The latest news of NE people leaving city is certainly a blot on reputation of Karnataka and Bengaluru City in particular. Political class and political atmosphere that was created after 2008 state elections certainly has not helped the cause. It seems the ruling party for whatever reasons have tried to overlook or deny the charge of abetting the lawlessness in the state and the cities. At least with their inaction on various incidences be in Mangalore or elsewhere they seem to giving wrong signal of their approach to governance and law & order in the state.
Time of India carried an article title"The sad story of an IT powerhouse called Bangalore" highlighting the deteriorating situation on law & order. What struck me is these lines with a list of questions:
If you decide to move to Bangalore, you should ask the state's political bosses a few questions.
1. Will you welcome me even if I am not a Kannadiga?
2. If there is an assault on my gated community by vested interests, will you take action swiftly?
3. If there is a (lawful) party at my place, will I be shielded from vigilante fringe groups?
4. Will you ensure local politicians, primarily MLAs and corporators, do not harass me on civic issues?
5. Will you also ensure protection to people from the northeast? 6. In short, will you enforce law and order?
The whole article is timely and thought provoking. Even though the context is insecurity felt by the outsiders from state, but reality is even the state residents at times have the same insecurities. Incidence after incidence gets reported but we have hardly seen any firm action on part of the govt asserting its position. So far the attitude of the govt seems to be denial and even going to the extent of seeing conspiracy to its existence in power. Result is that these lunatic, fanatic and fringe forces are becoming bolder and bolder.
Apart from law & order, our state is now falling behind in every sphere of development that had placed high among the states and was considered as progressive state. If things continue at the current rate I am sure, UP, MP, Bihar will surpass us in the development in coming years.
Government of Karnataka, it is time to wake up and restore the progressive, enterprising, caring and peace loving instinct of Karnataka state.
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dubious distinction
Last evening, during an NDTV debate, well-known columnist, Swapan Dasgupta, made the point that what the scare-mongers in Bangalore have achieved is something far more significant than what the Indian Mujahideen and their lot achieved in Mumbai, Pune and other cities through their bombings. Without a single bomb, nay with hardly any act of violence (at this stage), they managed to get the entire lot of North-Easterners to run away, just through threats. It is plainly an indication of the fear psychosis that they have managed to instill into this vulnerable section of the city's population, through various acts over a period of time. It is a crying shame that this dubious distinction has got bestowed on Namma Bengaluru.
If this is really a rumour,
If this is really a rumour, then two minority communities are being targetted at the same time. I hope both communities realise this, and they should work together to protect each other. The only way to defeat such scare mongering is to come forward and show ur solidarity with each other!
Hoping that there is atleast a small subset from both communities, which can come forward and trust each other, and be a catalyst for change.
Can't investigate the false stories?
@anithasunil,
I would like you and others to pay attention to SMS messages that caused the fear among NE people:
Does govt have to wait for 3 days to start investigating thess rumors? Isn't a case of total Intel failure from GOK that failed to anticipate this situation? How long will it take to investigate these rumors and give out the real picture. In this day of age and time, digital media, social media, mobile apps, what prevents governments to make use of it to give the facts and dispel the false stories?
It is all about willingness to act and take action against culprits. GOK has shown none. It should be clear from the SMS messages an attempt is made to tarnish the image of a community that has always been at the receiving end.
the legacy of language based state division
My response to question 1 "1. Will you welcome me even if I am not a Kannadiga?" is; to hell with the concept of "kannadiga, assamese, gujarati etc.", my question would be - "I am a human being and an Indian, will i be welcome in any part of my country including bangalore"? (i am referring to the question in http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-16/opinion/33232122_1_civil-society-mangalore-bjp that kbsyed61 has referrred to in his post. My point is, if i am not welcome in my own country then why not move somewhere else? People talk about racism in other countries but in my opinion there is no less racism in our own country. Being welcome in any part of our country without any prejudice based on our ethnic background is our constitutional birthright. When is the media going to realize that, when are governments going to realize that?
Looking back in hindsight this is the sad legacy of dividing states based on languages. We should have just mixed up the people and cultures and divided the country into zones (zone1, zone2 etc. and maybe given different names to states) and not have divided them named them based on languages.