My Speech as Co-ordinator of NESF@North East Fest

With lots of gusto and grit we looked forward for the success of the “North
East Cultural Fest / Experience North East” and it was worth it all. That was
not an end; we had a plan to come up with a souvenir for the commemoration of
the event. And finally here is the much awaited souvenir a mile stone for the
Forum.

We are also overwhelmed by the presence of two sons of the North East of
India – Mr. J.M. Lyngdoh (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India and
Magsaysay Awardee) and Dr. C. Dothanga (Former D.G of Police (Drugs Control),
Andhra Pradesh – in our event as Honorable Chief Guest and Guest of Honor
respectively.

The University has over 150 students from the eight sister states of the
North East India (NE). We are very proud to be associated with this esteemed
University - the quality of education it imparts, and the excellent infrastructures
and amenities it affords for her students, we believe, is one of the best in the
country. And I believe that in the coming years too many more students from
our region will be joining the University in pursuit of quality education and
knowledge that is in tune with the changing and challenging times.

Since the NESF was formed last year it has involved itself in issues
concerning with or related to the NE in modest and humble ways. The NESF
joining hands with the Students’ Union organized a Protest Rally last year to
register our indignation for the murder of Garo students in a humble peace rally
at Tura, Meghalaya. In the future too, the Forum will endeavor to be a platform
for the students from the NE to work for better integration and interaction of the
region with rest of the country. It will endeavor to be a platform where the
students from the North East will showcase their talents and creativity in their
academic pursuits and so also in other extra-curricular activities as well.

Since independence, the NE has witnessed Series of Unrests in one state
or the other at some point in time or the other as a result of which the region has
been rather poorly projected to the rest of the country and the world. Popular
perception holds this part of the country as a “War zone”- infested with gun-
totting militants, unsafe for visitors and tourists, unsafe for big economic
investments and enterprises etc. In short, the region has been perceived as one
perpetually gripped in a state of “fear psychosis”. As a result of this perception
and many other Socio-Cultural and historical factors, the region has lagged behind
the rest of the country in terms of development in almost every front.

As students from that part of the country now living in a home away from
home each one of us, I believe, will be led into a situation on one occasion or the
other when you will be cornered into believing that the North East is geographically
as well as emotionally still far away from the rest of the mainland. The gap
remained even after 58 years of India’s independence from Colonial rule. This
distance is obtained, even after 58 years of India’s independence from Colonial
rule-a regime from which even the India then felt so far away—geographically,
socially, economically and culturally. This perceived as well as real geographical
and emotional distance between that part of our country and the rest of the
nation has to be bridged at the earliest, and at all costs, for the future of this
great country.

The solution for this situation, we believe, calls for a multi-dimensional
approach involving the government, commercial/business institutions, media,
NGO’s and civil society groups etc., coupled with serious initiatives from citizens
of the NE as well as from the mainland.

It has been our humble endeavor through the “North East Cultural Fest/
Experience North East” program and this souvenir to re-introduce the North
East India to our fellow countrymen again. Events of this nature, we hope, will go
a long way towards familiarizing our fellow countrymen about the society and
culture of the NE and consequently help in narrowing the emotional gap that has been undesirably created over the years.

I am thankful to all the state representatives, well wishers for their
inspiration and endless effort in bringing up this Souvenir.
“Long Live North East Students’ Forum”