Signs are, the days of the media as the tough and uncompromising interrogators of established authorities are gone. At least this is what was demonstrated in the sorry aftermath of the June 4 ambush at a spot in Chandel district on a convoy of the 6-Dogra Regiment by militants belonging to three rebel groups operating in the Northeast. The 17 deaths in the ambush was tragic, and there cannot have been anybody whose heart did not bleed at seeing pictures of the families of these soldiers in Himachal Pradesh, devastated and broken. In Manipur, there would not have been many who did not curse the attackers, except for the incorrigibly bitter who probably have had personal misfortunes at the hands of the security forces, a prospect not so uncommon or unimaginable in a land torn by conflict and subjected to oppressive laws. Expectedly, combing operations and manhunts for the militants began almost immediately thereafter, and people waited in bated breaths praying no collateral damages result, as evidenced by the numerous appeals from civil bodies in Chandel through the press. Fortunately, nothing of this sort has happened to the extent known so far, and praise be for this to the Army for keeping the promise the GOC 57 Mountain Division made at the very start of the operations that this would be a people friendly operation.
On June 9, there suddenly was a newsbreak emanating from New Delhi that the Army in special commando operations done in consultations with the Myanmar government gave hot chases to militants, penetrating into Myanmar territory to neutralise (the sanitised term for `kill`™) `a significant number of militants`. So far so good; this is war and in a war, it is natural for combatants to fall. But from here on, the media in New Delhi, in particular the TV channels took over. The `significant number` began having definite two digit figures. Some even began claiming three digit figures quoting unnamed authoritative sources. Talking heads were rushed to studios and the mood everywhere was one of celebration. The blood thirst in the key words in the running headlines would have also made anybody shudder: `revenge`™, `retribution`™, `hit us we hit back harder`™. Many of these words were the adjectives for Manipur and Nagaland, making residents of these states uneasy, embarrassed and on second thought, furious. In the evening of the same newsbreak day, when newspapers in Manipur also sat down to take stock of things, they had with them just two press releases from the PIB Defence Wing and the state police to depend on. Neither had anything that signified hot pursuit into Myanmar territory, so local papers wrote their stories accordingly, though the bolder amongst them used the stories from the websites of these TV Channels to make their stories juicier.
In all the TV shows, there was not a single voice that exercised or recommended healthy doubt which all students of journalism were trained to make it their nature. Nobody questioned these sources, and instead simply joined the celebration. Moreover, what was being celebrated was death `“ several of them at that `“ and this thought itself was gory, even if those killed were enemies. Gone was also the notion that insurgency is a tragic internal war, therefore in the words of Sanjib Baruah, India fighting itself. If American journalists were accused of being embedded with their military in their invasion of Iraq in 2003, who can now say Indian journalists, in particular the frenetic TV channels are not guilty of the same objectionable practice. And now, rather than clinching evidences of the hot pursuit, there are reports of denial this ever happened from the Myanmar government. The embarrassment this would bring the country`™s leadership is sad. But it is also good that it will deflate at least some of the hot airs the media has been bloated with.
However, we would be guilty of not living by the canons of the journalistic profession if we too jump to the conclusion that Myanmar`™s alleged denial has disproven everything that the Indian media sailed on for the past few days. Let us then take this too with a pinch of salt, until facts on the ground establish beyond reasonable doubt the actual truth. In the meantime, perhaps the Union Government should institute an inquiry as to how a supposedly special and secret mission came to be so loudly public within hours. If discretion had been practices, the government would have been saved embarrassment if the mission did not succeed, and if successful, it would have had more chances of continuing with it.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam