Hello,
Why would the government’s counter-insurgency paramilitary force in northeast India, Assam Rifles, sit down with RSS affiliated people in a seminar to share their knowledge, notes and analysis on national security issues affecting India’s relations with Myanmar and the states in northeast India?
When she found out such a sit-down was happening in Guwahati, our colleague Angana Chakrabarti took a break from her reporting on escalating violence in Manipur (you can read that one here), to listen in.
After all, India’s security and armed forces officers don’t frequently hold seminars with ordinary citizens to exchange notes on what is happening at the troubled border with Myanmar.
What did Assam Rifles’ Director General and other top officials hope to learn from an RSS-affiliated organisation which talked of religious conversion being the cause for militancy in the region, and their vision of an ‘Akhand Bharat’?
Who permitted the Assam Rifles to candidly share their views on an issue that impacts both, national security and India’s diplomatic relations?
To know, read Angana’s fly-on-the-wall report: Strange Bedfellows: Assam Rifles Co-hosts Seminar with RSS Affiliate on Myanmar and Northeast India
Hold on for a minute longer if you ended up opening my letter to you.
I wanted you to wonder, why journalists like Angana continue to do such investigative and important journalism today when most have quit or stopped?
We want to hear from you. We want you to know our courageous journalists better. And, if you agree that they are courageous, then donate to The Reporters’ Collective so my colleagues like Angana know you have their back.
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With warm regards,
Nitin Sethi
Editor
The Reporters’ Collective