Did you read the Morung Express

March 7, 2008

Posted yesterday on Mutiny.In, have recieved 30 comments so far…Read on…

I was doing some random search on Google when I stumbled upon this website called The Morung Express. The name itself suggested it’s a news site. It looked like something to do with India, but not really. I moved the mouse around the home page only to come across names, issues, events, I have never heard of.

Legislative Assembly elections in Dimapur.
Bomb attack at residence of former Opposition Leader, I Imkong at Sangtemla ward in Mokokchung district.

Strange, how come I didn’t hear anything about this election or attack. May be I didn’t follow the news properly. Although 7-8 times a day I pass by the office cafeteria and take a look at the TV news and all I see is Indian Cricket team. As if they have not only conquered planet Mars but also have gift wrapped it with nice shiney glossy paper with bow strings attached to be presented to the people of India.

I logged on to NDTV.com to see if I can find similar news. Nothing on the home page. Then I clicked on Nation: Headlines still nothing about Dimapur elections.

I went back to Morung to try looking at the date thinking, may be the reason I don’t know about these people or events is because these news are outdated. But that was not the case. I was looking at a current page on Morung which looked foreign to me.

I moved to Times of India website. Here, I did find a story on the election but only after going through Home >> India >> More news >> Other news.

Where am I going with this? To the question, “Is Nagaland and the other far north-eastern states not a part of India?” How much do we know about these states. True, the news on Morung is regional news but don’t the regional activity affect the whole nation. Particularly the news related to Legislative Assemby elections. As I write this I am trying to recollect when was the last time I heard any news related to the 6-7 states that’s around that belt. You know what, I just realised, I don’t even remember how many states are there and what are their names, all I remember is that there was something like the 7 sisters.

But is it my fault that I don’t know enough about the north-east? Or is it a problem with north-eastern states that they mostly remain invisible when we talk about India? Or is it Centre which failed to pay attention to smaller and far off regions? Or is it a failure, on the part of popular Media, to cover India in its entirety? Or is it a problem about the size of our country and the geographical limitations? Just why do we have this gap.

I have always heard this argument that it is them who don’t consider themselves as true Indians. This is not entirely wrong. Even I have come across north-eastern people who don’t identify much with the Indian tradition or Hindu Rashtra that we keep hearing about. Like, there was this girl who in a college function, where the dress code was traditional, refused to wear a saree as a saree was never her traditional dress. But again is not this isolation caused by the continued failure on the part of Central agencies to reach out to these far regions, are they not more and more segregated because the other part of India didn’t make enough efforts?

In one of the comments here on mutiny, I asked, if the RSS brigade considers north-east states, a part of their Hindu Rashtra but I didn’t get any response from the Hindutva flag bearers.

I also blame the popular Media for this unequal representation of India. Media anyway is busy reporting frivolous news. The first page of Times of India, news in boldest and largest font “Team India arrives in Delhi”. Shouldn’t sports news be only in sports section. The third most important news of the day, “Facebook founder is world’s youngest billionaire.”

Thanks to new media at least now, those of us who are really interested can catch up with all the nook and corners of India and world. My personal request to readers here, please do visit the Morung site to know about another part of India about which no body ever informed you. As a website it has created a nice blend of regional and national news. It doesn’t look like they are only reporting Nagaland. The web interface is also very neat. Worth a visit.

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7 responses

Seema

March 8, 2008 at 3:28 am

Guess you can change that number of comments on mutiny to 80 plus :-)
suzy rajunah

March 8, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Hello
Thank you to Sanjukta, I hope and pray that all the above statement is true, since i am away from Dimapur, and northeast india, i belive that you see things clearly there, as there has been always like that.all the media and and world has forgotten nagaland. I don’t know why? saza.
snigdha

March 19, 2008 at 8:50 am

Came accross this NEWS peice. Its not just us, even they also dont want us. Read this
http://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1..190308.mar08

Following is a NEWS article from NDTV online:-
The east west corridor in NC Hills, Assam has become a corridor of terror with ULFA militants holding it to ransom.

But the National Highway Authority and the government believe it’s a temporary hitch.

”There’s danger lurking at every bend on this road. We changed three vehicles to arrive at the site of the March 12 abduction to avoid being noticed,” said a worker.

The vehicle in which five people, all-working on the east-west corridor project were last seen is symbolic to the unsolved case, where militants kidnapped engineers working on the project .

There has been no breakthrough in investigations as of yet.

Work on the project, worth over Rs 6000 crores, is way behind schedule and equipment worth crores has been stolen or destroyed.

Local militants want at least 10 per cent of the project cost and this has the contractors worried.

”We are not paying and that’s the reason our people are being abducted,” said Ajay Kumar, GM, Valecha Group.

”Since 2006 we have been working in fear everyday. We work for two months and suspend for six months,” said S Gogoi, survey engineer, Gammon India.

The feeling is the same across sections of people.

”Without full security this road cannot be completed. People come and leave. Work has been suspended indefinitely,” said Sanjeev Kumar, Gammon India.

The highways authority says that foolproof security is not possible. The government, meanwhile, claims that all is well.

” The situation is not grim. It appears grim and work on two national projects are going on smoothly,” said R M Singh, Inspector General of Police.

”You can’t expect 100 per cent security,” said R D Chaudhury, Project Director, NHAI.

Under the veneer of an improving law and order, large parts of the state are slowly slipping into a state of anarchy and fear is an everyday emotion here.

The family of Dhrubajit Chaudhury, the engineer who was kidnapped, appears helpless. His wife and children have stopped eating.

Militants rule these hills and it is common knowledge among the locals.

”We are very helpless. We are also scared,” said village headmaster.

Work on gauge conversion began years ago and is not yet complete. Militants have held innumerable national projects to ransom.
Vikas Sharma

August 14, 2008 at 5:25 am

Its not just us, even they also dont want us.

Snigdha have u ever wondered why they dont want us? Its all because of the way we treat them, calling them names like chinkis and stuff.
How would u feel if someone called u a bangladeshi or pakistani (no offense to anyone)?
Whenever we meet someone with mongloid features dont we ask them “Are you from Japan or China or Korea?”.Even after being so well educated we forget our basic atticates. cant we just ask “Where are you from?”. We need to treat them right before we point fingers at them.

Thanks Sanjukta for this article :):) Its really good to see that some of us do care about our country on a whole.
Aaron

March 6, 2009 at 5:52 am

I just happened to stumbled upon your article and i know this is the question most educated and concerned people ask these days, but the sad reality is, if you look at the history of India and the NE relationship this is no surprise. So politically we are part of India but the rest is crap because we are discriminated and ignored and to tell you the truth we have no similarities with the MAINLAND INDIANS at all, in terms of culture, features almost everything and the Govt. is doing little to bridge the gap,. We talk about Hindi education, u would be amazed how in some areas they cannot understand even a single word of Hindi but they can speak English.
Our country is very diverse no doubt so is the US of A! and what is our Govt. doing to keep us all together harmoniously? NOTHING!! there is more segregation than ever and it is just a matter of time before things gets worse if something is not done, it is no wonder the people and even some of the NE states don’t even want to be a part of INDIA. We need to know our history well and be just, just because the English ruled India for centuries doesn’t mean that India should start playing the same policies or games with the NE and J&K .
Wake up people and look beneath the surface, there are things going on that cannot be said out, it is for all the concerned people to observe and see for themselves whats happening.
By the way India as of now is mixed with different race of people, we also have Afro-Indians(Andaman&Nicobar) who has been here for centuries, now what happens then if they start coming and mixing with the mainland people?That would be something as to how the people accepts them.
rep

October 29, 2009 at 10:33 am

We say Nagaland was Never a part of India. Further we say Nagaland was never a pat of India either by cecession nor by conquest. Again we say Is nagaland not India? We make India confused. We also make ourselves confused.
Pumba

June 7, 2010 at 6:28 am

The NE-India relationship is problematic to say the least. The rest of India doesn’t think we are “Indian” or dare I say “hindu” enough. We say we don’t need to share the same religious sentiments to be part of this country. We take pride in our differences from the rest of the country – our food, language, kinship ties and religion. But at the heart of it the values of all humans remain the same irrespective of where they are born, that of kindness, honesty and integrity. Understanding has to come from both sides – Northeastners and the rest of India. In the meantime, some considerations as to what’s happening in the NE would be very welcome. I mean except for election times, we are just a blot on the map. Manipur is burning, but you find no mention about it on the newspapers.

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About Sanjukta

Sanjukta Basu is a Feminist Scholar, Journalist, Lawyer, Published Author, Photographer and more. This blog is a repository of her more than 17 years of writing on diverse topics. Click here to read her bio and find contact details.