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Apr162009
My tryst with Tehelka
Some love her. Some loathe her. Some admire her guts, while others cry out for her blood because of those very same guts.
Meet Nisha Susan, reputed journalist and reporter for Tehelka - my favorite Indian magazine for the past 3-4 years that addresses social issues directly at the core with no bullshit nonsensical crap.
But Nisha is more widely known in the recent months as founder of the popular “Pink Chaddi” campaign, which resulted in both a National and International wide response - over 5000 pink panties sent to Sri Ram Sene chief Muthalik on Valentine’s Day as a mark of protest against his goons mercilessly beating up women in WWE style so as to promote “Indian culture”.
A controversial campaign no doubt, which deeply divided the netizens into three main camps – those who endorse Nisha, those who endorse the SRS, and those who endorse neither. Hence with three different ideologies, the flame wars were quite interesting albeit detestable on many occasions.
So you can say it was one of those “I will definitely blog about this” moments when Nisha Susan herself suddenly calls you up in person and says she wants to meet you! 
Red Box at Turner road, Bandra. That was the destination I recommended as it wasn’t too expensive and yet seemed a little bit more professional and appropriate than a typical CCD/Barista coffee house appointment.
I reached an hour early! But then again, I’m not the type who keeps a lady waiting (*wink*) and it gave me ample time to relax and have a clear state of mind. After all, you never know what journalists are capable of throwing at you
So there I was, meeting Nisha Susan face to face for the first time.
Oh she was sweet and charming. And extremely humorous. She laughed to all my (corny) jokes and we even chatted in tamil and mallyalam! (Yeah I do speak konjo konjo tam and mallu, definitely not much but enough to widen the eyes of anybody )
She got to the point immediately. She’s working on an upcoming cover story for Tehelka about the lives of North East Indians who have settled in the Metros like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi, and the difficulties/experiences they have faced.
I warned her that I have more or less assimilated with this so called “Indian culture” due to my upbringing and so I may not be the person she is interested in meeting, but she told me that my blog posts say otherwise.
I spoke my heart out, about everything that I wanted the rest of India to know about us North East Indians. No we are not freaking CHINESE. Yes we are Indians. No we will not bow down to forced imposition of “Indian culture” and “Hindi” on us but yes we will definitely imply with them as long as they are done warmly and friendly. I learnt tamil because of the unconditional love shown to me by my tamil brothers, but I know many people from the South and NE (people outside the cow belt) who stubbornly refuse to learn Hindi because of the way some Hindi speakers have that holier-than-thou attitude over those who don’t speak Hindi.
She was well aware of the fact that Indian school text books had NOTHING to say about North East India and my sentiments echoed the fact that we’re all nothing but some convenient BUFFER that India wanted incase China suddenly decided to invade India.
She asked me a very important question: What do I want the rest of India to know about us that they don’t, apart from the fact that we are also Indians and struggling to prove our identity and patriotism to them.
I thought for a long time.
Finally I told her a few points, mostly misconceptions that the rest of India have about us.
One. Mizoram is not some right-wing fanatical state where Christian missionaries armed with AK-47s are shooting “non-believers” in cold blood, contrary to the many false accusations about us floating around on the net. Yes, many of us have subscribed to Google alerts for “Mizoram” and we have saved all such pages and caches, and we’ll be filing an FIR soon against all those who have grossly defamed us.
Just like how many of you “seculars” are fighting the fanatics within your own society bravely, there are many of us too who will stand up against the all-powerful YMA, the bureaucrats, the politicos and even the Church if we find their actions to be detestable or against humanity. Our biggest success was when the vox populi spoke out and disbanded the SRS (err… No, not that SRS. Its “Supply and Reduction Service” here but they shared the same method & style of “wrestling” tactics just like the Sri Ram Sene). We don’t keep quiet against injustice and you will know what I’m talking about if you listen to the voice of the people at misual.com and lawrkhawm.com.
Two. The insurgency in Mizoram, which many experts claimed to be the biggest revolt in the Northeast, was all started because of a rat. After the bamboo trees in Mizoram flowered, millions of rats reproduced and they ate up all our food stock. Hence there was a HUGE famine in the Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) and India didn’t give a shit about our plight.
The MNFF (Mizo National Famine Front) was formed where every Mizo looked after another with NO help from the Indian Govt. Soon the MNFF became the MNF (Mizo National Front) under Pu Laldenga and the entire Mizo community rebelled against India because of the neglect and it became so intense that it was the bloodiest battle in the North East so far. But do Indians know about this story? No. Do Indians even know that Aizawl is the ONLY city in Indian history where the Indian Air Force bombed the city day in and night out? Yes, we are talking about a possible genocide here, where entire generations of Mizos were completely wiped out because of this.
But no. People are oblivious to this and we are criticized for not being Indian enough and jeered as a “Chinese” or “Nepali” wherever we go in India. Seriously, tell me, can you blame those who were fighting for autonomy back then?
Three. I have come across numerous posts where fanatics say they want to take back Mizoram from the clutches of evil Christianity. They want to revive Hinduism back there, which is really absurd because Mizos were never Hindus before the missionaries came! We were war-mongering animists fighting with each other to the death, and headhunting was an intrinsic part of our culture. Sure, if you want us to disown Christianity and go back to our roots, I really don’t mind - May I please chop off your head?
Four. Spelling mistakes!!! Aaaargh. I can understand some old timers referring to Aizawl as Aijal because that was the way non-Mizos used to pronounce it those days. But that was a loooong time ago. What really peeves me today is when I see “Aizwal” instead of Aizawl on so many official documents and diaries even today. So many times have we protested but the Indian Government just doesn’t care enough to correct this. I mean, why should they care, after all, the Election Commission of India website itself has spelled Mizoram as Misszoram, right? And yet WE are expected to learn all the names of Indian cities and states correctly, and if we make a mistake in this case, we are either punished (in school) or given that dirty “you shameless unpatriotic fellow” looks.
Five. Seven of my cousins are serving in the Indian Army and Navy. And yes, a large number of people from the Northeast are in the Armed forces protecting this great country and ready to sacrifice their lives in the line of duty. Why must we always be asked to prove our patriotism in spite of that?
Six. Yes we can make out if a person is from the North East or some South Asian country to some extent. And even you will be able to make this distinction if you spend more time with us. It is not that difficult and many of my non-Mizo friends can do this. Likewise we can’t differentiate people from the NE sometimes just like how you guys won’t be able to differentiate a tamilian from a kannadigan or a UPiite from a Bihari on many occasions. Sometimes there are prominent distinctive features and sometimes there aren’t. Simple as that. Making “educated guesses” makes no sense when you are not educated about us.
Here’s a great blog post by my friend “The Chhamanator” entitled: Frequently Asked Questions about Mizoram which I’m sure you’ll love too. Hilarious!
Q1. Do you know martial arts?
Q2. (Brings some chinese, japanese etc. writing) Can you read this?
Q3. Can you write my name in the Mizo script?
Q4. Are your politicians as bad as ours?
Q5. Are you veg or non-veg?
Q6. What is the main industry of Mizoram?
Q7. Are Mizo girls hotter than other Indian girls?
Q8. What curse words/insults do you use in the Mizo language?
Last but not the least, I have seen many people criticize people from the NE for “sticking together” and hence blame that for the reason why we feel alienated or why we are stereotyped.
Believe me, whether we mix or not, we will always be stereotyped. We Indians love to stereotype one another right from the northest North to the southest South, and it is one social evil that will never be eradicated from our system. But we can correct those at least in the media and other public platforms.
Secondly, we stick together because we are insecure and hence feel more comfortable with our own kind. Indians who migrate to UK or USA too stick together FYI, just like how Chinese emigrants make their own “China Towns” wherever they go. It’s a normal human behavior. Likewise there are many of us who have come out from our comfort zones and stereotype moulds too and yet still feel alienated on many occasions. Hence justifying the reason why we are alienated by mainstream Indians with the fact that “we stick together” is plain wrong and misconstrued.
With that, we ended the day. I know many of those sentiments that I poured out will not appear on Tehelka as I have diverted way off from the main topic. But it is always good to inform and educate reputed journalists with such information because you never know what they will write about next, or who they will tell about us in their large journalist network.
Here’s me raising a toast to those journalists who actually go all out to meet people and interact and learn, rather than sit on their fat asses copy-pasting from Google search results. Cheers y’all!
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
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Raj
001
4:51 am
Its a wonderful writeup.
Adam Halliday
002
12:39 pm
Good show, chap! Keep it going.
sunny
003
2:10 pm
@kima, about the Frequently asked questions -
I remember asking some of those questions to you guys in School.
Let me take this privilege of the space given to us commenter’s to mention about my experience with Mizos/NE folks. I am a Mallu who studied in TN, in a school(for 10 years) where I entered as a kid with amazement to see the different kind of people. At those times (say around 1992), Mizo’s seemed like people with weird eyes(ok!! I took that line from Harold and Kumar 2).
Anyhoo, due to my ignorance about the 25 states(then)(and besides I was a kid), I thought what were these Chinese guys doing in a school far away from their Kung Fu land. As many days passed and I gotto know of many other states of India, names and people. It only took a few months to look at these folks at awe. My admiration for the North East folks started off with amazing taste in Music. Their accents might seem a lil’ different from yours or mine , but when they sing, it comes out gracefully or rockfully (:-|). Then their natural inclination to sports, that too with style - You should never miss a chance to see those guys, esp Mizos shotting a goal or shooting those Hoops. Hell! I remember Kima dunkin’ and I was inspired to try and aah, I couldn’t even touch the board. These guys give it all in whatever they do.
After many years, I have an unending respect for these brothers. Two of my best friends were a Mizo and a Manipuri. They are just like us, nice guys, jackasses,…like any one of us, like any citizen of India. They don’t want your sympathies, they just want what’s rightfully theirs - respect as a citizen of India.
Chhuansanga
004
5:26 pm
“Here’s me raising a toast to those journalists who actually go all out to meet people and interact and learn, rather than sit on their fat asses copy-pasting from Google search results. Cheers y’all!”
Good Work, Kima. I ti ţha lutuk!
Ujj
005
5:47 pm
aaah welcome back Kima! bang on target! \m/
Chacko
006
7:37 am
Welcome back Kima! Great post. Where will you be voting this time? Delhi?
Kima
007
9:51 am
@ Ujj and Chacko: I was never away actually
I was visiting mutiny regularly but didn’t have enough time to take part in discussions etc because of work.
Am in Mumbai. Was supposed to go home a week ago and vote but canceled my trip in the last minute (again due to work)
@ Raj @ Chhuan Sanga @ Adam: Thank you for your comment, guys
@ Sunny: Thanks for sharing your experience on this issue. Your comment brought out a very important topic which is highly debatable, especially when you talked about how North-Eastern people are always the first to be picked in a game of football or when it comes to Music talent competitions - Are all stereotypes bad? Can there be good stereotypes? Is welcoming a “good” stereotype and complaining about a “bad” stereotype a form of hypocrisy?
What do you guys think?
Nikhil Narayanan
008
12:15 am
Kima,
Did you just say you get irritated with spelling mistakes ?
“chatted in tamil and mallyalam! ”
Malayalam, sire! No “unpatriotic looks”, but practice what you preach
-Nikhil
sunny
009
11:43 am
Well I wouldn’t say North East Indians are always the first to be picked and I’m sure I didn’t mention that in my comment. What I mentioned (or atleast tried to) was that they showed their excellence in many fields especially in the music and sports.
Are all stereotypes bad? Can there be good stereotypes? Is welcoming a “good” stereotype and complaining about a “bad” stereotype a form of hypocrisy?
Well I think when one thinks that he/she is stereotyped, it might mean that one is tired of doing the same thing. It may differ from person to person, especially about good and bad stereotypes
Kima
010
2:01 pm
@ Nikhil: Thanx for the correction. I see it, I apologize, and I will not make that mistake again.
How I wish it happens like that for us too when we pinpoint the spelling mistakes people make about our cities and people… See how it works - We are not perfect and we are bound to make mistakes, but the least we can do is correct our mistakes when corrected. Many of my friends and I have written to many publishers and web admins asking them to change the spellings, but no actions done so far. Look at all the Online ticket booking sites or google “Aizwal” and you will know what I’m talking about. You guys have the luxury of fighting over whether you should use Mumbai or Bombay, Cochin or Kochi, Kolkata or Calcutta etc etc. We on the other hand, are still struggling to correct the spelling mistake of the one single name of our State’s capital.
@ Sunny: When I was talking about NE people being one of the first to be picked for football matches etc, in my head I was already thinking about the stereotype of NE people that I’ve seen or heard at many places when you mentioned sports, hence I didn’t mean to say you said that in your comment. Sorry about that confusion.
Nikhil Narayanan
011
2:30 pm
Kima,
No, not here to fight.Chill.
Ernakulam (ERS) is Eranakulam on IRCTC.co.in
If you search for Ernakulam, you will never find ERS station.No one pointed out, or no one cared to.
-Nikhil
Kima
012
4:02 pm
lolz I wasn’t fighting
*hugz*
sunny
013
6:31 pm
Oh not a problem bro,
But I have to confess that when I see a Mizo, I always think that he might be a good footballer or basket ball player or even a natural guitarist. That is because most of the Mizo’s were good at all/either of these. But that is stereotyping.
People who dont speak Hindi are foreigners?
014
6:16 pm
Why does Indian Railways call people who dont speak Hindi as Foreigners?
For those who dont know what is being meant, go to any train compartment and see these yellow stickers in Hindi? Only those who speak Hindi are Hindustani? Indian Railways are appearing to be Hindi Chavanists with these stickers being posted.
Terrorist speak Hindi only? So they are also Hindustani?
VJP
015
6:40 am
“Do Indians even know that Aizawl is the ONLY city in Indian history where the Indian Air Force bombed the city day in and night out? Yes, we are talking about a possible genocide here, where entire generations of Mizos were completely wiped out because of this.”
Care to support the above with some REAL evidence? You see , repeating something your grandpa told you doesnt make it true. “Bombed the city day in and night out” - ” possible genocide”? do you know what it takes for a city to be bombed ‘day in and night out’. or how many citizns need to be killed to be called “possible genocide”? Please add FACTS and TRUTH. Not bedtime stories that your grandparents told you over the years.
Kima
016
11:12 am
Hi VJP, thank you for your comment.
Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be reaching anywhere judging from the tone of your comment, but lemme try anyway.
First of all I said “possible” genocide. If you are going to scrutinize each and every word within my post and make the argument about semantics (eg: do you know what it takes for a city to be bombed ‘day in and night out’) then I guess I too will ask you if you know the difference between “genocide” and “possible genocide”. The latter means that there’s a chance it may not be a genocide after all, and that is exactly what I wrote.
do you know how many citizns need to be killed to be called “possible genocide”?
No I don’t know. Do you? I never knew there was a standard fixed amount set by the CPPCG regarding how many people needs to be killed before it can be officially declared a “possible” genocide, or even a genocide for that matter. errr… correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you’re thinking of the Tutsi-Hutu clash in Rwanda or the Holocaust or the Srebrenica massacre when you read “genocide” right? Actually the definition of Genocide is:
Yes, from the first line of the definition itself, I just want to bring to your notice that we are indeed ethnically, racially and sometimes religiously different from those who bombed us. So I will dwell in this topic no further.
do you know what it takes for a city to be bombed ‘day in and night out’
Again, your argument is about the figure of speech here. So I tell you once again, no I do not know the exact amount of “day in and night out”. Do you? All I know is, it is many many times. End of this section too.
Now coming to your main question - Do I have REAL evidence? (Seriously, you could have just asked me this directly, instead of trolling around or taking me through a crash course in English grammar, or making up stories about my grandparents who supposedly told me these “lies”, because this particular question is a very good question, one that I was expecting people to ask a long time ago. I thank you for that, my friend.)
And my reply: No I do not have hard evidence. So it is up to you to believe it or not. I am not forcing this down your throat in anyway. It has been barely 100 years since the missionaries came to (now) Mizoram and later gave us a language and a written script, and during the 80s struggle, there weren’t that many people who wrote about this incident in English. If you google, you may get some vague accounts of Toofani jet fighters taking off from Tezpur to bomb Aizawl etc, but I don’t want to give you that as my evidence because I don’t think in your standard that will be a “hard evidence” enough, the same way nobody believed many Manipuris were raped by the Indian army as “there was no proof” until the victims paraded naked and that picture appeared all over the nation. Its your call, dude.
Last but not the least, may I ask why this statement about the IAF bombing Aizawl offends you so much? Your dad is in the army? I’m just saying, because I have studied with Army kids in College before, and they were all in strict denial of this incident ever happening
So I am asking nobody to believe this, but I would really appreciate it if you tell me why you feel this way. Thanks for commenting and I’m open to further discussion.
Kima
017
1:30 pm
Ooops, I just read my comment again and I made a mistake!
“and during the 80s struggle, there weren’t that many people who wrote about this bombing…”
I meant to say 60s. I was already born in 1980. lolz. I hope you won’t focus on this on your reply.
And yes, the number of death is unaccounted for, but whether you believe it or not, the city of Aizawl was indeed bombed mindlessly during the reign of Indira Gandhi by our own Air Force, and this was kept hush hush again, with propaganda doing the rounds that Mizos were just making it up. I see they have managed to brainwash you too. Some sources say it was in March 4th and 5th of 1966 while others say differently. Some sources say Hunter jets were used, others say Toofani jets, while a few say both. (I hope you won’t expect my “grandparents” to know what jet and what make and what model it was that bombed them, as they were hiding in the basement)
I really don’t know what proof to show you, and that is what I find so frustrating in my post. We know it happened, but we got nothing to show you, and that was the question Nisha asked me: “What do I want the rest of India to know about us that they don’t.”
VJP
018
7:27 pm
Hey, I have no interest in trolling around or trying to give you a grammer lesson. My interest is in solely countering the baseless, unsubtantiated allegations against the Indian government and the Indian Air Force.
What is frustrating about your post? you say “we know it happened” what happened? you have no idea what you happened.
1. no idea as to exactly how many mizos were killed in this aerial attack
2. no idea as to how much tonnage of ordnance was used
3. no idea as to how many sorties, how many aircraft did this bombing, or how long the attack lasted.
4. you are basing this on some stuff written by proud mizos wrote in the 60s.
Yet you casually throw around powerful words - “possible genocide”, “bombing aizwal day in and day out”, which are nothing but allegations - yes baseless allegations dependent on something you read long ago.
and you repeat them all over again
“the number of death is unaccounted for, but whether you believe it or not, the city of Aizawl was indeed bombed mindlessly during the reign of Indira Gandhi by our own Air Force”
and blame it on propaganda - now that is frustrating. give me the facts - I would love to shut up.
start with exactly what was the damage to aizwal? how many were killed - you will be surprised at what you will find.
okay , forget about that - start with the so-called Hunter and Ouragan. What are the weapons that they used, how effective were these? are these weapons capable of mass destruction at the local scale?
How many Toofanis were based in the east? or How many hunters? which units? who were the pilots? rockets,bombs or cannon? you cant hush up such a mass bombing when so many people are involved. How many sorties do you need to sustain the kind of bombing you say happened?
The Mizos are a proud people - no doubt. And in the 60s they were fiercely anti-india and yes it is in their interest to do propaganda and allege atrocities if they get to blame the mainstream indian government. Now you take these writings and pass them around as the truth - that is sheer naivette at best or mischief at worst - take your pick. Do your research, substantiate your facts and you will not have “trolls” like me around.
Kima
019
9:42 pm
Dear VJP,
Before I go on a long explanation and narration on this unfortunate event, I just want to ask you one very important question frankly.
Suppose I show you news report, or excerpts from sources (who are not Mizos), or historical conferences and researches or publications regarding this etc (again all non Mizos), will you be willing to accept that the bombings really took place? Will you be willing to change your mindset about us, if the data I show you is good enough, or will you still be blinded by your chauvinistic mentality towards the Mizos? Because I would be just wasting my time then…
When our own Justice system couldn’t even nail those responsible for 1984, how do you expect the system to show 1966 ever took place? But then again, you may be right, after all, I just read the horrifying news about 1984 from other people and it may all just be propaganda too right?
Anyways, do let me know if you are REALLY serious about knowing more details about this, and I will be happy to fill you in. And I take your word that you’re not trolling. Let’s have a meaningful mature conversation without the insult and tone of contempt about us.
Warmest regards,
Kima.
VJP
020
10:35 am
Suppose I show you news report, or excerpts from sources (who are not Mizos), or historical conferences and researches or publications regarding this etc (again all non Mizos), will you be willing to accept that the bombings really took place?
Kima,
Was the Indian Air Force used against Mizo Guerillas ? Let me save you the work - Yes they were used against Mizo guerillas.
Was it a mass bombing of Aizwal? fat chance.
Here is a fact that you may want to chew on. The IAF couldnt do a mass bombing of any town in any of the wars till date against Pakistan or China . - it simply doesnt have the capability or capacity to do so. So forgive me if I take the claims of mass bombing of aizwal with a bucket of salt. ditto for the claims of loss of lives that even approach three figures. I would be surprised if your list of those killed in any such raid crossed even 20 names
Yes I would like to read those reports if you can find them. be ready to apologise to the Indian Air Force if you dont find any corraborating your intiial claims. I know I will if it was to the contrary to my assertions..
Kima
021
5:23 pm
Dear VJP,
Ahhh…. I thought our little debate here was regarding whether Aizawl was bombed or not by the IAF. ok ok ok… now I get what you are arguing about from your last comment. I just assumed from your other comments that you did not believe the bombings ever took place (seriously, if you go through your previous comments, you will see that it sounded a lot like you doubted the whole bombing per se. Eg: ““but whether you believe it or not, the city of Aizawl was indeed bombed mindlessly during the reign of Indira Gandhi by our own Air Force” - and blame it on propaganda - now that is frustrating. give me the facts - I would love to shut up.” etc)
I guess this changes the course of our discussion then.
Anyway, it is Maharashtra day here and its a long weekend, so I will reply on Monday as all the data I collected is here in office and I just dropped in to finish a few urgent work. I have to rush now and I will not be coming online again till Monday. Thanks for writing and glad you cleared that bit about the the bombing once again.
Warm regards,
Kima
benjamin
022
9:42 pm
VJP:it simply doesnt have the capability or capacity to do so
>> how do you know? you with the IAF, a former Defense Minister, National Security Advisor, Air Chief Marshall?
>> show me the facts
>> if you know what IAF is not capable of, can you tell me what is capable of (with reliable facts)?
Don Nair
023
8:23 pm
first of all cheers to kima for the post and have spoken out about the NE.Sorry i didnt read the full comments…got away once the topic got on to the IAF boming and stuffs…(I wasnt there at that time :)).But i want to talk abt what i have been going through….
Its very certain that other parts of the state dont recognise us a Indians.I wonder if the politician themselves actually know if northeast states exist…..Well i personally dont care if they know or not and i dont want to be crying abt,begging the “indian people” for accepting us as “Indians”.BUT,for god’s sake,educate yourselves FIRST knowing the geopraphy and the cultures of people before passing slur comments and lewd judgement on the people.
If a northeast girl walk on the street dressed in Ts and jean,u call it immoral and exposure.What do u call Indian girl’s mms circulating around?Infact,most of the scandals are non-NE !!! I dont mean to be pointing my finger here.Know that you pointed yours first. All you hypocrites.Do u judge us based on our colour and look?Racist.Its not surprising to know that such stereotypes are journalists too.What more can you expect form the common people !
Well,if u r confused abt my comment and my name,I am half Malayalee and half NE.And i am proud that i have both features as one in my name and the other in my appearance….rather than being a stereotypical “Indian”.
VJP
024
7:38 am
VJP:it simply doesnt have the capability or capacity to do so
>> how do you know? you with the IAF, a former Defense Minister, National Security Advisor, Air Chief Marshall?
>> show me the facts
>> if you know what IAF is not capable of, can you tell me what is capable of (with reliable facts)?
Sure mate. First -
Google Dassault Ouragan and Hawker Hunter and you will get an idea what they can carry.
Google Nos 4,29,47,17,37 Squadrons and you will know what these squadrons did during that era.
Tell me what you believe and what you dont, and I will be glad to fill you in.
DLF
025
9:36 am
VSP:
Let me ask you this:
1) Did the IAF bomb Aijal city or not ?
2) You said ‘the Indian Air Force was used against Mizo Guerillas’ : How many Mizo Guerillas were killed in this bombing ?
3) Were any civilian homes destroyed in this bombing or were they dropped in the jungle ?
4) Did you know MLA’s from Meghalaya personally went to Aijal to investigate the allegations and condemned the government when they saw the amount of destruction done to the town ?
5) Did you know fragments of the bombs were collected by opposition members and brought in the parliament ?
6) Are you even aware that many of those defenseless ‘proud people’ which included women and children whom the ‘humble IAF’ mercilessly bombed and fired shots at are still alive today and will testify to it ? You can maybe argue against the testimony of 2 or 3 maybe even 10…. but do you think you can argue against the testimony of a 100 .. maybe 500 or possibly a 1000 live witnesses ???
VJP
026
3:12 am
DLF
1) Did the IAF bomb Aijal city or not ?
2) You said ‘the Indian Air Force was used against Mizo Guerillas’ : How many Mizo Guerillas were killed in this bombing ?
They were used against guerillas - how many mizos were killed - I dont know - the objective of air power is not only to kill guerillas or militants - but also soften up their strongholds. For example if the MNF had an established base from which the armed forces found them difficult to dislodge - it is perfectly acceptable for them to call in the IAF to use the firepower to soften up the Mizo guerilla diffences.
So did they bomb any such targets in Aizwal? They might have. But it is a far cry from the “mass bombing of aizwal” “possible genocide” or as you put it “defenseless which included women and children whom the ‘humble IAF’ mercilessly bombed and fired shots at” etc etc .
4) Did you know MLA’s from Meghalaya personally went to Aijal to investigate the allegations and condemned the government when they saw the amount of destruction done to the town ?
5) Did you know fragments of the bombs were collected by opposition members and brought in the parliament ?
6) Are you even aware that many of those defenseless ‘proud people’ which included women and children whom the ‘humble IAF’ mercilessly bombed and fired shots at are still alive today and will testify to it ? You can maybe argue against the testimony of 2 or 3 maybe even 10…. but do you think you can argue against the testimony of a 100 .. maybe 500 or possibly a 1000 live witnesses ???
Lets cut to the chase. This is probably what you wanted to say :
In the aftermath of the Aizawl air raids, two MLAs of Assam, Stanley DD Nichols Roy and Hoover H Hynniewta, came to Mizoram (then Mizo district under Assam) to see with their own eyes what happened to the people of the Mizo District and were totally shocked by what they saw. Later in April, Nichols Roy moved a motion in the Assam House on the Aizawl air attack.
“The use of excessive air force for taking Aijal (the former name of Aizawl) was excessive because you can not pinpoint from the air who is loyal and who is not loyal, who is an MNF and who is somebody pledging allegiance to the Mizo Union, the ruling party in the Mizo district,” R .’
If anything it proves that the targets were the MNF and the Mizo Guerillas and not the ‘defenceless women and children’ that you so emotionally state.
The page also states
“According to some records, Hunter and Toofani fighters were deployed for the Aizawl bombardment, . The fighters came from Tezpur, an IAF air base in Assam. Apart from Aizawl, Tualbung and Hnahlan villages in northeast Mizoram were bombarded. Surprisingly, there were no human casualties officially reported in any of the air raids. ”
“No Human Casualities”. but as per you if there were so many Mizo killed - then you might as well start posting the names of those killed - right? Lets see how many were killed in this so called mass bombing. should be easy to prove the IAF deliberately targetted defencelss civlians right?
DLF
027
8:50 am
The keyword here is ‘possible genocide’ .
Indeed it was a miracle that the casualties were so few. It could have been much worse when you deploy jet fighters in the most populated area of a district council/UT/state .
If a group of terrorist were holding up in palika bazar and the armed forces found them difficult to dislodge, would you justify an air strike ?? I don’t think so.. That’s what was done at Aijal !! Why ?
Because :
1) they thought they could deny it.
2) they cared less for the lives of the tribals than they cared for a piece of land.
Let me tell you something: It WAS very good that there were no human casualties officially reported in any of the air raids. Considering the general awareness coming about in this new generation of Mizo youths I suggest you stop justifying the air attacks and shut up and stop calling this fact ’sheer naivette’. Just acknowledge that jet fighters were used against Guerrillas and more so against civilians . And also pliz explain why did the government then deny the air srikes in the first place ?
PS: Pliz note that I didn’t mention dead people..I am talking about being bombed and shot at. People generally don’t take kindly to that you know… whether you get killed or not !!
VJP
028
7:16 pm
I suggest you stop justifying the air attacks and shut up and stop calling this fact ’sheer naivette’. Just acknowledge that jet fighters were used against Guerrillas and more so against civilians . And also pliz explain why did the government then deny the air srikes in the first place ?
Well atleast I got you guys to acknowledge that civlians were not the target for the air attacks but the Mizo Guerillas were . Guess what the original post failed to mention ? The original post made it sound like that the IAF targetted the Aizwal to punish the mizo civlians - while that wasnt the case. Atleast you are acknowledging that the real target was the guerillas - thats progress enough for me.
No - I am not justifying use of airpower in an area where civlian casualities occurred. but if it happened in certain cirucmstances - say the lives of armed forces personnel were being threatened by the MNF Gureillas and air support had to be called in to stop that - I am all for it.
If a group of terrorist were holding up in palika bazar and the armed forces found them difficult to dislodge, would you justify an air strike ??
If you are talking about today such a thing wont happen today in Delhi. And I will bet it wont happen in Aizwal either.
But in the sixties - Aizwal or Palika Bazar wouldnt have made a difference.
DLF
029
7:48 pm
>> say the lives of armed forces personnel were being threatened by the MNF Guerrillas and air support had to be called in to stop that - I am all for it.
In other words you don’t care how many civilian lives would be lost if you could save some of your men… eh !!
For all you know, there could be 100 civilians for every single Guerrilla in that area. But I guess thats what the ‘armed forces’ were trained for- the IAF were not any different from the Army who burnt down villages, raped pregnant women in front of their children and husbands, many girls committed suicide because they got impregnated by your friends …. perhaps that’s all to save the lives of their comrades as well.. I’d better stop here. I think you’ll understand how I feel if you have any respect for human lives … Soldiers are soldiers. The armed forces in Aijal had weapons… women and children did not.
One last thing.. And yes you wouldn’t dare order an airstrike NOW over Aijal even if history was repeated ’cause there’s no way in hell you can deny it again by telling the media ‘ you were only dropping RATIONS’. You can have the last word ’cause I’m done here.
VJP
030
1:11 am
In other words you don’t care how many civilian lives would be lost if you could save some of your men… eh !!
- its not “my” men. You could have said “our” armed forces, but didnt. instead you said “your” - interesting.
the IAF were not any different from the Army who burnt down villages, raped pregnant women in front of their children and husbands, many girls committed suicide because they got impregnated by your friends ….
“my ” friends - again. Well, you seem to revel in making baseless allegations against the armed forces. One can sense where your loyalties lie - so whats the point here?