Media naysayers with hidden agenda

The Central Government has constituted a high level committee entrusting it with certain terms of reference to suggest measures toward providing constitutional safeguards to the indigenous people of Assam in terms of Clause 6 of Assam Accord. A series of discussions are being held with social organizations, eminent persons and other stakeholders by the committee to arrive at a consensus for effective implementation of Clause 6.

In one such discussion, representatives of print and electronic media had been invited and a meeting was held in October last. While almost all the mediapersons present in the meeting expressed their views and gave suggestions, it was noticed that representatives of two TV channels and one newspaper vented displeasure at the very constitution of the committee, even to the extent of attributing motive with hidden agenda. Coming out of the meeting, they loudly expressed their ire, claiming that no useful purpose will be served by such a panel.

The question is, if such was the approach of those mediapersons, then why did they attend the meeting in the first place? They should have stayed away! The hidden political agenda behind their negative attitude to whatever initiative is taken by the present ruling dispensation — is known to all. Indeed, whenever any positive step is taken toward achieving some good result, such negative forces always work overtime to thwart the process. This is precisely the reason why the Assam Accord could not be implemented for last 34 years. These mediapersons did nothing for all these years. Their detrimental approach will not go down well with the larger Assamese society. They need to be told that being representatives of media, they must not adopt a rigid line of thinking. Their attitude and talk clearly reveal their hidden agenda.

Bikalpa Kashyap,

Panbazar, Guwahati