It is heartening to note that the droves of people from India’s North East who had only last week come rushing home for safety now feel safe enough to return. There is no denying the fact that a lot of confidence building measures have been taken up by the state governments of Karnakata, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Also the governments of the eight states here have been trying their best to liaison with the above states. The prompt action taken by Meghalaya Police to connect with their counterparts in the south Indian states must also be appreciated. That the Meghalaya Police helpline registered numerous calls shows that people still have faith in the State Police. We hope that such prompt actions are taken in future to pre-empt any sort of fear psychosis.
There are many lessons that need to be learnt from the recent incidents. We can ignore them at our own peril. The prime lesson is that this is the 21st century world where people across the globe connect in a matter of seconds and at the click of a button. Second, that we no longer have isolated incidents as the media is ubiquitous and news travels fast. Third, that today everyone with a mobile phone and camera is a journalist and can post anything, including offensive and explosive stuff on their blogs or other social network sites and it could go viral within hours. The incidents in Assam triggered reactions in Mumbai which then reverberated in the states of Karnakata and elsewhere. We seem to be sitting on the tinder box of accumulated hurts and sensitivities. Further there are fundamentalist forces in every religious group and India is a land of many religions. If we cannot learn to co-exist and have mutual respect for each other things can be very difficult and even a vigilant state would find it hard to contain such fundamentalism. The problem is Assam is said to be directed against illegal migrants. It is coincidental that they belong to a particular religious group. But the very idea of identifying the illegal migrant is a gigantic task. The matter should have been taken seriously from the time the country was partitioned. There is urgency for inter-community and inter-faith dialogues and interface but these should be spontaneous instead of government induced. Inter-community youth gatherings and youth camps would help to contain parochialism and mutual suspicion.