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The VHP managed that many signatures in five months since launching the signature collection drive in September last year. The media in India reported the news, taking care to name the religious leaders who met the president.

During the same period, from August 2009 to early January this year, schools in India’s northeastern state of Manipur remained closed, as the people in the state wanted an immediate end to the extrajudicial executions going on in the state. The daylight murder on July 23, 2009, was the latest in a series of public shootouts involving the state police. But neither did the national media respond to the killing nor did they care to give adequate importance to the five-month long protest in Manipur.

Not a single political party in the country spoke about the July 23 murder, in which a seven-month pregnant mother and a young man were shot dead by the state police commando unit. There is nothing new in this attitude, since politicians in India have ignored the plight of Manipur and its people. Rather, political parties that share power in the state, with the Indian National Congress in particular led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, found ways to silence the protest.

The state police arrested the leaders of the protest and charged seven detainees with offenses under the National Security Act, 1980. A person charged under this draconian law can be detained for prolonged periods. The law has attained notoriety in India as it is often used to silence political opposition, particularly people's movements.

While the NSA is often used against human rights activists, as seen in the Manipur incident, and Naxalite extremists – a group of left-wing radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology – it is seldom used against politicians, even if their speeches can provoke people to take up arms.

For instance, the NSA was not used against Varun Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the 2009 parliamentary election, nor was it used against the Shiva Sena party leaders who frequently wreak havoc in Maharashtra state by killing and threatening people that ethnically do not belong to the state. They have caused millions of dollars worth of loss to the national economy by destroying public as well as private property and organizing strikes in the state for some of the most ridiculous excuses.

The persons arrested in Manipur for leading a statewide protest against the July 23 killing were later released. In exchange for their release, the state government wanted the strike to be called off. The police also tortured many detainees in custody. According to one report, a detainee who was tortured is still unable to speak due to the torture and trauma suffered in custody, even after being released three weeks ago.

But the media in the country failed to report on this issue. Besides, nobody has been punished for the July 23 killing or for the torture of the protestors. Meanwhile, the state police have withdrawn the charges against the detainees registered under the NSA, which proves once again that the draconian law is used to silence dissent.

Those who were punished, publicly and secretly, for the July 23 murder are those who protested against it and those who chose to speak out against it. Among them were two reporters associated with Tehelka, a weekly publication in India.

Soon after the incident, Tehelka published a story with photos of the incident. The inquiry commission constituted by the state government wanted to know where the scribes obtained the photos, although the information was irrelevant to the inquiry or its subject.

When a journalist was questioned about the source of her information, which exposed that the state police had engaged in open murder, the national media maintained their blissful silence. It continues to this day.

The state of Manipur is ridden with troubles and the worst are the underground militant organizations operating in the state. Several innocent persons have lost their lives to the militants. Most criminal groups make money out of extortion. The state as well as the central government has been engaged in a counter-offensive against these militant groups for the past six decades. Yet the government's acts have failed to deliver results.

The media cannot be absolved of responsibility for their failure to report issues from Manipur. Neither can the country’s politicians excuse themselves from their responsibility of finding a solution to one of the country's oldest internal armed conflicts. They must act now, at least to show that the people of Manipur are as valuable as the country's cows.

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(Bijo Francis is a human rights lawyer currently working with the Asian Legal Resource Center in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the South Asia desk at the center. Francis has practiced law for more than a decade and holds an advanced master's degree in human rights law.)