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Dear Reader,
The tragedy that is being enacted in Manipur is, more often than not, narrated as a tale of political malfeasance, competing claims of ethnic groups, and the inability of the establishment to bring matters to heel. Rarely are the events looked at through the sheer human cost it has extracted and the severe upheavals it has caused in the lives of the people of Manipur.
Mojo Story delves into this fear, anguish and complete hopelessness that pervades Manipur, as the feeling of being “completely abandoned by India” is overwhelming and real. Moreover, the alchemy of criminalisation of politics, “weaponisation” of ethnic groups, and drug-and-human trafficking, has turned the state into a toxic polity in dire need of 'truth and reconciliation' among the various ethnic groups.
As it is, the human toll recorded in Manipur is alarming - on a conservative estimate, over 120 killed, 3,000 injured and more than 50,000 displaced - since the violence broke out on 3rd May. The number of those internally displaced and those who have migrated out of the state – to Mizoram, Assam, Delhi, Myanmar, etc., runs into tens of thousands. The Citizen chronicles one such group who has taken refuge in the national capital, to record their distress and agony at being exiled from their homes and hearths.
From Kashmir, Article 14 reports that fearing radicalisation within the prisons, as many as 343 accused in cases registered in the UT have been shifted and incarcerated outside the state – in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. This has added an edge to the already vexed situation of citizen rights in Kashmir, with the prisoners unable to see or even communicate with their families.
And, press freedom in India has been on a downward spiral. Draconian laws, like the one on sedition, continue to be invoked. The Probe analyses the recent cases where journalists have been thwarted from doing their work or have had to pay a price for red-flagging misfeasance of those in power.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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