July 17, 2026

Patricia Mukhim Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-11-23 20:52:46

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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Patricia Mukhim is the editor of The Shillong Times. Apart from being a Padma awardee, she is a respected journalist of long standing. But Patricia Mukhim is very angry. In fact, she is so angry that she has resigned from the membership of the Editor's Guild of India. She is so angry that she has refused all appeals to reconsider her decision to resign.

So, Patricia Mukhim ko gussa kyon aata hai?

The Meghalaya High Court refused to quash proceedings against Ms Mukhim which were started when an FIR was filed against her on a complaint that a Facebook post of hers was offensive and would disturb communal harmony in Meghalaya. What was in the post? Ms Mukhim had posted that several non-tribal boys were brutally assaulted for playing basketball in a tribal area and the police, as usual, were not taking action and not arresting the culprits. She had appealed to the state chief minister and the police top brass to act. Instead of taking action against the culprits, the administration allowed the filing of an FIR against Mukhim and proceeded against her.

Now Mukhim's contention is that the Editor's Guild, which promptly issued a statement protesting against the arrest of Arnab Goswami (who incidentally is not a member of the Guild), maintained a studious silence in her case. She finds it "selectively discriminating" and rightly so. Just because she is the editor of a small (though respected) daily from the north-east (a region that the rest of India seldom acknowledges as being of any importance) does not mean that the Guild will not protest any wrong being done to her. Of course Mukhim will appeal against the decision of the single-judge bench, but that is another matter. The Guild has belatedly issued a statement condemning the action against Mukhim but it is a case of too little too late. Mukhim has every right to being miffed with the body.