Of Terrorism, Popularity and the North-East India

A couple of weeks ago, a school in Peshawar, Pakistan was attacked by some Taliban goons.

Innocent, little schoolchildren were killed mercilessly on that day. Both teachers and students fell prey to that heartless attack by the senseless terrorists. Television channels across the globe flashed traumatic and disturbing images of young children both killed and injured in that attack. Pictures of crying, teary eyed parents and relatives of the young ones moved many a viewer and touched the heart of each soul on this planet. The whole world condemned the attack. Social media outrages, candle-light marches, peace processions and various diplomatic pacts followed the disturbing attack. Every living soul was with Pakistan and with that it was evident everyone got united against terrorism. What was more touching was the sympathy shown by India to Pakistan, a country which never ceases to attack India, both politically and geographically. With the whole world voicing their concern and support towards Pakistan’s ‘pseudo’ fight against terrorists and India too joining the cause, it was sought that terrorism would be cornered out against the better half of the planet.

Fast forward a week, a similar type of terror attack followed. But this time the gravity of attack were some remote places of Assam. Here too, innocent women and children were killed by some local outfit of a so-called rebel militant group. In other words, a terrorist attack took place here in Assam too. Even here, local news channels telecasted some really disturbing images of women and children being killed. Dead bodies lay scattered on the floor. It was an extremely gruesome attack. The scenes were evidently heart wrenching. But unlike the attack in Pakistan, the impact of this attack was not as fierce as that happened in that unlucky school. No candle-light marches, no peace processions, no Facebook or Twitter updates and even most of the national media remained silent. With the social media almost remaining silent, which is otherwise the youth mouthpiece, the situation didn’t fall on the ears of most part of the country, let alone the whole world. In other words, this wasn’t a popular terrorist attack! It was evident that no one really cared about a certain remote place in Assam, India. The funny thing was that every Indian voiced their support to the attack in Pakistan as if it was a fashionable trend but remained silent for a similar attack that happened in the same country. Well, this is not a new scenario. I do not have to speak much about the negligence of this part of the country and its people. And I have stopped caring about how the rest of the country views the north-eastern part of the same country. It wouldn’t make much of a difference. But it is quite spectacular as to how even terrorist attacks come with popularity tags. Those that happened in another country made immensely huge news. And those that happened in remote places of a vaguely neglected region of a country, was left unseen by the people of the same country. Such a shame for a diverse country like India.

Tarun Gogoi and his equally stupid, illiterate council of ministers have no clue about the situation in the state. Even if they had initial clues about a possible terror attacks in the particular places that were targeted, the situation was simply neglected. The only thing they care about is throwing dirt and spreading negativity against the BJP. And they still shamelessly believe that the people of Assam are going to vote for them in the upcoming elections. Mr. Gogoi’s irritating laughter would be hopefully disappeared, come 2016. (if you want to read my desciption on him, read here) The central Government too needs to look after the matters in this part of the country. The situation of Assam, especially those of the remote places have gone from bad to worse. The native people of these places suffer a great deal of nightmares due to these terrorist attacks and all they get is ignorance from the rest of the country. 

I just want to appeal to all the countrymen that we are Indians too. We belong to the same country. We are your brothers and sisters too. We are tired of asserting the same facts again and again. We know that the North-East India is a bit too under-developed in comparison to other metropolitan cities of India, but that doesn’t mean we are outsiders. When Narendra Modi got elected as the Prime Minister or when Mangalyaan reached the orbit of Mars, we too were equally proud and overjoyed at these proud historical moments. We celebrated with equal passion and enthusiasm as the rest of India did. And we were extremely hurt when most Indians chose to neglect the heinous terrorist attack that took place in Assam. But anyways negligence won’t make matters any better or worse. The main agenda is that such attacks need to be stopped whether it is in Pakistan or India. With a new year on the horizon, I hope peace prevails on our planet and that people would be freed from the evils of terrorism. So, an advanced Happy New Year to all of you. Peace!