Adding insult to injuries
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 05, 2014 -
When the Government of India is finding it difficult to contain polyphonic voices against repeated cases of racial attacks and discrimination against people hailing from the Northeast region across the country, the Bharatiya Janata Party's vision document for Delhi Assembly polls which promises to make the National Capital a world class city has contradicted itself by calling people from the Northeast "immigrants."
This has triggered region-wide protests.
While enthusiastically exhibiting its intention to impress the significant presence of people from the region in the National Capital, the party which made commitments on deporting illegal immigrants from the Northeastern States made the blunder further adding insult to injuries.
The party heavyweights could have dismissed the mistake committed by those who drafted the vision as an inadvertent error or the proverbial Titivillus making a midnight visit, it should be noted that the blunder has already invited mass reaction in the Northeast.
While the intent and protective safeguards promised by the ruling party at the Centre could be appreciated, the people of the Northeast have reasons to get upset over the lackadaisical attitude and the approach in which BJP was trying woo the people of the region.
It should be noted that enough heart wrenching moments have turned into episodes by the sheer carelessness of national parties in power. And handling an emotive issue with such flippant approach can only lead to further deepening the wounds.
It is indeed ridiculous that the people of the region which continue to bear the maximum brunt of the adverse impact of illegal immigration in the last three decades or so should now be called immigrants.
Such a mistake is sure to cause further distance between New Delhi and the already alienated populace impacting on irreparable damage.
The ruling party's mistake can also provide fuel to the claims that the Northeast had always been discriminated.
It is time for the political parties in mainland India to take serious note of the necessities to shed certain well entrenched bias instead of adding salt to the already bruised history of the region.
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