Time for a rethink
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 03 , 2014 -

After a brief lull, two unfortunate incidents of violent racial attacks on people of Northeast region have resurfaced once again evoking strong protest and raising the question of whether the Northeast people, who are quite different from others in rest India not just in their facial features but also in their culture, lifestyle and food habits, would be really better off to leave and join another Nation.

The first incident took place at Bangalore, (ironically, voted as the ‘Best Indian city’ to live in by Mercer survey sometime earlier) in the midnight of Tuesday when some local residents of Kirloskar Layout attacked a group of people hailing from Arunachal Pradesh while they were celebrating their indigenous harvest festival.

And the second incident occurred at around 10.30 pm on Saturday (according to information provided by North East Forum for International Solidarity, though some news report said the incident took place at round 10 pm) near a park in Vijay Nagar Colony, not very far from Delhi University’s North Campus, when four drunk local men (here again, some news report said only two men but the Forum differs saying the attackers were four in number) tried to rape a Manipuri girl and beat up her cousin brother, when they protested against their lewd comments and racial abuses.

At a time when the passion of the Northeast people is running high with all these incidents of violent racial attacks taking place unabated in spite of repeated assurances for protection and security and even the law courts have intervened asking the Government for taking up necessary measures in this regard, to give even a slightest hint of blaming the victims would be like committing an act of sacrilege and we might be condemned for that.

However, even though we have made our stand very clear on the issue of racial discrimination perpetrated towards people of Northeast origin through this column an umpteen number of time, from a close study of the two latest incidents, we, somehow feel that we also need to do a serious rethinking on why all these racial attacks on people of Northeast origin are taking place one after the other.

Is it just because we have a different facial feature, speak differently or come from a different social background?

Surely, not all these factors alone could fuel so much hatred towards Northeast people living in city metropolitan cities of the country either for study or job.

If we look at the first of the two latest incidents dispassionately, we would not fail to understand that celebrating harvest festival at midnight by a group of people, even if it is in their own rented room, is bound to create nuisance to the neighbours. In the second incident, we feel that it is not just the timing but also the location of the park that the two Manipuri cousins should have thought about before cooking up any idea of sharing some home made foods.

Just like in their home State Manipur, there are many places in the National Capital where even the local residents dare not venture out after dark and Vijay Nagar, though located closely to the Delhi University’s North Campus with a Gaandi Nullah as demarcation boundary, is just a safe place for anyone at night.

Perhaps, it is a high time for us as well to do a serious soul searching before crying foul against any supposed racial attacks.