[Assam] The Majuli fiasco

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

Guwahati, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 
EDITORIAL 
 
---------------------------------

 The Majuli fiasco The 30th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held at Vilnia in Lithuania to select new sites for heritage status has finally announced the results of its deliberations and unfortunately Majuli has failed to make its way to the exalted list. According to a spokesman of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the case of the river island, famed for its cultural and ethnic mosaic could not be considered by the Committee due to late arrival of the information concerning the State Assembly’s endorsement to the Majuli Cultural and Landscape Region Bill, 2006. Ironically, the State Assembly passed the Bill on July 13 even as the World Heritage Committee was all set to deliberate on selection of new sites for heritage status. Our traditional lahe lahe mentality finally deprived Majuli of a deserving World Heritage Site status. Now the UNESCO may consider the island’s case next year. Significantly, the final nomination dossier for Majuli prepared by the
 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) with the help of the Majuli Island Protection and Development Council (MIPDC) and different agencies of the State and Central governments was completed way back in January, 2004 and it was submitted to the UNESCO headquarters in February that year. Earlier, Majuli MLA Rajiv Lochan Pegu, moved a resolution in the State Assembly on March 31, 2003 pleading for a legislation for partition for protection of the island’s cultural heritage. The State Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on the subject the very next day. So what took the State government three years to bring in the Bill for Majuli’s protection? Who is at fault?

 This is an important question we should find out where we went wrong. The campaign to secure World Heritage Site status was a high-profile campaign which was carried out quite aggressively by the State media as Majuli represented the State’s socio-cultural ethos. The visits of the UNESCO experts, the compilation of necessary documents and information, the formal communications between the Heritage Committee and the local agencies were exhaustively highlighted to keep the issue alive and in focus. Did the media fail to highlight the missing link in the final dossier – the State Legislation – the absence of which finally scuttled the over five-year-long campaign? What was the role of our cultural pundits who were closely monitoring the campaign or did they wash their hands off the campaign when the politicians moved in. Finally, what was our senior and experienced bureaucrats doing when it was apparent to them that Majuli’s nomination sans the legislative endorsement to back
 it would not be enough to secure the much-awaited endorsement. The Tarun Gogoi government which is in its second term now must bear full responsibility for this great let-down of the people of the State in general and Majuli and its people in particular. Apart from the people, it is the historic and cultural heritage of Majuli which are the biggest losers. An opportunity to put Majuli on the world stage has been lost, so has Chief Minister Gogoi lost a feather in his cap. The scene during next year’s heritage meeting may be different: who knows. The State government should derive a lesson from the Majuli episode – it should ensure that ‘Majuli’ is not repeated in other emergent schemes, plans, projects in the State.
 		
---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low  PC-to-Phone call rates.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/assam_assamnet.org/attachments/20060718/f9057dbc/attachment.htm