A day after the horrific visuals of abuse of two Manipuri women spread across the internet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke for the first time about the ongoing ethnic violence in the state. For two and a half months, he had not. The video has brought attention to the brutality of ethnic violence but also raises disturbing questions, says senior journalist Patricia Mukhim, Editor of Shillong Times. She says, “If it takes a video of that kind of horror to wake up the conscience of the nation then someone somewhere might do something crueler, record it, and send it all over the place just to get the attention of the government.”
In an interview to Shabbir of TNM, she speaks about how an issue that deserves national attention has been mostly ignored. “I don’t understand why the Prime Minister took this vow of silence as far as Manipur is concerned. The PM chooses what he speaks on and doesn’t choose to address critical issues,” she says.
Even the belated speech addressed only the single incident concerning the video – which happened in May – and that too after the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of it and the government was answerable. There is a humanitarian crisis in Manipur, with shortage of food and medicine, people stranded in the valley and many houses burnt, reminds Patricia.
It is not a law and order situation but a collapse of governance, she says. “The first thing they should have done when there was escalation of conflict was to bring down the Chief Minister, who seemed to be an overt participant, supporting one group over the other [in the clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities]. He should have been brought down to restore the confidence of the people. The state should have come under the President’s rule.”
As done before, the bodies of women have once again been used as a location of violence, Patricia says. Normally that is a strategy used by countries when they go to war. “But this is your own country and these are your own people. It has been made to look like a war where any group can do anything to women to create outrage and then say, look this is what we are capable of doing.”
It gets worse because the public abuse of the two Kuki women caught in video was egged on by other women, belonging to the Meitei community. If women themselves have no empathy for other women, how do you even begin to define women’s empowerment, Patricia asks. Women have been hugely disempowered in these conflicts, she adds.
There is also the need for gender sensitivity in reportage and journalists should be trained in it, says Patricia. The video of the women has created a sensation but what about the individuals who suffered that indignity, Patricia asks. “Is anyone going to talk about them after this? Is anyone even concerned how they are going to live their lives after this? It is the height of indignity that anyone can suffer.”