Headless, leaderless for four months : Part time Army PRO
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 24, 2013 -

Part timers.

The State Government may believe and indeed do believe in part timers which is well illustrated by the appointments of Part Time Lecturers.

But a part time Public Relations Officer of the Army or the 57 Mountain Division at M Sector is stretching things a little too far.

A reflection of the casual approach of the Army Headquarters or the Defence Ministry towards a State as sensitive as Manipur. After the infamous drug seizure at Pallel on February 24 this year, the Press Information Bureau of the Army has been without a regular Public Relations Officer.

Nearly four months down the line and what has Delhi done ? In the initial stage, that is just after the infamous Pallel incident, Delhi seemed keen to convey the idea that it takes the office of the Army PRO or Spokesperson rather seriously.

In no time, a former PRO, an old hand on Manipur, was sent here to officiate and sort of ‘streamline the office’. Delhi went further.

It did not take them long to appoint the PRO of Kohima to look after the office of the PRO, Imphal too.

Good initial work, but with time flying by, this has been reduced to nothing more than a stop gap arrangement, a sort of a damage control exercise.

This is not the first time that Delhi has demonstrated such a casual approach.

Rewind to 2009, when the then PRO completed his tenure here and was transferred. For more than two years, the office of the PRO here remained without an official spokesperson.

Cut to the present and it has come back full circle. By any stretch of the imagination, Manipur is a sensitive State, with more than 20 underground outfits operating here.

In recent times, many have agreed to come to the negotiating table for a political dialogue, which in the process has also thrown up its fair share of confusion.

The absence of an official spokesperson here has only aggravated the situation. Maybe this is what Delhi wants and as for Imphal, the less said the better, given the calibre of the political leadership of the day.

Adding more teeth to the observations put forward here is the Songlung village incident in which 6 cadres of an outfit were gunned down in an encounter on 22nd June, 2013.

As of now, the picture is extremely sketchy, made worse by the absence of a Spokesman who could have thrown some light on it.

A sensitive issue, and with the media going the whole hog to cover the incident, the absence of a regular Army spokesman stands out starkly.

Does not portend well at all for the State and the Army. Who does the media approach to dispel any doubt or raise queries ?

To the spokesman sitting at Kohima ?

Obviously Delhi believes that this arrangement is okay or satisfactory, but to the media it is not and it is the media which is going to tell the story to the public.

Or maybe the people who matter at Delhi are not at all bothered about what is told to the public.

It is not only a question of an office remaining without a regular head, but is about how the Government understands the sensitive condition in Manipur.

The casual, callous attitude has to go. It has to be addressed.

Or is it a case of the Army establishment merely satisfied with issuing statements on the Military Civic Action Programmes it has taken up ?

Or has it given any serious thoughts on how to reach out to the public via the media, at critical times such as this ?

The office of the PRO should not only be about issuing official statements or propaganda material.

It should be about a sincere attempt to keep a man who would be the public face of the Army.

Unfortunate that this point has to be raised or reminded.