Kishore Chandra Wangkhem: 'In the last few years, freedom of speech has been suppressed. People who speak against the govt can get killed'
Manipur TV journalist Kishore Chandra Wangkhem was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA), for social media posts criticising the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just out of prison, Wangkhem spoke with Rohit E David about his experience
Q. What do you have to say today about freedom of speech in India?
Well, it’s of course enshrined in the Constitution — but practically, in the last couple of years, freedom of speech and expression has actually been suppressed. People are not able to openly speak up against the government because there have been many instances throughout the country where people who speak against them are threatened — they are murdered. These things have intensified in the last couple of years.
Q. Were you surprised to be in prison for your critical post?
Yes, I was really surprised. I never expected that the authorities would detain or jail me under the National Security Act just for criticizing their policy on Facebook.
When I had put the post on FB, I knew that the authorities would be after me and probably arrest me. I had put the post on November 19 last year, the same night the authorities came to my house and ransacked it. Unfortunately, I was not there that night and they were not able to arrest me that day. The police looked everywhere and especially looked for my phone. However, they were able to get me on November 20th. They locked me up in police custody for six days — I was produced before the chief judicial magistrate on November 26. The magistrate said that the criticism was not at all seditious in nature, therefore bail was granted.
However, the government authorities were not able to accept the decision taken in the lower court. On November 27, NSA was slapped on me.
Q. Were you harshly treated in jail?
I wouldn’t say so because people were really nice. The jail authorities knew that I am a journalist and they knew that nothing could be done. In Manipur jail, I have never seen any physical harassment meted out by jail authorities.
But yes. Mental trauma was there.
Q. What were your thoughts in prison? Your emotions? What did your family go through?
The only thing which I kept on thinking of was how the procedure in court might progress, what will happen during my hearing. Above all, the trauma my family members have been going through, especially when my wife visited me in jail, was considerable — she would always speak about danger from different quarters. She received blank calls, she was followed, even lewd messages were sent to her social account.
The neighbourhood stopped talking to us — no one visited our house. My elder daughter kept asking when papa would be back.
In prison, we spent the day interacting with other inmates, playing games, watching TV or reading newspapers. Books were also provided to me. The light went off after 9 PM — that’s when loads of thoughts came to my mind. I used to be uncertain about what might happen to my family members. The danger they faced.
Q. Do you regret putting up that post?
No, I don’t regret it. I realised that the unparliamentarily words could have been put in a better way. I have an objective for what I did. I belong to a small religious minority group in the state, Sanamahism (the pre-Hindu religion of Manipur) — the 'one nation, one culture' ideology of the ruling party is a threat to us. There has been a process of cultural and religious assimilation carrying on ever since this regime came to power. This was substantiated when the entire North-East protested against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
I was apprehensive about that particularly. Now, the Citizenship Amendment Bill happened a month after my arrest — so, when I posted, I was trying to make people aware that under this regime, the cultural and religious imposition of the majority is getting louder. I was thinking that we will lose our identity. I wanted to tell people that the BJP’s ideology is a threat to us.
Q. The BJP meanwhile says they will strengthen the sedition laws. The Congress says they will annul it. What are your thoughts?
I am not siding with any political party in this but as far the sedition law is concerned, the law was enacted by the British to suppress voices of Indians struggling for freedom.
Now, 70 years down the line, we are boasting that we are the largest democracy in the world — however, we are still imposing sedition laws made by the British on our own citizens. Somehow, the true principal of democracy is challenged by this black law. I believe black laws like the NSA and sedition should be completely scrapped as they do not have any place in a democratic set-up.
Q. Who will you vote for in this General Election?
I will definitely be looking for any political party which will uphold freedom of speech and expression.
I will also look for a secular force because Manipur is a multi-ethnic state. Otherwise, development issues are very common and every candidate will try to say they will solve such issues but what I’m looking for is freedom of speech, expression and secularism.