Internet shutdown is a new technique adopted by state governments when there is breakdown of law and order and violence erupts in any part of the country. The latest is Manipur where the internet has been shut down for months in what can be termed a gross violation of the citizen’s rights such as right to receive information; to online work, banking transactions and keeping in touch with family and employers. Women face more problems when the internet is banned because their bodies are targeted as locations for violence and if that happens they have no way of quickly informing anyone. What about pregnant women in labour and needing urgent help? The alibi trotted out by governments is that internet shutdown is imperative to quell rumours that could escalate the violence. While this can happen for a day or two, shutting the internet for months exposes government’s inability to tackle violence largely due to intelligence failure. Each time there is a conflict the police behave as if they are seeing the situation for the first time and there is no established procedure.
The media are the first to suffer the consequences of internet shutdown as news from the conflict zone does not filter out. In conflict situations the perpetrators of violence can carry on their ugly acts of rape and sexual molestation undeterred. What is worse about Manipur is that there was a selective shutdown because the CM’s office and the departments adjacent to the VIP areas were connected. This again is injustice because citizens cannot access rights that their so-called rulers have access to. In India we are quickly forgetting that the elected are not rulers. They are public servants. This matter needs serious attention.
Shutting down internet each time there is a collapse of the governance system is aimed at providing a cover-up for those that have botched up the system. Had internet not been barred those videos from the hills of Manipur would have surfaced over two months ago and the horror could have been addressed speedily. Other offences too could have been nipped in the bud. The media would have had free access to record and inform people across the country on how the events are shaping up. Extremist groups in the Imphal Valley who were actually allowed to loot thousands of guns and the modus operandi thereof would also have been recorded by media persons. Even the burning and looting of homes of non-Meiteis would have been reported timely.