Attacks – Journalists

Barely a week after Nagaland deputy chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Y. Patton had threatened a reporter of a local TV channel at a public meeting, the reporter was shot at in a Naga village in the Senapati district of Manipur.

The BJP leader, formerly with the Congress, is a powerful politician across Nagaland and the Naga areas of Manipur. Patton is also the state home minister and the border affairs minister.

The reporter was publicly chastened by the BJP leader for featuring Naga villagers in a news report for Hornbill TV, in which they had said on camera that neither Patton nor the local MLA Achumembo Kikon, had visited them for nearly a month while the Assam government was carrying out an eviction drive at the Rengma Forest Reserve situated along the state border. Parts of the forest reserve is a disputed land, claimed by Nagaland; the boundary dispute case is in the Supreme Court.

As per villagers quoted in Saikia’s report, Patton had visited the border areas only on July 24, and not once since then, even though the villagers have been deeply concerned about Assam government’s eviction drive. Villagers, quoted in the report, said the MLA too was missing. Only on August 21-22 did the Wokha deputy commissioner Vineet Kumar visit the area.

In a video clip from the public meeting held at Liphanyan village in the Wokha district, broadcast by Hornbill TV on August 24, Patton could also be seen saying that he had asked “some people” to chase Saikia away from Naga areas but they had not done it yet. Saikia belongs to Assam. Patton also asked him “not to sit in front” of him and said that he “would not tolerate” any questions asked to him.

The BJP leader also questioned the reporter for interviewing M. Kikon, the former MLA of the area, on the border issue. Kikon, until recently, was the national spokesperson of the party before quitting from its primary membership. Kikon was defeated in the Bhandari assembly constituency by Achumembo Kikon from the Naga People’s Front and is locally seen as someone quite close to Patton.

‘Bullet remains lodged’

On August 30, just days later, Saikia was shot at in a Naga village in Senapati district of Manipur. Saikia was covering a flower show. According to local reports, the young man who had shot the reporter on his leg and armpit at the Laii village of the Naga-majority district, was apprehended by the villagers.

According to Eastern Mirror, “The Officer-in-Charge of Tungjoy Police Station, Timothy Ronamai, confirmed that an FIR had been filed (against the youth)”, adding, “though further details were unavailable as the investigation is still underway.”