Competently Insensitive
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 03, 2008 -

For 13 days, that is from November 20 till December 2, no Imphal based newspapers hit the stand and with the State Government deciding to hand over the case of the killing of Rishikanta to the CBI, scribes under the aegis of the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union have decided to resume work but this does not mean that the case is closed.

On the contrary, with the journalists now back to the trade they are best suited for, readers and the public of Manipur can expect the newspapers, at least The Sangai Express, to keep the heat on the Government.

We cannot talk on behalf of the other newspaper establishments but from the side of The Sangai Express we would like to stress that the job at hand is not only about the late K Rishikanta, the young sub-editor from the Imphal Free Press, but about the hundreds of earlier Rishikantas and the potential future Rishikantas.

It is here that we would also like to make certain points very clear. As professional journalists, we are apolitical and this has been our dharma and will continue to be so. Insensitivity and incompetence is a fatal cocktail and this is what the Congress led SPF Government has been all about. An incompetent Government is bad enough but add insensitivity and what we get is a perfect recipe of a repressive regime.

There are examples galore to illustrate this but give us the liberty to just single out the case of K Rishikanta. After the lifeless body of the young man was found at Langol on November 17, the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union convened an emergency meeting in the evening and condemned the incident.

Journalist protest killing of Thokchom Rishskanta

The following day a memorandum was submitted to the Government demanding a judicial inquiry. On November 19, a decision was taken to suspend the publication of all newspapers in Imphal indefinitely concurrently followed by a protest dharna.

For days, the Government acted as if everything was hunky dory. In fact Mr Ibobi and his men would have shamed Emperor Nero, who has gained infamy as the Emperor who fiddled while Rome burnt.

On November 25 evening, just a day before the mass protest rally, the Chief Minister deputed four of his trouble shooters to placate the agitating media persons and held out the assurance that if the proposed rally was not staged, then the case would be handed over to the CBI ! Fittingly the ‘offer’ was rejected outright !

This is what we find galling, in fact as much detestable as the very killing of K Rishikanta. It is time Chief Minister Mr O Ibobi and his men realise that issues such as unexplained killings of young persons cannot be bargained as in the fish market.

It was this insensitivity that we find extremely disturbing and which we are committed to fight faithfully. Or is this insensitivity a part of a bigger conspiracy to keep certain things under wrap ?

Only the Chief Minister can answer this. To the public who had to bear the inconveniencies of going without vital information for 13 precious days, our sincere regrets.

We admit that going on agitation is not part of our strength, but there comes a time when we are forced to take recourse to something which we are not trained to do, just to teach the suited, booted, Nehru capped political leaders a lesson or two.

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