Days after the attacks on Northeastern youths in Bangalore, Gurgaon and in New Delhi, North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) has demanded the Central Government to include the history, culture and geography about the region in school syllabi to make people in mainland India aware about the people and culture of the region.
“We who belong to the North-East look different than the people living in mainland India. The people in those States think us to be foreigners as we look different. The problem is people in those States do not know that there is India beyond West Bengal,” said NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa while adding that the rich history, culture and geography of the region should be included in the school syllabi in those States to make them aware about us.
“Inclusion of the history, culture and geography about the region will help the people understand about us from a tender age. This will help the new generation of youths in those States and our youth will not be attacked and targeted there,” he said.
Jyrwa said that the attacks on the northeasterners must stop at any cost. “We had met the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in January this year after the racial attack on Arunachal Pradesh's student Nido Tania that killed him. Shinde had assured us that the matter would be taken up but nothing was done and the attacks have been continuing after brief intervals,” he said.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Friday while condemning the racial attacks on northeastern youths assured the Centre's commitment to take action against the perpetrators of violence against the northeasterners in New Delhi and other places.
“We are not going to tolerate this. Whenever such an incident occurs our Government had taken action and we are determined about it,” he told the media.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has also condemned the recent incidents of racial attacks on youths from the northeastern region in Delhi and other places of the country and called for stern action against such racial attacks.“Such dastardly attacks on NE youth in Delhi and other places outside the region are most despicable and reprehensible. Such racial attacks prevent them from coming to the mainstream,” Gogoi said while condemning the attacks.