Ever since we began to make the faintest sense of the world, ‘Unity in Diversity’ has been shoved down our throats more than anything else that we can recollect. The phrase has featured in every essay we wrote about our country and in every textbook that talked about India as the largest democracy. But as it turns out, we seem to celebrate our diversity only as per our own convenience. While we would jump at the opportunity to talk about the states from the north to the south, or for that matter, even from the east to the west, we do happen to conveniently forget that the northeastern part of the country exists too.
The step-child treatment that the northeastern states experience is not only limited to the discrimination the north-east Indians face due to their distinctive appearance, but as it turns out, their lives our valued less than their other countrymen too.
Image Courtesy : BBC
It is both shocking and condemnable how little coverage the Assam floods received in the national media. There is a rampant loss of human and animal life but the rest of the country isn’t even aware of what is happening in Assam. And, there are quite a few reasons that are responsible for such state of affairs.
Collective apathy towards the North East and it’s people
It is somehow a collective negligence when it comes to the northeast. The place and it’s people sometimes quite literally treated as though they aren’t a part of India. For no apparent they are discriminated and pushed out of the mainframe of the country. Saddeningly little is known about the northeastern states of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland and others. Often we can’t even name all these states without having to look them up on Google. We don’t know much about their way of life or their heritage – not because they are secretive about it but because the rest of the country doesn’t care enough to find out.
Capital-centric Journalism
While hundreds of people die in Assam and not a word was spoken about it, the water logging in Delhi NCR was flashed on TV screens every few hours. The biased focus on news from the capital marginalises news from other parts of the country, especially the northeast. The insensitivity towards the loss of life in a flood just because it didn’t happen in one of the metropolitan cities just go on to show that it’s nothing but just (very) bad journalism.
Lack of initiative on the part of the government
The rare mention that the northeastern states get is in the form of tourist attractions and nothing more. The most anyone knows about that part of the country is that it is a home to tea gardens and tribal people. And surprisingly, the government does nothing to bring about a change to this. The government is equally at fault for their marginalization.
Thus, while it is enraging that the Assam floods remained lost amidst the other things happening in the country, it is almost expected. Until and unless the northeastern states are brought into the forefront through the joint efforts of the government, media and the people, floods like the ones in Assam will go unnoticed without anyone even having the chance to lend a helping hand and the diversity that we take pride in will unfortunately always remain hollow.
