In this conversation about sports and society, Satyamev Jayate brought in people from Maharashtra, Haryana, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. However, there was no one from the North East, the region that has not only consistently produced medal-winning athletes but where sports has played a critical role despite the general lack of infrastructure.

In the buildup to the new season of Satyamev Jayate, we were shown ads featuring real people who had witnessed a change because of India's apna Oprah Winfrey, Aamir Khan. For instance, one couple spoke about how they changed their mind about having a daughter after they saw an episode of Satyamev Jayate (on their phone, using an Airtel connection, no doubt). Stories like these sounded incredible to cynics, but it all tied up to the third season's motto: "Mumkin hai" ("It's possible").

After the first episode of Satyamev Jayate, which had some wonderfully heartwarming stories, it seems that even here, in a world powered by Khan's save-the-world vibes, the idea of the North East being part of a conversation about India is not possible. Even though the conversation is one in which the North East could participate without generating any controversy.

Season 3 of Satyamev Jayate looked at the transformative powers of sports and encouraged viewers to incorporate some kind of sports into their everyday lives. There were stories of how team games had weaned delinquents away from crime. Individual sports, like wrestling and golf, inspired confidence and determination in players. Khan pointed out very pertinently that the point of sports wasn't simply to become a champion, but to learn things like working with people as a team, forging relationships of trust and learning to handle losses with as much grace as victories. The episode ended with badminton player Sania Nehwal and a team of elderly women who are champions in veteran games.

In this conversation about sports and society, Satyamev Jayate brought in people from Maharashtra, Haryana, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. However, there was no one from the North East, the region that has not only consistently produced medal-winning athletes but where sports has played a critical role despite the general lack of infrastructure. The Indian contingent to the London Olympics included 10 athletes from the North East. Six of them were from Manipur, a state that enjoys the distinction of producing nine Olympians, 11 Arjuna Awardees and two Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees.

A few years ago, the government of India noted that encouraging sports in areas like the North East that are both remote as well as turbulent may be a good way of promoting "better integration of the northeast with the rest of India", to quote the National Advisory Council press release that announced the establishment of a working group for the development of sports in the North East. The working group's chief recommendation was precisely what Khan waxed eloquent about in Satyamev Jayate: encourage sports in the young, from the school level.

Thanks to the success of sportspeople like Mary Kom and Laishram Bombayla (she's represented India in archery twice at the Olympics), even the government of India has noticed the role sports has played in the North East. This is evident from this year's union budget which allocated money to set up a sports university in Manipur and stadiums in Jammu and Kashmir, among other things. (To what extent these promises will be realised remains to be seen, of course.)

However, the stories that were enough to move even politicians don't seem to have been enough to convince Khan and his research team to bring a face and story that isn't from mainland India on their show.

This is worth pointing out only because Khan has encouraged us to expect more from him and his television show. If Satyamev Jayate, with its unending list of sponsors and its many good intentions, doesn't have either the money or the inclination to tell the stories unfolding in North East India, that's extremely disheartening.

Whatever change and awareness Satyamev Jayate may be bringing to its viewers, the show reflected in this episode the myopia that afflicts so much of mainland India, which chooses to ignore the North East and stereotype its residents as those who don't really belong in the India story.

Whether it was in its selection of amateurs, professionals or champions, Satyamev Jayate ignored a region that has embodied all the qualities that make Khan value sports (if we are to believe his words in the program). It's deeply disappointing, then, that the show neglected to mention the North East. Those who have set up sports academies in the North East and become athletes have fought against tremendous odds to do so and have contributed critically to the country's sports culture. (You'd think the film Mary Kom would have taught Khan and his researchers that, if not anything else.) Yet, to have the North East show up in a mainstream television show about India and sports? Mumkin nahi, apparently.