Tura: The claims of the Youth Congress to only boycott The Shillong Times in Garo Hills turned out to be more of a forced ban in Tura as a group of unruly party workers led by youth president Richard Marak converged outside the office of the daily on Saturday morning and refused to allow the circulation and threatened readers and paper hawkers.
The worst part was that the police remained onlookers even after they came to know about the incident.
A handful of youth congress workers led by Marak refused to allow the hawkers to distribute the newspaper and even went to the extent of tearing the paper covers to check the contents inside even as a posse of policemen watched on at Ringrey on Saturday morning.
The Congress workers did not allow any paper distribution agent to circulate the daily and sent back the agents with the paper back to the office.
The youth congress has claimed that The Shillong Times provides stale news and needs to be boycotted (read ban).
Interestingly, the youth congress led by Marak has failed to provide a single instance or example of delayed news in the Garo Hills.
Meanwhile, some readers have defied the ban on the paper by walking into the office to get their copies.
The principal of Sherwood School, a renowned educational institute in Garo Hills, refused to accept any forcible ban of the paper.
Principal Tyrone D’Brass, who subscribes 25 copies of The Shillong Times for his school refused to accept the ban and walked away with his daily subscription despite the ban by the youth congress.
“I do not subscribe to forced bans and boycotts. We are living in a democracy. Write what you want and read what you want,” said D’Brass while expressing shock over the restriction to the sale of a paper by a political party which encourages democracy.
“It is the prerogative of the reader to decide which paper he wants to read and subscribe. You cannot force anyone to stop his freedom of speech and expression” said the Sherwood school principal and a state awardee for environmental protection and education.