Assam wakes up to an information war

‘‘Assam is passing through an important moment of history. The fortunes and events are in our favour. At this juncture, it is important that we launch a media offensive which will act as a force multiplier,’’ Singh said.

Incidentally, it was Singh who, as the commander of the IV Corps of the Army at Tezpur, had launched the first military operations against the ULFA in November 1990. Then too, the authorities realised the importance of taking the media into confidence only after the local media had already been fed by the militants their versions of the story.

Yesterday, CM Tarun Gogoi almost pleaded helplessness when reporters pressed for a proper flow of official information in the wake of ULFA top bosses Paresh Barua and Arabinda Rajkhowa calling up or sending e-mails to newspaper offices to give their versions of the situation.

Gogoi even went on to say that the Centre, which could be getting information from Bhutanese authorities, was not bound to share information with the state despite the fact that statements issued by ULFA leaders were getting banner headlines in a section of the vernacular press here.

He said the newspapers were carrying only the ULFA side of the stories, but ran short of words to explain why the government did not establish a machinery that would dish out at least the official versions. ‘‘The state government cannot do anything because Bhutan is a foreign country,’’ was all Gogoi could state.

While the Army has admitted to providing logistics support to the RBA for the operations, it has definitely failed to tell the Bhutanese authorities how important it is to provide accurate information regarding the operations.

Sinha today called up the GOC at Tezpur in the presence of newsmen and asked him to cull information from all possible sources so that a daily media briefing could be held from tomorrow. Interestingly, the briefing is being arranged at the Raj Bhavan from tomorrow.