… students pelt police with stones, police retaliate with bullets.
The result between 4 (ToI figure) & 12 (BBC figure) students killed.
If something like this happened in Mumbai, there will be hell for the Government to pay. Do we keep quiet because it happened in the “north east” (meghalaya)?
I can understand that the police don’t like being pelted with stones. i can also understand them taking action to ensure that the situation does not degenerate into something more violent. But, opening fire on unarmed students – protesting against poor marking procedures in exams – is the height of criminal negligence. What can be the punishment for something like this?
I was really disgusted when i read about it mam… There has hardly been any murmur over this incident .. the media has totally disowned this region from the very beginning .. i hardly ever come across a story on the North – East in our national dailies.. Our entertainment media focuses on all the possible states and their cultures in India but conviniently ignores the north east states .. i havent seeen a single mainstream film based on the culture or people of these states .. They are also made to suffer from a kind of identity crisis due to the way they look .. all the roadside chinese stalls will have someone from these states as their chef .. to add that feel of authencity since they have a countenance that resembles Chinese .. even the politicians never take up the issues of the north east in mainstream politics and national level discussions .. they have been effectively purged from Indian society .. I doubt this country has given them any sense of belonging
Hi harsh
the media keeps using the term ‘north east’ – a geographical concept to explain multiple cultures that make up the region. it is about as accuarate as the term south indian to describe all states south of vindhyas
and the media blank out on this is crazy. as bad as jallianwallah – said one blogger ( secular right) and there is complete silence on this. Where is the outrage on this – they are students like you and sriram getting mowed down. Yet, we will run stories on the anniversary of Tiannamen square – probably because it is easy to get the news from external news agencies.
also on a different tack read mall road on Why Japanese Encephalitis is Not a Sexy Story
– same reason why the Main stream media does not focus on the ‘north east’ too much to do!