Guwahati: Assam Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Manipur government for prohibiting the sharing of stories related to “human tragedy”, at a time when the Indian media is deliberating about the “horrific pictures” emerging from Israel and Palestine.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Gogoi, on Friday said, “While Indian media is discussing the horrific pictures emanating from Israel-Palestine, the BJP in Manipur has forbidden sharing stories of human tragedy.”
The MP from Assam’s Kaliabor constituency also hit out at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying it was an attempt by the saffron party to cover up its failures. “This is another attempt to cover up the failures of the BJP. PM Modi would never have spoken if the truth was hidden,” Gogoi added in his post on X.
In his post, Gogoi also shared an order issued by the Manipur Home Commissioner, T. Ranjit Singh, on Wednesday (October 11), prohibiting the sharing of videos, images, and pictures depicting violent activities in the strife-torn state through social media platforms.
“Whereas, the state government views very seriously and with utmost sensitivity the reported spread of videos, pictures, and images depicting violent activities like causing and inflicting harm or injury to body and/or damage to public and private property through various social media platforms and sending bulk SMS likely to facilitate and/or mobilise mobs of agitators and demonstrators, which may aggravate the law and order situation in the state,” the order read.
“Whereas, the state government, after a thorough examination of the matter, has decided to restrain the act of spreading such videos, images, and pictures as a positive step towards bringing normalcy in the state. Now, therefore, the Governor of Manipur is pleased to reiterate that nobody shall be allowed to circulate or spread such videos, images, and pictures through the social media platforms,” the order added.
“At any cost, they shall not resort to circulate or spread such videos, images, and pictures through any social media. Anyone found violating the above instructions and orders shall be booked and prosecuted under relevant provisions of the law of the land for the time being in force without any exception,” the order further stated.
Videos and images related to violence in Manipur have been emerging at regular intervals across social media platforms ever since the ethnic clashes broke out in the state on May 3 this year. A video of two tribal women being paraded naked, images of two missing students presumably killed, and a video of a tribal man being burned alive, which were widely circulated, shook the entire nation.
The over-five-month-long ethnic clashes in the northeastern state have so far claimed the lives of at least 180 people and left over a thousand injured. Over 60,000 people have also been internally displaced due to the unceasing violence that has rocked the state.