Journalists feel insulted over DC's order - "media agitated claiming they have not received any refreshment"

An order issued by the deputy commissioner of Cachar Keerthi Jalli dated June 5, 2020, states, “Whereas Media agitated publicly claiming that they have not received any refreshment due to which they had to leave before the programme ended as a mark of protest.”

This order signed by the deputy commissioner of Cachar herself came in the aftermath of a protest from the press. The chief minister of Assam had traveled to Barak Valley to review the landslide situation in all three districts. As many as 21 residents of the valley died because of the natural calamity. In an official communication to the press, the DDIPRO informed that the CM, highest chair in the state, would address the press at 12:30 PM and all of them must be present at the deputy commissioner’s office.

The entire press reported at the deputy commissioner’s office but there was no briefing till 7:00 PM. It is true that the CM had to change his itinerary multiple times due to bad weather but what irked the journalist is the fact that the DDIPRO did not bother to at least inform once that the briefing has been rescheduled. Kept for waiting for more than six hours without any communication, the journalists decided to walk out of the event raising slogan, “DDIPRO Hai Hai”.

MP Rajdeep Roy, Deputy Speaker, Aminul Haque Laskar reached out to the reporters to calm the situation but the press had already made their mind. The very next day, DC Keerthi Jalli and MP Rajdeep Roy invited the press and met them to assure that the issue is left behind.

During that interaction, both Keerthi Jalli and Rajdeep Roy mentioned that it is unfortunate that the journalists were not served food at CM’s event. Then and there, completely on record, not one, not two but three journalists mentioned that their agitation had nothing to do with the availability of food. The interaction ended with both DC and MP saying let us forget whatever happened and move on. The MP said, CMO has taken note of the incident and will take stern action.

However, on the same day, the deputy commissioner’s office issued a letter placing Assistant Nazir, Tara Sankar Das under suspension for not fulfilling his duty during the CM’s visit. The letter states that Das was personally instructed by the deputy commissioner herself to serve meals to the CM but he was found to be “shrinking” his responsibilities by keeping himself away from works.” While the deputy commissioner is entitled to take action on her staff, a paragraph in that letter has taken the media fraternity by surprise.

“Whereas media agitated publicly claiming that they have not received any refreshment due to which they had to leave before the programme ended as a mark of protest.” Despite placing it on record that the protest had nothing to do with the availability of food in presence of the member of parliament, who said he was instructed by the CM to hold a meeting with the press, why did the deputy commissioner mention it in her letter, remains a mystery?

The media protested because of unavailability of food, is this something that the DC office gathered after an investigation or did they assert it on the basis of a complaint from the Press Club. The answer is yet to be known.

This message, as it should have deeply hurt the media fraternity. Former editor of Dainik Jugashanka, author and columnist Arijit Aditya has written a post on Facebook on the issue.

“This one line in DC’s order (about the unavailability of food) is very insulting for the journalists in Silchar. Beating extreme weather conditions when the CM visited Barak Valley the journalists decided to walk out because they did not get refreshments. This is going to be in the official records forever through the deputy commissioner’s order. The CM who did not meet the journalists that day will also take it into the record that the press walked out because they did not get refreshments. In the conference room, the deputy commissioner termed the incident as unfortunate but on the same day in a letter, she decided to shoot keeping the gun on journalists’ shoulders. It might be great diplomacy, but this puts the press in a really bad light. One day, Tara Shankar Das’s suspension will get withdrawn and the DC will get transferred but journalists walked out because they did not get refreshment will stay in the official records forever something that I protest as a journalist,” wrote Aditya.

Not only Arijit Aditya, other journalists too reacted to DC’s letter after getting access to it through sources.

Tamojit Bhattacharjee of Gati Dainik said, “We don’t go to government events for food, news is our food.” Senior journalist and Prag News correspondent added, “It is DC madam’s prerogative who she wants to suspend and what action she wants to take. However, I would like to put this on the record again that we did not protest because of the unavailability of food. Our issue which we even communicated the other day to both DC and MP is that the DDIPRO called us at 12:30 and did not bother to inform that there will be a delay in the briefing.”

Subir Dutta of Dainik Jugashanka said, “Self respect is all that a journalist has and the way the press was kept waiting without information has hurt the self-respect of press due to which they resorted to protest. The journalists here are professional and if they were communicated that the CM got busy and will not brief the press, they are mature enough to understand. The issue was a lack of communication and not food.”

Samayik Prasanga’s Biswajit Dutta added, “During the protest, after the protest and even the next day during the interaction with the DC and MP, food was never an issue. We expressed our concerns on the lack of place, mismanagement in terms of the briefing podium and miscommunication on the part of DDIPRO. We did not go to the event for food or refreshment.”

News Live correspondent asserted he has been working in Silchar media for almost two decades. “We covered events of Prime Minister to President to several chief ministers of Assam. Sarbananda Sonowal himself visited Silchar several times after becoming CM but nothing like this has ever happened. We walked out that day because we felt unwanted and insulted. We can clearly say that DIPRO officials were inefficient and ignorant, so that incident took place.”

Bikram Sarkar and Moksodul Choudhury associated with satellite channels headquartered in Guwahati also expressed their shock at DC’s letter.