Being North-East Indians: We are Immigrants, Right?

A week ago, the 66^th Republic Day of India was celebrated amidst vast media glare due to the presence of the most powerful man on this planet, the President of the USA, Mr. Barack Obama.

Being a glorious national event, it bestows a patriotic feeling and unites each and every individual of the country. The various cultures, traditions, languages and the widely diverse people that reside in India become so beautifully evident during the Republic Day parade show. Such was the impact left by the Republic Day show that during the parting day speech by Obama, he stated that as long as the people of India remain united irrespective of their caste, race and religion, India would be one united and powerful country. But, even the words of the American President isn’t enough to stop people of the national capital from discriminating fellow Indians from a particular part of the country based on the physical appearance. Such is the shame, we Indians are living upon!

A few days ago, a group of students from a particular college in the city was denied entry into the Taj Mahal, a monumental symbol of love. Such was the situation that the gate authorities questioned their national identity as their identity cards stated that they were from Assam but the authorities maintained that there wasn’t any mention about Assam being a part of India. I mean, this is a basic geographical knowledge and if a person doesn’t know about the existence of a certain state of India, he or she does not belong to this planet either. This is a proof of open discrimination against the people from the North-East India and we people live to see such stupidity. Another disappointing incident came upon when the BJP released its manifesto for the Delhi elections. The people from the North-East India were described as immigrants. The English dictionary defines immigrants as people moving to a foreign country and settling there permanently. Now, even if it is a printing mistake or typing mistake, this is supposedly going to cost the BJP many fans from this part of the country. I am a big fan of Mr. Modi and the BJP, but even this hasn’t gone quite well with me. These incidents have certainly made me feel like a foreigner or an alien in my own country. And this is certainly not a new case. Barely a year ago, a boy from Arunachal Pradesh was beaten to death just because he was from the North-East India! And such a list would go on and on. Such disgrace!

How many more times do we have to tolerate these brainless remarks about the people of the North-East India? How many times do we have to prove our nationality? How many times we have to prove that we are Indians too? Why should physical features matter as long as we are Indians? Are our fellow Indians so illiterate to not know at least about one part of our own country? Don’t the people of the capital have the basic knowledge about who is a foreigner and who is a native of the same country? Don’t the people, who boast about IITs, IIMs and the best of the best institutions of the country, have their brains to apply simple geographical concepts about which they studied in their high school days? Do we have to remind the people about the exact number of states and territories in India? Do we also have to remind the people that the residents of each state is very much Indian as everyone else of the country? As long as we have to give logical explanations to these questions, I don’t think anything is going to change. And as such, I suppose no one can bring about a change unless and until people change their mindsets themselves. So, I once again rest upon my hopes on to the Government to bring about a concrete solution and assure that every countrymen lives in this country trouble-free.