Why ‘national media’ left Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra midway in Nagaland

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s voyage through the hinterland of Northeast was a lesson for many, particularly the journos from the so-called national media for whom the region is just another back of the beyond.

Physical infrastructure in most parts of the region even more than 75 years after independence remains skeletal despite the Narendra Modi government’s claim that during its regime road construction activities and rail, road and air connectivity in the Northeast has more than doubled.

“The last 10 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been the most significant for the development of the Northeast in the 75 years since independence. In these 10 years under the leadership of Modi ji, not only the distance from Northeast to Delhi and the rest of India has reduced due to the creation of infrastructure, but the difference of hearts has also reduced,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed while addressing the 71st Plenary Session of the North Eastern Council in Shillong on January 19.

The emptiness of the profound claim of bridging the gap and connecting hearts was laid bare on the night of January 15 — ironically before the media. The tall claims came crashing down when an over 80-member media contingents that set out from Imphal to trail Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in three buses reached Nagaland’s capital Kohima.

The distance between Imphal and Kohima is just 136 kilometres. But that figure is a mere statistic when it comes to measuring the travails that come along the way on the trip.

Beyond Kangpokpi, which is around 45 kilometres north of Imphal, the road was almost non-existent till Kohima.

“The road is under-construction,” is the common refrain of the authorities. For those enduring the bumpy-road rides for decades, such refrain sounds like a lame excuse.

“We grew up hearing the catchphrase. But nothing improved on the ground, barring some patchwork now and then, here and there. The four-laning of some stretch of the National Highway-02 from Senapati to Kangpokpi (15.6 km) was taken up around 2020. But the work was stalled following the ethnic strife that has been raging in Manipur since May last year,” said Kabi Maram, a professor at Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh.

Kabi Maram is a native of Kangpokpi and frequently takes the road to visit his home.

The highway expansion work is so tardy that even the Kohima bench of the Gauhati High Court took a serious exception to the work progress.

Hearing a public interest litigation (suo moto) on the delay in upgrading the highway connecting Nagaland and Manipur (30-odd kilometres from Kohima to Mao Gate), the court warned the contractor M/S Fortune Group that if the work was not completed within the time frame set by it (May 30, 2023), substantial cost would be imposed and the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) would be directed to issue a show-cause notice to blacklist the contractor.

The stern warning clearly failed to make any difference as was evident from the condition of the highway, which is part of the Asian Highways network.

For the journos used to darting on the paved highways of mainland India, the journey was more than backbreaking. It was a complete shocker.

If the road was horrible, for those in the entourage not used to the tribal ways of life in the northeast, the local food completed the double whammy.

In a commune lunch at Senapati on the way to Kohima, naturally there was no vegetarian arrangement except for rice and dal and ripe bananas.

For the context, it would be worth mentioning an incident former Nagaland chief minister Vamuzo Phesao had once narrated. Vamuzo was gorging on puris during a hunger strike in New Delhi in the eighties. When George Fernandes saw him, he asked the Naga leader why he was not joining the strike?

“For a Naga eating vegetarian food is as good as a hunger strike,” Vamuzo claimed to have replied. That sums it up.

For the media corps often used to mollycoddling, making some adjustments was too much of an ask.

By the time the bus rolled into Kohima, many in the media were in two minds over whether they should continue with the yatra trail.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) had especially brought a large media team from New Delhi to cover the ‘Justice March’ till Guwahati, hoping to create a positive buzz in the “national media”.

Almost all the major national media houses have their representatives based in Guwahati or Kolkata, who regularly cover the not-so-explored region. But they were by and large overlooked while extending the invite.

The strategy appeared to be ill-conceived as not many in the “national media” team had the slightest inkling of what to expect in terms of infrastructure in the remote northeast. On top of that food was a cultural shock for most in the group.

Some communication gap on part of the Congress’s communication-management team on dinner arrangements made for the media at Kohima acted as a trigger to the pent-up disappointments.

The party was now in the eye of a media tantrum as many started complaining about accommodation made for some members of the group at Kohima Circuit House. This despite the accommodation being decent for the terrain.

The matter came to such a pass that AICC had to hurriedly make arrangements to send the “disgruntled lot” packing to New Delhi in two separate groups via Imphal and Guwahati.

Ultimately, only eight media persons, including three ladies, accompanied the yatra beyond Kohima, spilling water over Congress’s national-media coverage quest.

“Can you believe some of your media friends went to the extent of alleging that they were served rotten food in Nagaland. The Nagas, or for that matter any tribal people, will be the last one to serve rotten food. They don’t even believe in the culture of refrigerating food,” an AICC secretary told The Federal.

When asked whether the party had sensitised the journalists about the dietary culture of northeast, the Congress leaders said in the age of Google, they did not find it necessary.

Moreover, they were dealing with journalists, who are expected to be versed with the socio-cultural aspects of the area they are venturing to cover.

A journalist, who refused to be identified, claimed that the food had a pungent smell.

Fermented soya beans, taro leaves, bamboo shoots or dry fish are local delicacies that have a very strong aroma that can be considered stinky by those who are not exposed to tribal taste buds.

Migrants from northeast to mainland India regularly face racial profiling and housing discrimination for their dietary habits and other cultural differences.

The cultural gap and the emotional disconnect is depicted in a recent independent film, Axone, named after a fermented soyabean condiment.

On that chilly night in Kohima, the northeast once again appeared too far — physically as well as mentally — from the India’s heartland.