Can the Manipiur Press still be described as independent? At the rate it is succumbing to pressures, this is hardly likely. We watch with disdain the manner in which the entire media establishment in the state has in the past been compelled to go on sabbatical, caught as it always was between conflicting pulls and pressures of different feuding armed underground organizations. There are also allegation that the media-men are too easily influenced by men with money and power. But the gravest threat is the new culture of intimidation. What is adequately clear is that, for the ordinary citizenry, to which the media belongs, it does not make a difference whether they are intimidated by a brigade or a band of a dozen or so armed men, the effect is the same – fear. And today, Manipur’s ordinary citizenry is in the grip of a terrible, immobilizing fear. Leave aside underground revolutionary organizations, threats from buccaneering organizations, inspired terror as effectively. Fear of death at the hands of anonymous men with guns works in an exponential way. It levels out the asymmetry of weaponry like no other phenomenon has. It is not a surprise at all that underdogs in many conflict situations around the world have resorted to fashioning this fear as a weapon in itself. The terrorism of the Al Qaeda brand is a prime example. The late Bin Laden’s attempt all along had been on this line – to multiply what it lacks in weaponry and physical resources with fear and boost his power base exponentially. The measure of success he had been able to achieve, challenging seriously as he had, even mighty America, is the proof of the pudding. Laden while he was alive may have been just a pain in the neck for the USA, but he proved to be a persistent and sometimes excruciating pain. As to how troublesome a pain in the neck can be, can be testified by the many who have been unfortunate enough to have had bouts of spondylitis.
In this modern aberration of asymmetrical warfare, popularly referred to as “terrorism” by those at the receiving end – and rightly so too – the ones who end up held at ransom are mostly soft targets. In many ways, the media in Manipur today is this soft target. Nowhere in the world, except under the most dictatorial environments, would the freedom of the media to make its own judgment on what event might be of news-worth and hence print worthy, is compromised than in Manipur. To draw any consolation at all from the fact that the situation is no better in some other neighbouring states, which have even seen the assassination of some very outspoken writers, would be a perversion of logic. But the uncanny feeling is, the soft targets in the state, including the media, have cowered far too much and have allowed themselves to be prisoned in their own image of powerlessness. Our civil society, and more regrettably, our media have lost their backbones. The pen has been overshadowed by the sword. This speaks very poorly for the media as well as those browbeating it. Maybe a contributing factor in the softening of the media is the overturning of its curious status of being a fine mix of business and mission. Under ideal circumstances, the business must remain vibrant so that it can support its own role as an important pillar of the democratic polity. Today increasingly, the primacy has passed on to the business side of the story with the mission being pushed into insignificance.
The state media must assert itself again to regain its rightful place in a democracy and more immediately, it credibility. Right now, to be very honest, outside the closed world of the state, it does not command much of it. What the media communicates can become convincing to the outside world only if is known it speaks from its free will and judgment. It is important that it does not take sides, but all the same it must show what a powerful medium for opinion making neutrality can be. A gagged media does not portray a positive image for anybody either. It shows an inherent incapacity for tolerating or shouldering freedom.
Rank hypocrisy. When the Calcutta Telegraph was burnt and banned for reporting the truth the IFP was among the most hypocritical not just with silent complicity, the silence of all the media regional national and international; the IFP fell in with the crass attack upon a sister newspaper accusing it of some vague espionage with Delhi designed to whatever the newspeak commanded to them was on that day. Sometimes it describes the media as the fourth estate and now they are part of ordinary citizenry, the typical maximizing and minimizing of those who refuse to take adult responsibility. There is nothing ordinary about citizenship. In a democracy it is the only real power. But only if you don’t whore it out.
Oh am I browbeating? I am a human being and I understand fear and cowardice. My God loves a courageous soul but he doesn’t despise cowards. Would that you cowards just got out of our way. Does the IFP really believe it has credibility even in Manipur? That is a sad delusion. The largest English circulation paper the Sangei boasts 25,000 copies. The IFP’s production values are those of a parish newsletter. The quality of its writing is not as good as an average sixth form essayist. How few copies does it produce? All forgivable if they published the truth. Your writers know the truth, they never have permission to publish. So the DG Imphal Police Commandoes was given a sideways promotion to DG Imphal Police (Housing) and now the editor of the IFP has grown baby balls. All arise and fall continuously. You would be a fool to write that family off if fear really is your toxic motivation.
You have no idea what it is to be a real man. Sharmila could turn you into a real man. Shall I tell you what a real man is, you won’t find the answer in any dead white man’s book. Someone who doesn’t put up a front, who is real, truthful, honest. Who by his realness becomes vulnerable, allows the other to hurt him. You can carry on with Thanatos, you don’t know how to live fully all you do is exist fearful only of death. You people like to quote Freud though I doubt you have ever read his actual words. If you want to choose life then live. Or stay in the shadows and wait for real men to come to save you, it would be so helpful if at least you people got out of the way instead of psycophantically praising the latest gangster who refused to take your calls. Yeah I know about the sulks. It’s never the gun that causes the fear. Mind is the only enemy.
Yes business is business. The Calcutta Telegraph backed down for business reasons 8000 copies per day plus advertising. But no one asks them the question how much would you have paid to secure the right to publish in Manipur or how much are they paying? What price is truth in Manipur? Manipuris boast of their education. They have read 1984. They will all quote newspeak at me if I ask them. But then if pressed do they actually believe this crap. Then they smile. They don’t care about the truth. Before a meditation centre could be established in Manipur, Manipuris would need basic training in morality.
I have no more faith in western journalists. I thought they might be too expensive to buy. But I should have paid more attention to that early Mel Gibson film. They are burn outs and has beens. No one gets the job of South Asia correspondent for a western broadsheet as a promotion. They come for cheap whores, cheap intoxicants and an easy time, and that is what they are offered, all from their hotel room, no need to see Sharmila though because you hypocrites are the true intelligentsia of Manipur. The problem kid is if you have no respect for the truth for credibility in your own country why would you think that some has-been burn-out cheap white man is going to care enough to by-pass the propaganda fed to him by gooks he has long despised, about an area of the world he cares not to know about, and a report that will be dismissed back home with their usual conceit, but my haven’t these people been fighting each other for aeons.
You picked a hell of time to grow up kid, but if you don’t care about reporting the truth in Manipur, none is coming from the free world to do it for you.