A systemic (and expensive) failure.

If I ask a simple question: ‘What is happening in Manipur?’ most people, regardless of their political and ideological leanings, will be unable to answer in any sort of depth. Not even my usually very politically aware and active friends online.

I won’t get into the answer to that question (it involves the tribal disregard for international boundaries, land, poppy cultivation, employment, minerals, mining, corporate greed, geopolitics, NRC, power, religion, identity, Land Reform Act, immigration, British bungling due to their insistence on watertight compartments because of ease of governing for them, the 1976 act on SCs and STs, STDCM, ATSUM, and so on) because I am not qualified nor aware of ground situations.

What I will say, though, is that the common Indian seems to be so ignorant of the goings on that they were truly shocked at the rape and lynching video that made its appearance last week, and even more surprised when informed that this is from 2 months ago, and much, much worse has transpired since then.

Why is that? Because no popular TV channel (the major source of news for most Indians) and no large circulation newspaper is putting this on prime time/front page, no one is writing editorials demanding answers and action from the government, no one is covering the high decibel alarm the principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress, has been raising on its social media and through various press statements since May 2023, no media house is tweeting to question Modi and Shah about it, there are no talking heads on prime time television explaining the nuances, no marquee journalists with their OB Vans (I don’t think they use those any more, though) telling us about the internet shutdown, no foreign journalists breathlessly reporting from a live riot, no ’embedded’ reporters taking us to ground zero, no fresh, young, recently graduated tv reporters interviewing ‘rebel’ leaders from inside their hideouts, no solemn ‘address to the nation’ from the PM, HM, CM, or the President, no nothing. Just. Crickets.

That does not, of course, mean there aren’t determined, honest people reporting on it or that there is no mention of it in niche media outlets like Outlook or Wire, or on the inside pages of national newspapers. Just that the disproportionately quiet reaction to such newsworthy happenings is not usual for a democracy with a vibrant media and an active press.

Or so one would think.

The truth is that Manipur is burning because it wasn’t nipped in the bud or controlled in time, either before the first spark was lit or as soon as the first stone was hurled. And that is because of the blackout of news generally from the North East and specifically anything that shows the Führer and his ‘Sarkar‘ in bad light.

By destroying the media and its ability to remain independent, this regime has demolished a large part of the foundation on which a democracy is built and stands. The damage is so deep and so long-term that it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that if Indian democracy suffers a long and painful recovery after the departure of this evil duo, it would be solely because of the lack of a means of an independent source for people to make informed decisions. यह हमारे प्रजातंत्र और सभ्यता के लिए एक बहुत पाठ महँगा साबित होगा।

Modi and Shah have caused more damage to the very idea of India than most of their blind followers will ever understand.