Thank you for this piece (“Why Prime Minister Modi’s speech on Manipur is worse than his silence”). We grieve with the women assaulted in this terrible manner, and we want to call to account the men who did this, demonstrating cruelty, and toxic masculinity as a perceived revenge. Shameful indeed. All of us Indians show up very, very small in this incident.
The vengeful cruel men participating in raping innocent women, the cowardly and negligent police who handed the women over to such a mob, the inept and foolish chief minister with his comments that a hundred such incidents occurred, and Modi and his colleagues, who even now cannot dismiss this useless and biased state government, but would rather defend them, attempt to deflect and play politics over fratricide and rape: it is disgusting and saddening. We demand Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh’s dismissal, for the dismissal of the cops who allowed this, as well as cases against the men who committed this. – Jamila Koshy
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Modi recommends the harshest action against the perpetrators of crime against women. What action did he take against Bhrij Bhushan, the molester? – Abdul Hakeem
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I congratulate Scroll for pointing out falsehoods in the reports and responses with respect to the conflict in Manipur. Over the lastfour to five decades I have watched the tension between the Kukis and the Meiteis having met persons from these communiities. Caste hierarchies of another kind operate here as the meiteis feel superior to the Kukis, a kind of cultural or civilisational superiority. Mainland actors and agencies who are engaged with social and economic justice “beyond caste and creed” need to work on deeper and more lasting arrangements to bring in a form of equality – in economic opportunity and education. – Devaki Jain
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What a stupid, biased article. It appears that Supriya Sharma had two articles ready: one for Modi not responding/silence and the other for responding. No wonder Modi doesn’t give two hoots about these stupid journalists. Why waste time on these so-called biased journalists? Journalists should write based on facts without personal bias and not their opinions. Common people don’t care about stupid journalists; we want to hear what the leader has to say and their opinions. – Sanjeev Daftardar
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Do you think people will pay for this? Whoever she was, tell her that she needs a holiday and good mentor who explained her the journalism and how to digest the truth. – Shashi
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This treatment of women in Manipur is horrible and disgraceful (“Everyone should know what happened to us’: Four Kuki women recount brutal assaults they survived”). It should not matter whether they were Kukis or Meiteis or Rohingyas. The perpetrators should be be given severe treatment/punishment. At the same time, the media and other commentators should be paying equal attention to the violence, loot and arson in West Bengal. There, too, women have been subjected to similar horrible treatment but neither commentators not the mainstream media have paid any attention.
Why this selectivity? Is the ethnicity and religion of women more important or is the ruling dispensation of the state important in selecting and highlighting and reporting such horrendous happenings? This selectivity is as shameful as the events. – Anupam Dev
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Ideally, everybody would like to have uninterrupted internet (“Why India leads the world in internet shutdowns: Open violations of SC guidelines, silent judiciary”). Just citing the absolute number of instances without any reference to the population, diversity of population, sponsored protests both by anti-national and outside forces, does not lend much credence to the article.
Instead of blaming the governments and judiciary for non-implementation of guidelines, more practical solutions could have been given for each of the situation pointed out. I heard that one fake video has triggered the gang rape of two women in Manipur. Who is responsible for that and how to prevent such videos from circulation without banning internet? – M Ravindra Kumar Reddy
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The irony is that one of the most beautiful parts of the country is beset with such an ugly problem, with problematic neighbours looking on. Astute statesmanship is needed here. For starters, everyone needs to calm down. It is a decades old festering issue and will take time to sort out. – Anil Dahar
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