The Bandh Culture

During my brief stint at Manipur I observed that once into Manipur you can’t plan in advance when you can leave Manipur and once out of it you are not sure when you will be able to return to Manipur because of ‘Bandhs’ which are like the weather of Ziro during this month – you never know when there will be rain. And to go by the people of Manipur, the state has earned the sobriquet of “Bandhpur”.

Coming back to our state, it seems we Arunachali’s are also following the Manipur’s way. The ‘Bandh’ seems to have become the mantra to register your protest about anything-be it lottery imbroglio, power cuts and the most recent- to force resignation of Minister on morale ground. And in doing so, let the common people be damned, the student community, which is the future of state, be damned-this was what the Papum Pare District Youth Welfare Society (PPDYWS) exactly did, by calling 10 hr Capital ‘Bandh’ on 1^st of March, incidentally when C.B.S.E. exam began, to force the UD Minister Nabam Tuki, to step down from the Post on morale ground.

Here, what I couldn’t understand was, why the PPDYWS resorted to Bandh Call when PIL was filed at Guwahati High Court against the alleged involvement of UD Minister in corrupt practices and that too when thousands of students in the twin Capital City of Naharlagun and Itanagar were to sit for their Board Exams. Why was the hurry? Shouldn’t they have waited for the law to take its own course? Or even if they wanted the Minister to step down from the post on morale ground, wasn’t there other form of protest like sit-in-dharna or taking out peaceful procession etc. Or was there any vested interest of certain section of people? (BTW..how do you justify taking entire population to ransom for fulfilment of interests of certain section of people?)

Online Version of The Arunachal Times?

No..., don't jump to any conclusion yet.

What do you do to satiate your hunger to keep abreast of latest happenings around the world? Read the paper, watch news channels or log on to the net-these are the obvious things you would do, right. But what if, you wanted to know about the latest happenings of the State Arunachal Pradesh? Grab The Arunachal Times or Echo of Arunachal or Dawnlit Post-all published from Itanagar, of course. But the matter of fact is that when there is 'bandh' or some other transportation problem you wouldn't get chance to lay your hands on the paper for quite a few days at stretch (the dailies being dispatched from Itanagar, reaches Ziro in the evening) and not to forget the peoples staying outside the state, who has altogether no access to the local dailies. And you can't think of news channels, as all you get is news about metros. So, I wondered, if the State dailies has any online presence?

Surprise! Surprise! when I Googled the key word " Arunachal Times" I got this (see the snap shot below)

"G-R-E-A-T", I shouted, now people from this state studying or working outside the state would be able to keep abreast of the happenings of the state. But wait, to my horror when I clicked the link I got this (snapshot below) (what do you think about the sites look?) which has most of the link non-functional. May be the site is in developmental stage.

So, till the site is fully developed, which I hope would be developed soon, the people would have to make do with the conventional ways, as they did before to know about the happenings of the state, country and the world.

Online Version of The Arunachal Times?

No..., don't jump to any conclusion yet.

What do you do to satiate your hunger to keep abreast of latest happenings around the world? Read the paper, watch news channels or log on to the net-these are the obvious things you would do, right. But what if, you wanted to know about the latest happenings of the State Arunachal Pradesh? Grab The Arunachal Times or Echo of Arunachal or Dawnlit Post-all published from Itanagar, of course. But the matter of fact is that when there is 'bandh' or some other transportation problem you wouldn't get chance to lay your hands on the paper for quite a few days at stretch (the dailies being dispatched from Itanagar, reaches Ziro in the evening) and not to forget the peoples staying outside the state, who has altogether no access to the local dailies. And you can't think of news channels, as all you get is news about metros. So, I wondered, if the State dailies has any online presence?

Surprise! Surprise! when I Googled the key word " Arunachal Times" I got this (see the snap shot below)

"G-R-E-A-T", I shouted, now people from this state studying or working outside the state would be able to keep abreast of the happenings of the state. But wait, to my horror when I clicked the link I got this (snapshot below) (what do you think about the sites look?) which has most of the link non-functional. May be the site is in developmental stage.

So, till the site is fully developed, which I hope would be developed soon, the people would have to make do with the conventional ways, as they did before to know about the happenings of the state, country and the world.