[Assam] mainland vs northeast in delhi

[xourov pathok]

having been in delhi for sometime as a student, i see
it is getting worse.

x

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070712/asp/frontpage/story_8048182.asp

Right intentions, wrong message
- Delhi police accused of dividing India into
‘mainland’ & ‘Northeast’
NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, July 11: Delhi police’s advisory to youths
from the Northeast studying in the capital is being
seen by most as segregating the region from the
so-called mainland.

The minister for development of the northeastern
region (DoNER), Mani Shankar Aiyar, had only recently
discouraged the use of this syntax. “There is no
mainland, you are the mainland,” he had told a
reporter in Shillong.

Aiyar was unavailable for comment on the booklet
released by Delhi police, but those who responded
seemed to cringe at the thought of someone advising
students from the region to change their food habits,
customs and manner of dressing to assimilate into the
“mainstream”.

Dipankar Gupta, professor of sociology at Jawaharlal
Nehru University, said the police’s advice not to
create a “ruckus in the neighbourhood” by cooking
“smelly dishes” and dress decently was gratuitous, to
say the least.

“The police come up with these advisories, but there
is no implementation. There should be a departmental
memo of some sort that if a person from the Northeast
is harmed, punishment will be stringent,” Gupta said.

Moses Kharbithi, who is doing his MPhil at JNU, said
the advisory was tantamount to undermining the ability
of Northeast students in New Delhi to assimilate. “I
wonder if they have given such booklets to students
from the South,” he said.

Kharbithi said the fact that the booklet was
well-intentioned could not mask the sense of
discrimination.

Asom Gana Parishad MP Arun Kumar Sarma and his
Congress colleague Kirip Chaliha said there was no
denying the need to spruce up security for students
from the region in view of some incidents in the
recent past. But commenting on food habits and
clothing was unfair, the duo said.

“How can one tell somebody what to eat and how to
dress?” Sarma asked.

Chaliha said he would take up the issue with the authorities.


       
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