Wooing the discriminated voters
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 14, 2014 -

In the din of the ongoing Parliamentary election to the 16th Lok Sabha, one may come up to hear, every now and then, the issue related to the recurring problem of racial discrimination faced by people of Northeast origin in other parts of the country when political parties and their candidates come to woo the voters in and from the region.

In their electoral fight to garner the support of the people to get that magic number of '272' seats at least to form the next government, either by retaining power or by overthrowing, the leaders of both the ruling and the opposition parties have been frequenting the 'most neglected' part of the country to address election rallies across the length and breath of the region as losing even a seat from the 25 seats that the Northeast could offer could cost them dearly in the Parliamentary election this time.

And, one thing that none of these power hungry leaders failed to mention in their speeches, regardless of long or short, delivered during these election rallies is the repeated assurance of ensuring the security and protection of the people from the Northeast and putting an end to the recurring problem of racial discrimination that has snubbed away lives of so many promising youths including Richard Loitam and Reingamphy Awungshi of Manipur, Dana Sangma of Meghalaya and Nido Tania of Arunachal Pradesh.

But, how serious is their concern over the issue, which by any standard is not a matter of pride but an extreme shame?

The answer to this question is becoming self evident from the failure of the Government appointed- M P Bezbaruah Committee to submit its report on time.

Following the public outcry over the murder of Nido Tania, a 19-year old student from Arunachal Pradesh at Delhi in January last, the Committee was appointed by the Union Home Ministry on February 21 to look into the various kinds of concerns of the people hailing from the Northeast as well to examine the causes behind the attacks/violence and discrimination against people of Northeast origin so as to come up with suggestive measures including legal remedies to be taken up by the Government.

The Committee was to hold meetings with students, professionals, representatives of NGOs, student organizations and other people from the Northeast to seek their suggestions.

However, after holding few meetings in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, the Committee is not to be heard anymore, and it has failed to submit its report even after the March 31 deadline has been crossed.

This has once again confirmed the hollowness of the slogan of 'unity in diversity' that India, the supposedly largest democratic country in the world, has been boosting itself.

While the half-hearted concern of the Government towards such a serious problem like racial discrimination is there for all to see, sadly, it has been reduced to just an 'issue' for the political parties and their candidates to woo the same racially discriminated voters.