Y Patton on outburst at HBTV reporter: ‘I’m sorry but…’

Chumoukedima, Nagaland, September 5 (HBTV): In his attempt to justify his publicly disparaging a HornbillTV reporter at a public event on August 23, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton claimed that he was sorry for that outburst against the reporter.

Nonetheless, the deputy chief minister put the onus back on the media.   

In an incident that shocked the journalist fraternity across the northeast, Yanthungo Patton, who is also a senior state leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, publicly disparaged and singled out HornbillTV reporter Dip Saikia at an event on August 23 at an area along the Assam-Nagaland border, near Wokha district in Nagaland.

During an event on September 5 in Dimapur, Patton told reporters that he was ‘sorry’, but also put the onus back on the media.  He asserted that the media should ascertain facts first. When asked if it was justified for him to publicly behave that way against the reporter, whether the journalist was right or wrong, he nonetheless said he was ‘sorry’.  

In regard to the Senapati case where HornbillTV reporter Dip Saikia was shot, Patton said the accused person should be ‘booked’ if he acted intentionally.   

Patton also responded to a query about the case of almost a thousand police personnel whose appointments were nullified. Patton said the case was in the court. Nonetheless, he said, the remaining vacancies, approximately 1,200, would be advertised within this month.