Painting the messenger with the villain brush Playing the victim card
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Lapping up the wrong narratives and this brings to mind the time of yesteryears when the adults of today, who would then be children, inevitably backed the ‘underdogs’ to the hilt and this is the card that one sees being played so professionally by some elements. Playing the victim certainly pays dividends, more so when pen pushers who come under different nomenclatures decide to give only one side of the story and try to sway public opinion. Right after trouble erupted in the evening of May 3, the wilfully planted wrong narratives started doing the round and the focus of the present clash between the Meiteis and Kukis has been reduced to the understanding of the demand raised that the Meiteis be included the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India. None of these pen pushers have ever thought it fit to recall that not all the Meiteis go along with the ST for Meiteis slogan or demand and this has been conveniently overlooked. The ST for Meiteis demand dates back to more than 10 years and in the more than a decade long movement, the demand had never ever taken a violent turn. Then why did the Tribal Solidarity Rally, ostensibly staged against this demand, become so violent ? Why hasn’t this question ever been raised ? Why didn’t the same rally staged at the Naga dominated districts of Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul become violent ? Why did the violence spread so quickly from Churachandpur only to Kangpokpi and Moreh, if at all it was a Tribal Solidarity Rally ? These questions have been raised more than once and twice in this same column but so far no answer has been forthcoming. Instead of answering this question, four student organisations, the Kuki Students’ Organisation, Hmar Students’ Association, Zomi Students’ Federation and the Mizo Zirlai Pawl have gone ahead and announced a ban on all Imphal based media houses, picking out The Sangai Express for special mention. Deliberately omitting news that are critical of the State Government is the one line justification issued for the ban and perhaps to deliver their ‘point clearer’ the decision to ban Imphal based newspaper and news channel was not made available to the media here and the information only came from other news portal. No harm in deciding not to read or listen to news from Imphal based newspapers or news channels, but here again is a wrong narrative that has been peddled to the outside world and hence this commentary.
Just a few days after violence erupted on May 3 evening, there has been a complete black out of information from Churachandpur. The Sangai Express did have a correspondent at Churachandpur, but this was some time back. The only information or news that is available from Churachandpur are the ones received from the DIO of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations and obviously all the reports have to do with the work of the Government. Making things more interesting is the point that none of these student organisations have sent any of their statements or declaration or anything of substance to the media houses, at least to the office of The Sangai Express and one wonders why they have gone raising the ‘our voice has been silenced’ rhetoric to the outside world. Or is this another of their well crafted ‘playing the victim’ card ? Playing to the gallery and in the process trying to portray the messenger as a villain piece exposes the mental set up of such student organisations and this is unfortunate. Or have the student organisations conveniently forgotten that all news received from Kangpokpi are being published without fail ? Or do they read at all ? This is not the first time that the newspapers or news channels, which are nothing more than messengers, have been painted with the villain brush and this wouldn’t be the last either. This is where one is inclined to question whether such bodies fit the bill to be called student organisations. In trying to script the ‘victim tale’ one should not forget that such a step need not necessarily involve painting anyone or any entity as the villain. If they want to lodge any grievances, then they should look beyond the boycott call.
Just a few days after violence erupted on May 3 evening, there has been a complete black out of information from Churachandpur. The Sangai Express did have a correspondent at Churachandpur, but this was some time back. The only information or news that is available from Churachandpur are the ones received from the DIO of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations and obviously all the reports have to do with the work of the Government. Making things more interesting is the point that none of these student organisations have sent any of their statements or declaration or anything of substance to the media houses, at least to the office of The Sangai Express and one wonders why they have gone raising the ‘our voice has been silenced’ rhetoric to the outside world. Or is this another of their well crafted ‘playing the victim’ card ? Playing to the gallery and in the process trying to portray the messenger as a villain piece exposes the mental set up of such student organisations and this is unfortunate. Or have the student organisations conveniently forgotten that all news received from Kangpokpi are being published without fail ? Or do they read at all ? This is not the first time that the newspapers or news channels, which are nothing more than messengers, have been painted with the villain brush and this wouldn’t be the last either. This is where one is inclined to question whether such bodies fit the bill to be called student organisations. In trying to script the ‘victim tale’ one should not forget that such a step need not necessarily involve painting anyone or any entity as the villain. If they want to lodge any grievances, then they should look beyond the boycott call.