The North East part of the
country has about 40million people that include some extremely vulnerable
sections of society -over 160 Scheduled Tribes and 400 other sub-tribal
communities and groups. This region doesn’t have much representation in national
politics or mainstream discourse. It is unfortunate that secularism in India is
reduced to pseudo secularism that is hinged on minority appeasement (read muslims).
And this symbolism gets further reduced to pandering to elite muslims at the
expense of majority of marginalized millions of muslims. There is a vast section of society that is
extremely marginalized and nothing is starker than the situation of people in
North East part of the country.
If this blogger had a say in the
choice of next President (..well as a citizen of this country we all have a say) then it definitely would be someone from North East. President’s
position in Indian context is largely symbolic, the plight of people from NE does call for ameliorative
steps. Symbolism is a good beginning.
