Within hours of sending in her bimonthly column to The Assam Tribune on the violation of human rights and 'dehumanization' of Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, veteran journalist Patricia Mukhim was told by the paper on August 6 that the management had decided not to carry the piece. She was also instructed to concentrate only on Meghalaya.
Patricia, who has been the editor of The Shillong Times for almost two decades now, started contributing to the Assam Tribune, one of the largest-selling English dailies in the northeast, around 2014. On Wednesday, she sent in her piece to the Tribune which was to be published the next day, August 7. Soon after being informed about the rejection, the Padma Shri-winning journalist decided to cut off her ties with The Assam Tribune and not contribute to the paper henceforth. This, she announced in a Facebook post.
Expressing her disappointment at the development, the Meghalaya-based journalist wrote on the social media platform, "To be told what to write on and how to write are the marks of an authoritarian regime. It's better to be a free spirit than be tied in knots and have your thoughts imprisoned."
On August 6, an Assam Tribune staffer sent a text message to Patricia, saying "Management has gone through your article -- 'Needed a political catharsis' -- and instructed me not to carry it. From now on, therefore, you are humbly requested to focus only on Meghalaya." They also said they were "simply conveying" to the journalist "what the management said" -- that she should "concentrate only on Meghalaya". "For any query in this regard, you may talk to the executive editor," the text message added.
Patricia said when she started contributing to the paper around 2014, she was not given any such instruction on what she should or should not write on. "I travel the region and am a keen observer of its socio-political and geo-strategic twists and turns."
"Then I realised that the inevitable had happened.. Anything that runs contrary to the current regime will not be entertained by the mainstream media barring a few brave ones that continue to stand their ground and have refused to become lapdogs of the ruling regime," she says in her Facebook post.
'Relentless Drive to Dehumanize Bengali-speaking Muslims'
The 'rejected' opinion piece, published two days later by Scroll, draws attention to how "the relentless drive to dehumanize Bengali-speaking Muslims, thousands of whom are now homeless and without a country, has crossed out "human rights" from the political discourse" in Assam. Referring to former US President Ronald Reagan's inaugural address in 1981 in which he had famously remarked, "In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem," Patricia writes that Assam today has a "a one-man government".
"We don't hear voices that will calm the chaos. It's as if the chief minister alone has taken upon himself the sole right of addressing the media. Assam society today is completely divided between Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus," she adds.
It is relevant to add here that under chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, communal polarization in Assam has reached an unprecedented peak with incidents of hate and violence against Bengali-speaking Muslims rising exponentially. In July, Sarma justified the 'fight' against minorities even if they are not 'foreigners', when he wrote in an X post, "Just do not stop us from fighting for what is ours. For us this is our last battle of survival."
Earlier in May, the Himanta-led Cabinet brought in a scheme to give gun licenses to 'indigenous people' living in Muslim-majority areas. Justifying the move, Sarma has said, "A gun is essential. Without a gun, how will you live in places like South Salmara and Mankachar? You will understand when you go there..."
About 95% of the population in Salmara-Mankachar district are Muslims. In other words, Sarma, the constitution head of the state, made no bones about the fact that he felt guns were needed by Hindus to defend themselves against Muslims.
It is interesting to note that on August 11, the Assam chief minister's office shared an Assam Tribute report on X which quotes Sarma justifying the gun policy by saying that gun is essential in vulnerable areas. The report says, "The Chief Minister stated the new policy is strictly limited to areas where national security concerns are pronounced, particularly along Assam's international border with Bangladesh. Among the immediate areas being considered for arms licence issuance are Dhubri, South Salmara, Barpeta, Morigaon, and Nagaon."
Fact is, neither Barpeta, not Morigaon, nor Nagaon shares international border with Bangladesh. However, all three are Muslim-majority districts. The report in The Assan Tribune chooses to ignore that.
In her article, Patricia does note how the media has joined the BJP government in Assam in polarizing the society. "Today, politics is driven purely by divisiveness and hatred. Day after day, TV channels and YouTubers carry out a vicious campaign against Muslims as if they do not deserve to live. Thousands of them are reduced to a life that hangs by a thread in what is the most inhuman treatment meted out to them."
It is crudely ironic that in the piece itself, Patricia repeatedly refers to the shrinking space for questioning the powers that be. "Today we have reached a point in this country when asking hard questions from the ruling establishment turns you into a Pakistan sympathiser or an "anti-national". Never in the past, not even during the Emergency, did we feel this sense of repression that we feel today."
Things have come to such a passe, Patricia notes, that the Assam chief minister "is hell-bent on bringing to its knees the University of Technology and Management", an institute located not in his state but in Meghalaya, "simply because its chancellor and founder is a Muslim".
I Sense a Caste Bias Here: Patricia Mukhim
Speaking to Alt News, the senior journalist who is considered one of the most representative voices from the northeast, said that around 2014, it was "a personal approach" by the then executive editor, PJ Baruah, which started her association with The Assam Tribune. "He asked me to give a name to my column. I called it Rough & Tumble. He allowed me complete freedom and we never once had any complaints."
About the manner in which the present editorial team treated her, Patricia said she could sense a caste bias at play here. "After having contributed to The Assam Tribune for over a decade the communication for not carrying my article was being conveyed by a junior staff of the newspaper. I can sense a caste bias here since I am a tribal and therefore am not supposed to comment or write on issues pertaining to the Assamese people, who until 1971 ruled over Meghalaya and other northeastern states before we were considered politically mature to manage our own affairs."
Patricia referred to the historical reluctance of the Assamese gentry to grant autonomy to the tribes while explaining why she thought that the way the paper treated her was as problematic as the response itself. "The debates in the Constitution-making body when the tribes of Meghalaya demanded the Sixth Schedule as a protective cover for tribal customary practices and governance must be re-read to understand the views of the Assamese gentry at the time. They were against granting the Sixth Schedule to the tribes lest it lead to secessionism. It is against these backgrounds that the relations between the Assamese and the tribals continues till date. The equations have always been unequal."
Senior Journalists Express Anger; Stand by Patricia
Reacting to the development, veteran journalist and author Paranjoy Guha Thakurta said he was "angry and deeply saddened" by the decision of The Assam Tribune to not carry Patricia Mukhim's opinion article on the religious polarisatioin in Assam, Meghalaya and other parts of the northeast.
"I am aware that the owner of the publication has, in the recent past, flirted with the BJP. If he is responsible for "killing" Patricia's story, it cannot be justified under any circumstances. And if the concerned person has acted at the behest of the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, it indicates how subservient a large section of the media has become in Assam and elsewhere. The chief minister seems to be following the playbook of his mentors in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. More strength to Patricia!" he added.
Columnist, author and former editor of The Times of India Bachi Karkaria, who has known Patricia closely, told Alt News, "It must have been a difficult decision to let go of a platform with such huge reach in the north east. But she would have betrayed all that she has stood for if she had continued." Bachi called Assam Tribune's response 'pitiable'.
"I am sure Assam Tribune gave her the column in 2014 as much for her strong voice as for her deep understanding of the people, culture and politics of the northeast. For them to stop just because it went against the ruling party at the Centre and the state was pitiable. To do it with such lack of grace makes it doubly so."
"I have come to know, admire and respect Pat from our common membership of South Asian Women in Media (SWAM). She has always led from the front to defend the freedom of journalists. When her own rights were muzzled, to have quietly continued with Assam Tribune would have been hypocritical. Pat is neither hypocritical nor quiet," Bachi noted.
Alt News has written to The Assam Tribune seeking a response to Patricia Mukhim's remarks. This story will be updated as and when the paper gets back to us.
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