As a person who knows the Northeast arguably better than Rahul Gandhi and his likes ever can, I sat back in horror this morning as the former Congress President put on vulgar display his lack of understanding of the issue at hand. That his mother is attempting hard to bring him back as the Congress President is no secret. As revolutionary and as sympathetic the tweet of Rahul Gandhi may sound to the protesters in Northeast, it is in direct contrast to the stark realities of the region.
“The CAB is an attempt by Modi-Shah Govt to ethnically cleanse the North East. It is a criminal attack on the North East, their way of life and the idea of India. I stand in solidarity with the people of the North East and am at their service.”
The CAB is a attempt by Modi-Shah Govt to ethnically cleanse the North East. It is a criminal attack on the North East, their way of life and the idea of India.
I stand in solidarity with the people of the North East and am at their service.https://t.co/XLDNAOzRuZ
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 11, 2019
Notice how casually the man puts to use the word ‘ethnic cleansing’. This is nothing but a desperate attempt by the Congress leader to fan sentiments in the Northeast by uttering absolute falsehoods. Already the region is facing violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Rahul Gandhi’s tweet goes on to validate the violence taking place on the streets, as the protesters will be encouraged by this tweet of an important national leader. However, as a national leader, this is a completely irresponsible statement coming from Rahul Gandhi.
To insinuate extreme scenarios of catastrophe for a people who are already under distress due to misinformation is nothing but a political act to further create unrest and animosity between tribals and non-tribals of the region. It would be an understatement on my part to out-rightly condemn the tweet put out by Rahul Gandhi.
The word ethnic cleansing is a heavy one. For anyone to use it as casually as Rahul did would only imply lack of comprehensive ability. Ideally, the term is defined as ‘the policy of forcing people of a certain race or religion to leave an area or country’. For example, ethnic cleansing is what happened in the 90s, when lakhs of Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave their homes in Kashmir. Rahul Gandhi must be living in a fools paradise to even think of a similar exercise taking place against the indigenous tribal’s of the Northeast. Moreover, there are already lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants settled in the region, mostly in Assam. Majority of these infiltrators are Muslims, however, Hindus also form a substantial part of illegal settlers. Till date, from the 1970’s, there has been not one incident in the region which can even minutely be linked to anything of the sort of ‘ethnic cleansing.’
The same Rahul Gandhi and his party remained silent when it was revealed that in many parts of Assam, illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators outnumbered the indigenous population. Why did Rahul’s heart not bleed then? Does the man hold so much hatred for the persecuted minorities of the neighbouring Islamic nations that he is willing to believe that their entry to India will alter the demography of Northeast and lead to an exodus of the indigenous communities?
This, despite the fact that the sixth schedule areas and ILP regions in the Northeast, barring some regions of Assam, have been exempted from the purview of CAB. Not laughable anymore, this is an inflammatory and sinister thing to say jeopardising the well-being of non-tribals in the northeast. The bullied becoming the bullies is not possible in this region. Take it for a fact. Anyone differing on this fact is nothing but a compulsive and desperate liar.
We have been receiving multiple reports and videos of the protestors indulging in harassment of people who they believe to be ‘foreigners’ to the region and ‘their’ land. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the matter in mind and the situation in the ground, such videos are not being attached in this article. At a time when all responsible citizens of the nation should desist from fanning communal and linguistic hatred for each other, Rahul Gandhi’s despicable tweet does exactly the same.
