Matamgi Manipur

This article by Amar Yumnam was originally published by the Imphal Free Press on 28 Oct 2013 Free for all is very different from freedom from all. While freedom for all is a social objective around the globe for it ensures opportunities for advancement and existence of a justice system to remedy violations of the rules of societal existence with dignity for all. But free for all is altogether a different game. Free for all implies absolute absence of rule of law. It also implies absence of governance. Consequent upon these conditions, there would prevail ungoverned crime, uncontrolled murders and thriving of the criminals. The only competition existing in such a context would be among the criminals and their groups for greater capability to commit crimes. Killing would be a very common method and easily resorted to for it would be a means for enforcing ready compliance by the common folk with the dictums of the criminals.

By Pradip Phanjoubam (Originally published by the Imphal Free Press on 20 Oct 2013) In many ways, the media in Manipur today is in a pitiable state. On the one hand there it is constantly faced with danger of rubbing the establishment in the wrong way, including forsaking their registration with the Registrar of Newspapers in India, RNI, and with it, accreditation with Central and state government advertisement distributing departments, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, DAVP, in the case of the Union government and the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, DIPR, in the case of the state, for publishing underground propaganda literature without vetting them adequately and in conformity with universally accepted norms that make any particular event or statement newsworthy.