Batting for the morale of the troops : By passing the media here
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 11 2015 -
Batting for the morale of the troops.
Expected for the June 4 ambush at Paraolon in Chandel district was one of the worst ever attacks on the security personnel. The figures should say it all.
18 soldiers killed and numerous others injured.
Probably it was in line with the need to bolster the morale of the troops that the Additional Director General of Military Operations, Major General Ranbir Singh announced to the media at New Delhi on June 9 that the security forces have managed to hit back at the rebels and in the process managed to eliminate 15 of them.
This was the Press Trust of India, reporting from Delhi, but the figure increased dramatically in some newspapers, with some putting the fatal figure above 100.
Difficult to verify the report, for the number was quoted after a series of operation launched along the Indo-Myanmar border, with Indian troops believed to have crossed the international boundary.
Whether the story trotted out from New Delhi is true or not is a different matter, but it is hard to believe that the media should have been briefed in Delhi, while the Paraolon ambush occurred at Manipur.
What stopped the military authorities from addressing the media here ?
Manipur has a healthy media and it is hard to digest the fact that the military top brass deemed it better to address the media in far away Delhi, while keeping the media here in the dark.
This is sure to raise eye brows and it would not be surprising if the story churned out by the military is taken with a pinch of salt by the people here.
Or is it that the opinion of the people in Manipur does not count for much ?
This attitude has to go.
Such a mindset also does not go with the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his Ministerial colleagues to visit the North East region on rotational basis.
This is also against the idea of holding the Annual National Conference of DGPs outside Delhi.
In fact such a conference was held at Guwahati sometime in November last year.
Disturbing to note that while the ambush did occur here, the military top brass thought it better to address the media in New Delhi.
It is this mindset that needs to be corrected.
The June 4 ambush was one of the worst attacks on the security personnel and it is only right that the media should have been addressed here.
If it is publicity that the military wanted then the media based outside Manipur could have been invited over.
No media house would let go the opportunity to hear something on one of the worst attacks on the military. This is the bottom line.
So far the media in Manipur has not received any report or inputs from the side of the military and it defies logic why silence should be maintained at this juncture.
The June 4 incident occupied prime space everywhere and it is only right that the media here are kept informed or else misinformation or wrong reports may just add to the chaos and confusion.
At the moment search operations are understood to have been launched around the place where the ambush was launched and it will do the image of the military a whole lot of good if only the media here are kept in the loop.
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