Imphal, Oct 17 : The attacks on people from the Northeast in other cities of the country are a reflection of failures in nation-building, intellectuals in Manipur feel.
“On Tuesday, a student from Manipur was assaulted in Bangalore. Last night, two from the region were assaulted in Sikanderpur, Gurgaon. Before the two incidents, several similar cases took place. These incidents say that the nation-building process did not take off in the right direction. And there are no efforts to correct the wrongs,” social anthropologist M.C. Arun said.
A Manipuri engineering student from Churachandpur district and two of his friends were attacked by a mob led by three taxi drivers in a suburb of north Bangalore late on Tuesday night.
T. Michael Lamjathang Haokip, the president of the Thadou Students’ Association, Bangalore, was at a roadside eatery near his home in Kothnur, along with two of his friends from the community around midnight, when a group of local men confronted and assaulted them.
Around seven local residents held two young men from Nagaland in confinement in the Sikanderpur area last night and beat them up with cricket bats and hockey sticks.
“It is because of the flaws in nation building that now the problem is between people from the Northeast and people in other cities. If it is religion, the problem will be between Hindus and Muslims and if it is language it is between Hindi and Dravidian,” Arun said.
He added that the growing presence of people from the Northeast in academic fields and employment sectors in other cities had been felt as a threat to local residents. Therefore, their anger was expressed in the form of violence against the people from the Northeast.
According to officials of the state education department, about 1,000 students left Manipur every new academic session to pursue higher studies in other cities of the country.
Amar Yumnam, economics professor of Manipur University, said the attacks were politically motivated.
“Narendra Modi is trying to build the nation afresh. Vested interests who want to sabotage the fresh effort for nation building are behind the attacks,” Yumnam said.
He added that to avoid such incidents, people from the Northeast should enhance their ability to adjust to the environment of the place where they live.
The president of the Manipur unit of the BJP, Thounaojam Chaoba Singh, condemned the attacks.
He urged the Centre to pull up those involved in the attacks and punish them.