Study sheds light on goal of 'Mann Ki Baat' to represent 'faraway' Northeast

PM also used MKB to project Northeast as a safe tourist destination due to a significant reduction in insurgency-related incidents

As the Centre and BJP workers celebrated 100 episodes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programme, "Mann Ki Baat" on Sunday, a study has said that the PM constantly used the radio platform to project the country's Northeast, its people, rich and diverse culture and its contribution to nation building by making references to the region at least 56 times.

"Notwithstanding the celebration of cultural diversity as well contextual peculiarities of the region, 'Mann Ki Baat' (MKB) have tried to frame a civilisational continuity that runs from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Amreli to Arunachal Pradesh. It is rather also an attempt to renew the terms of engagement with the region and an endeavour to mainstream this representation of the region in the public imagination of India. Culture emerges as the source of unification and acts as the buckle that joins North East India with the rest of India," said the study, "Framing Civilisational Continuity: Modi’s 'Mann Ki Baat' and North East India." This was part of a study supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research, New Delhi.

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The paper on MKB's representation of the Northeast was headed by Vikash Tripathi, who teaches political science at Gauhati University. Poonam Kakoti Borah, an assistant professor of the women’s studies department at Gauhati University and Bagmita Borthakur, a guest faculty of political science at Dispur College are the two other authors of the paper.
"Civilisation is presented as a natural and historic bond that binds Northeast India with the rest of India, it said. The study said that respondents in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur believed that it helped the Northeast as mainstreaming the region became a challenge due to its long problem of insurgency and communication bottlenecks.

The PM also used MKB to project the Northeast as a safe tourist destination due to a significant reduction in insurgency-related incidents, the organically grown local food products and the laurels the region's sportspersons brought for the nation, in the Olympics or other global sports events.

MKB also referred to the variations of rituals, festivals and languages that exist but a social pattern which unifies the territories across India, said the paper.

The contribution of the Northeast to the country's freedom movement and celebration of such heroes was another highlight of 'Mann Ki Baat' so far, said the paper. It referred to the Indian National Army bases in Manipur (a reference to Col. Shaukat Malik of INA in a village of Manipur who unfurled the National Flag before independence in Episode 79), young children aspiring to witness 100 years of India’s independence (a reference to the letter from Riddhima Swargiary in Episode 85), U.Triot Singh and his resistance to the Britishers who wanted to take control of the Khasi hills and destroy the culture of the region (with reference to his death Anniversary in Episode 91), besides others.