma, Manjit Mahanta, Prasanta Rajguru, Lurinjyoti Gogoi, Manas Robin, Dr. Samujjal Bhattacharjee, Dipanka Nath, Palash Changmai, Dr. Nagen Saikia, Dr. Hiren Gohain, Meera Barthakur, Haider Hussain, and others didn't even utter a word to condemn the incident. These people are often heard in TV shows saying that the Assamese language became the state language only because of the people of sar saporis of Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, Bongaigaon, etc. They have always claimed that the bunch of Miya people have protected and preserved our language, culture and tradition. If this is the way to protect the culture and tradition of Asomiya, then I have nothing to write about.

Pratuljyoti Buragohain,

Guwahati.

Throw some light

MP Badruddin Ajmal at a public rally in Dhubri said there is not a single Bangladeshi in Dhubri. This joke has made my day. At the same time, he urged the gathering to shout 'Bangladeshis go back'. The entire video clip of Ajmal's rally was shown in a web portal. In the first line, Ajmal says there's no Bangladeshi in Dhubri. If that's based on facts, then why he shouted 'Bangladeshi go back'. Saying "there's no Bangladeshi in Dhubri" is something like saying "there's no Hilsa fish in the Brahmaputra". Indeed funny to hear from a person who joined politics to safeguard Bangladeshi infiltrators.

There are a few bhakts of Badruddin Ajmal here in the State. I want to forward the Ajmal's byte in Dhubri to them so that they can clear the doubts. Ajmal's biggest fan is Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, followed closely by Sikha Sarma (who can go to any extent to support Ajmal), then there is journalist Prasanta Rajguru, Dr. Hiren Gohain. These four are the four pillars of Ajmal's political journey. Sikha Sarma has written many stories in her Facebook page projecting the AIUDF chief as Messiah of poor and downtrodden, his contribution to the development of the State and influence of Ajmal in State politics. When we have so many Badan Barphukans, then there is no tension for Ajmal and company to pursue their hidden agenda.

Purabi Miri,

Jakhalabandha.

'Dolar bogori'

The term 'dolar bogori' is a frequently used one in politics where a certain class of politicians keep on changing their party as per their wish. The ideologyless class is abundantly witnessed generally just before the elections. Mira Borthakur is certainly one of the many in this class. She started her political career in the RJD. She was the state spokesperson of the party. Gradually she understood that the RJD doesn't have any base in the State and she switched over to the BJP. In BJP, she was the president of the Mahila Morcha but her eyes were fixed over MLA ticket which was denied. During her stay in the BJP, she was very critical of the Congress as not a single day is passed when she would not train her guns at the Opposition party. When she was looking for the opportunity to quit the BJP, she got the chance as anti-CAA agitation. She jumped into Ajit Bhuyan's party hoping to fulfil her ambition over the CAA sentiments and became a full-time anchalikabadi. As usual, during her brief stay with Ajit Bhuyan she launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the Congress. The anti-CAA movement vanished and she realised that her mentor Ajit Bhuyan is "incompetent" and rejected by the public. Suddenly she resigned from the Ajit Bhuyan's party and joined the Congress bandwagon hoping to secure a party ticket from the prestigious West Guwahati Constituency. In order to impress the top leadership of her new party she is targeting Prime Minister Modi. I request Ripun Bora to kindly give her the ticket because she has become very tired of switching parties. If this time the Congress denies her ticket she will be left with just two options -- the AJP or the Raijor Dol. I feel Mira Borthakur has the potential to create a new record in switching parties.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

India scripts history

An Indian cricket team saddle with broken bones and battered bodies showed a never-seen-before zeal to retain the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a three-wicket win in Brisbane. It is certainly a good and interesting cricket. Kudos to historic cricket of India.

Putul Sarma,

Biswanath Chariali.