'Discrimination against northeast is ignorance-driven not hate'

Incidents of discrimination against northeasterners living in different parts of the country is "ignorance driven" and not "hate driven", said a former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief here.

"It is important to differentiate between facts and emotion by the northeast people. What is viewed as discrimination and hate crime is actually ignorance driven and not hate driven," said Ajit Doval, former IB chief at the India International Centre here Wednesday evening.

Addressing a discussion on 'What ails our northeast policy?', organised by Solidarity with the Youth of Northeast (SYNE), Doval said "the people from the northeast themselves have to come forward and create awareness about their land and the culture."

He said viewing the ignorance as 'hate crime' will not provide solution to the sense of alienation faced by the people.

Echoing the same feeling Krishna Gopal, RSS functionary who has lived in the northeast, talked of a holistic approach, saying should be no generalisation about people from any part of the country and "everybody in Delhi or elsewhere is not bad".

"Certain incidents happening to the people from northeast is sad but then there should not be a generalisation, as So it is important to strike a 'middle way' in order to assimilate the northeast with the rest of the country," Gopal told IANS later.

The different northeast student organisations representatives during the discussion also stressed that the mainstream media needs to take up the role of creating awareness about the northeast.