Suspending internet since Nov 16 : Has this proven useful ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 09, 2024 -

Numerous spell of internet shutdown within 19 months or so and while The Sangai Express has lost count of the number of times internet service has been suspended, the killings and violence continue.

The question here is whether internet shutdown is the answer to tackling the ongoing ethnic violence or whether the Government has explored any other means to put the place on the way to normalcy.

After Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023, the place has been digitally cut off on numerous occasions, so much so that many must have lost count of the shutdown.

The present shutdown came into effect from the evening of November 16 and there is nothing to suggest that the net connectivity would be restored anytime soon.

As in the earlier cases of shutdown, broadband service has been restored but this comes with the rider that an undertaking be given not to misuse the social media.

And each time the net connectivity is snapped, getting it reconnected comes with the necessity of running here and there to get the form, fill it up, sign it and go and stand in a long queue at the head office of the service provider to submit the same.

But not every family is digitally connected via the broadband service with many staying connected only via their mobile smart phone and the reality is many in Manipur are today digitally cut off.

The inconvenience caused to the people has been spelt out many times in the past cases of net shutdown and the same continues.

Parents who don't have access to broadband services have to run from pillar to post to send money to their children staying outside the State via digital money transfer.

And to think that this should be happening when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all big shot Central BJP leaders have taken it upon themselves to crow about cashless transaction and clearly the irony cannot get more prominent than this.

Already Careers360 has reported how students of National Institute of Technology have had to lose out on campus recruitment as no outside firms are willing to visit the State not only due to the ongoing violence but due to the net shutdown.

And even as this has been widely published, it also stands that many young students preparing for competitive exams are deprived of the opportunities granted by online classes.

If one looks at the academic calendar, the next big exam for thousands of young students is the coming National Eligibility Test (NET), which will decide whether students can go in for higher studies after they have finished their Masters.

It is also worth noting that such exams are conducted online and while exemptions may be made for the exam centres to get net connectivity via the broadband, it certainly does not create the right ambience for the young students to appear for their next big career step.

If net connectivity had any impact on the ongoing ethnic clash then a path to normalcy should have been found given that Manipur has been digitally cut off on numerous occasions since May 3, 2023.

That it has not is there for all to see but this has not stopped the Government from suspending net connectivity everytime there is a fresh spurt in unwanted activities.

Something has to give.

The Government should think out of the box and study what steps ought to be taken up to start walking the road to normalcy instead of repeatedly going back to suspending internet service.

It is with a reason why the Cellular Operators Association of India, representing Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have suggested that Government should look for alternative methods for addressing the law and order situation and this suggestion has Manipur written all over it.

The question however is whether one can trust the Government at Imphal to seriously look for alternatives other than suspending net connectivity.

For over 19 months, Manipur has been in a state of 'war' and if during these long period of time the Government cannot look further than suspending net connectivity, then what more can one say?

To think this is the Government on which the people have reposed their faith and confidence to work something out is simply frightening.

The perfect recipe is here to make life of the people all that more miserable.