Aizawl: Little knowledge about the Northeast India hampered the national integration, said Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla on Monday.
”Most of the mainland Indians consider only Assam as the Northeast region, which proves their ignorance about the different tribes living in this region. This (ignorance) has hampered the integration of India as a whole,” Lal Thanhawla said, while addressing a two-day festival of the Northeast tribes which began here on Monday.
”We, the northeast people also need more exposure so that people in the rest of the country can have better knowledge of us and that will bring about oneness,” he said.
The Chief Minister urged the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), who organised the festival, to organise more exposures for the northeast tribes.
He thanked the ICCR regional officer, Shillong, Munish Singh for his assurance to include a Mizoram cultural troupe in the next cultural exchange programme with foreign countries.
Fourteen different tribes in the Northeast showcased their cultural dances at the ‘Dance and Music Festival,’ organised by the ICCR, in association with art and culture departments of Mizoram and Meghalaya.
The second edition of the festival would be held at Shillong on September 1. (UNI)