Some 77 people have died in the recent Bodo-Muslim conflict in Assam. The Muslims who have died are believed to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh. I have no idea what must be done to address the reason for the conflict once and for all. But I do not want bloodshed to continue. And what is unfortunate is that the conflict seems to be spreading to other parts of the country.
It is important to know that entire North East is not just Assam. There are eight states in the North East ( i.e including Sikkim). The conflict between Bodo-Muslim is confined to Assam alone. What is happening in Burma is again different. There are many indigenous Muslims (around 100,000!) in Manipur, the state I come from. Attacking people from the North East, say the Nagas & Manipuris, as a revenge for the Bodo-Muslim conflict in Assam or Buddhist- Muslim conflict in Burma is not a wise thing to do. You cannot attack any person from South India just because, say, there is a conflict between Hindus and Muslims in Kerala or Karnataka.
Won't it be more appropriate to show solidarity with the fellow Muslims by providing the affected people shelter or clothes? That I think would be more in line with the Islamic teaching. Or perhaps helping the Muslims to have better infrastructure there in Bangladesh itself will be more helpful to the Muslims as well as to others. Random attack on North East people or creating a riot like scenario would not help the cause of Islam. It will rather result in creating bad impression of Islam.
21/8/12
The way the NE people fled Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad etc indicate that they do not really feel fully secure outside of their states. It was not just rumours but real attacks though sporadic have taken place. The Central govt as well as state governments and many local people promised help to the NE people in such they receive threats. Such assurances did not help much. This indicates that the people did not really feel secure. I won't want to criticise the NE people for feeling insecure. I think people should feel sorry for their insecurity rather than criticising them for feeling insecure easily.
But the incident also bring out something very important for India's security. And if India wants to prevent such kind of things in future, connecting NE with the rest of the country better is the key to solving the predicament. For many parents in the NE when their children have gone to study "in India", they have gone out into the unknown part of the world. All this exodus would not have been this way had Nehru not systematically kept NE as buffer zone. If the parents in this region can think about their child going for study like those parents in Punjab who would have sent their child to study in Bangalore, such exodus would not have arisen. Well, let bygones be bygones. Can the Govt do something more concrete for the NE states now? To proof that it is doing something we want to see that political instability in the region is being sorted out in the region first. And to sort our the political conundrum, I suggest that the political right of each ethnic group/community should be given due recognition/respect. Stop using 'political jugaar' as a quick fix solution. As long as right of a community/ethnic group is undermined, courtesy 'political jugaar', this conundrum will emerge over and over again.
21/8/12
The way the NE people fled Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad etc indicate that they do not really feel fully secure outside of their states. It was not just rumours but real attacks though sporadic have taken place. The Central govt as well as state governments and many local people promised help to the NE people in such they receive threats. Such assurances did not help much. This indicates that the people did not really feel secure. I won't want to criticise the NE people for feeling insecure. I think people should feel sorry for their insecurity rather than criticising them for feeling insecure easily.
But the incident also bring out something very important for India's security. And if India wants to prevent such kind of things in future, connecting NE with the rest of the country better is the key to solving the predicament. For many parents in the NE when their children have gone to study "in India", they have gone out into the unknown part of the world. All this exodus would not have been this way had Nehru not systematically kept NE as buffer zone. If the parents in this region can think about their child going for study like those parents in Punjab who would have sent their child to study in Bangalore, such exodus would not have arisen. Well, let bygones be bygones. Can the Govt do something more concrete for the NE states now? To proof that it is doing something we want to see that political instability in the region is being sorted out in the region first. And to sort our the political conundrum, I suggest that the political right of each ethnic group/community should be given due recognition/respect. Stop using 'political jugaar' as a quick fix solution. As long as right of a community/ethnic group is undermined, courtesy 'political jugaar', this conundrum will emerge over and over again.
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