Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It is unfortunate that it has again taken extreme provocation for Manipur to attract national debate. Remember a group of women stripping in protest near the Kangla Fort in 2004? Now,the state has been almost paralysed in the aftermath of the alleged fake encounter on July 23 that killed a former militant,Chungkham Sanjit,and a pregnant woman supposedly caught in the crossfire. Protests and a 48-hour strike earlier this month that followed the publication of photographs capturing the incident,demanding Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singhs resignation,led to a judicial inquiry being ordered into the killing and the suspension of the policemen involved. This,when there is even a Ministry of Development of the North-East Region to bring the seven states into focus and trigger their development,on the assumption of course that insurgency would be curbed by security personnel and economic progress.
Thus,after Ibobi Singh returned with a fresh mandate in the state,his government began an aggressive crackdown on militancy,against a backdrop of increasing public anger with militants crimes. Sanjits death,irrespective of the right or wrong in this particular case,has exposed the dilemma that governments battling insurgency face how to take necessary action against militants without committing excess or appearing to. This development,importantly,takes place amidst reports that underground rebels have infiltrated the Manipur Police,something for which the state government has been rebuked by the Union home secretary. The arrest of an India Reserve Battalion jawan for alleged involvement in a grenade attack in Imphal on Friday and reports of anothers role in murdering a professor some months ago raise serious questions about the recruitment process for state police personnel.
