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It took me a bizarre one and half month in Assam before I could get the motivation for writing this new post in my blog. It all started in 23rd May 2011 and seems to be never ending till now. I doubt if I really want it to end. Life in Assam is indisputably easier than that in the desert land of Pilani. All I have been doing is making trips to the oldest public sector refinery in India, better known as IOCL Guwahati Refinery. Life had been the same - trips to the refinery, usual stuff called Practice School and then back home until a series of events in the capital of Assam brought some interest to my life; and some motivation to instill some life to my dormant blog.
For those who don’t know what has happened, the story goes on like this. A popular bearded social-worker of the state launches a strike against the ruling government. Nothing new! The bearded man has an acclaimed fame (or notoriety) for suing the government for every trivial reason. A minister buys a new car. The bearded man sues him. Another minister gives donation to a guest-house and even he gets sued. This time the reason was the illegal eviction of the aborigines of Guwahati from the hill-slopes and so-called reserve forest lands. Justified point! For a state which has not been able to evict thousands of illegal immigrants from neighboring countries, making attempts to evict aborigines just on the pretext of reserve forests or whatever seems irrational.
But then the strike turns ugly. Three people fall down dead. The police get beaten up. Vehicles are ignited to flames. Tear gas gets released and the media starts an uproar labeling 22nd July 2011 as a dark day in the history of Assam. And then we get a vivid view of what is called yellow journalism.
Almost a year back, two short-stories written by me were published in The Assam Tribune (a leading daily in north-east India). One of them dealt with the strikes in Assam and the other one delineated the yellow journalism prevalent in the state. Exactly a year letter, I feel as if those two fictions have come alive. There are two popular news channels in Assam. One of them belongs to an influential minister. The other belongs to a strong leader of the opposition. So the aftermath of this strike resulted in both the news channels playing blame-games. One channel blames the government for all the causalities that happened. The other puts the entire blame on the bearded social-worker. The junta of Assam thus gets a blurred view of what is going on in the state. Take a ride in the local buses of Guwahati city and you will overhear people blaming the government for all the deaths. But is the government to blame for everything. Wasn’t the act of burning down buses a heinous crime committed by the strikers? You have the right to initiate strikes in a democracy. But you don’t have the right to harm the public and its property. Well, I am no advocate of the government of Assam. The CM of Assam is no uncle of mine. But the impact of yellow journalism has been too much evident in this state. In fact, too much praising of the government by one of the news channels has created a negative attitude of the people against the government. This YELLOW in a democracy, if not removed can hinder the progress of a region, as in the case with Assam.
