Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Boo…

Editorial:-
The past week was in parts disturbing, traumatic and shocking, and the week in progress continues to send out worrying signals. Just when everything appeared to be settling down after the madness of last Wednesday, more confusion was stirred into Gangtok today [22 July] by a combination of contradicting signals, unprincipled scaremongering and unwarranted panic.
To go over one strand of the worry that whipped Gangtok today – the day began normal enough with most private schools having reopened and government schools and colleges preparing for resumption of classes [originally scheduled for 23 July]. Also in conversations was the noise being made over the college students issue by the Opposition camp and the increasing aggression with which a section of the students had taken their rejection of the Gangtok agreement from the capital to a press conference in Siliguri. With the college scheduled to reopen on the 23rd, an attempt to resume the student protest was expected. The incidents of last week were on a scale and of a violence to which Gangtok is uninitiated, so some level of collective post-traumatic stress is expected, making them jumpy and over cautious. But even so, the susceptibility of the town to be so easily terrorized should be a matter of concern. It did not help that the State Government decided to keep its colleges and schools closed for another week. This announcement suggested that trouble was expected and once this belief gained ground, several strands of what started as speculations started getting weaved into strong claims. One of these was that “trouble” was expected after 4 p.m. Depending upon where one heard it, this trouble was to manifest itself as a bandh and chakka-jam. Sure enough, private schools, which were clearly not convincingly reassured by the concerned authorities closed schools early and sent children home before the 4 p.m. trouble could begin. Some parts of Gangtok also saw shops shut down for a brief while before reopening sheepishly. 4 p.m. arrived and eventually night also fell… no trouble. No one, worryingly was even embarrassed, preferring to see it as “better safe than sorry”. Sorry, it is not as simple as that and it is not just about people having being inconvenienced; it is much more than that- it is about people have been scared so intensely and about a very unhealthy trend being instituted which promotes violent confrontations and holding everyone hostage to get demands met. Before one even begins to deliberate on how this syndrome can be cured before it sets in, everyone needs to bear in mind that last Wednesday was an aberration and remember that a strike has to be called by someone, just as a protest needs to be announced. No one had announced anything either for 4 p.m. Tuesday, nor has any special event been called for Wednesday.
What happened then is a panic powered by a whisper. The day unfolded stereotypically to how rumours spread – beginning tentatively with some initial uncertainty which dissipates gradually and becomes more confident as the message is passed along. It is thus important that although one does not have any control over receiving a rumour, everyone exercise more control and consciously try and not perpetuate it further. A rumour might get seeded with mischief, but is invariably spread and reinforced by people who do not mean ill and are seeing themselves as helping others by spreading information. It thus becomes important for the administration to clarify situations and reassure people well in time. One did not see that happening today. It is possible that the concerned authorities did not know what to say or preferred not to get involved [and thus escape blame later]. It would not have been so if there was a clearly defined standard operating procedure for such situations – a clear response and process to get the word across when rumours appear to be spreading panic. If there is no such standard operating procedure, then one should be devised for Gangtok because let’s accept it, this town is prone to succumbing for rumours given that it panic-purchased salt when the rest of the region had realized the mischief, has a record of having emptied out into the streets [and stayed out all night] when someone, somewhere said that an earthquake was coming and is now preparing for trouble even though no one has threatened one [but someone appears to be whispering it]! Boo…

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