Thatched House

In the midst of hot debate about Urban Local Bodies election with Women Reservation in Nagaland and its connection or lack of connection with Article 371A of Indian Constitution, I wrote the following for a WhatsApp group: I don't always agree with my father. I have heated arguments with him but at the end of the day, I love him. I still think I am right and he thinks he is right, but we love each other. He has his experiences and I have my experiences. I want to convince him and he wants to convince me to believe him. We both cannot force each other, but I have learned to live with the tension, and stay united with him. After all, he is my dad. Learning to live with that tension is what I would call 'maturity'. Tati is a one stringed musical instrument. I would want it to remain one-stringed. But to build a music career in this time and age, I would want my son to take up a six-stringed instrument rather than a one stringed. I would do what I can to preserve the ...

Morung Express Editorial Reservation is a controversial topic where common ground is hard to find. Opinion is largely shaped by personal experience, whether one is a benefactor or a victim of Reservation. The voice of anti-reservation is getting louder and louder that the word Reservation now carries a negative connotation. Reservation is seen as reverse-discrimination, something which kills talent and devalues accomplishment because people are chosen not on the basis of merit but on the basis of the social or racial group to which they belong. But if that were the case, why and how did Reservation came into being? Reservation has a negative connotation because of the way it has been used. So, it is helpful to understand the concept of ‘affirmative action’, synonymously used for Reservation in some other countries, to know the purpose of it. Affirmative action is the policy of favouring members of the disadvantaged who suffer from discrimination. It is an act of justice wh...