The year 2015 saw this—migrant influx issue had several organizations in the Northeast region calling for more concerted campaigns. Assam had its peak years of campaign and so did states like Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya. But unrest (though the degree varies) in the whole region was witnessed this year on the issue. The people in the region feel that all available instruments and mechanism are no more effective in addressing the influx of migrants. They feel threatened and apprehensive of being annihilated and assimilated as the influx rate picks up its pace. So they look for immediate measures. This ‘threatened’ community tries to inject the idea of modern temper into their dealings as much as they can. But avenues are becoming limited and the available instruments ineffective so these groups are going their way by employing invidious strategies.Concerned groups and people come up with one form of campaign or the other ‘to protect the indigenous people’ though proponents of policies in our society are irretrievably far from consensus in their approach even as this basic existential issue is getting more complex by the day. Survival Nagaland (SN) in the state of Nagaland, a conglomerate of 14 NGOs in Meghalaya (they called themselves simply ‘Pro ILP Group’) and Joint Co-ordination Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) in Manipur feel today that whatever mechanism that is at hand is not serving its worth in curving the inflow of ‘outsiders’ into the region. So they do things which are abhorrent to ‘outsiders’. To these local groups this is the only way they can respond to ‘outsiders’ inflow. On the other, the ‘outsiders’ define these pressure groups of the region from their own perspective—each side brings out the biggest devils from the other. In situation such as this one is reminded of a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Stephen Dedalus, a young school teacher leaves the conversation rather abruptly because he does not like the way his senior colleagues make fun of him. The setting is in Dublin. One of the senior colleagues runs after Stephen Dedalus asking him to wait for a moment. Stephen halts, breathing hard and swallowing his breath when the senior colleague tells him, “I just wanted to say this—Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the Jews. Do you know that?” “No”, replies Stephen Dedalus. “And do you know why?” asks the senior colleague. Stephen Dedalus frowns sternly on the bright air and asks, “Why, sir?” The senior colleague answers, “Because Ireland never let the Jews in.” For Ireland, to build good fences was to avoid complication. This in fact would be one brute measure in the context of modern world. But the desperate efforts and voices of the ‘threatened’ communities begin to build ‘good fences’ here in our region, thanks to the pernicious policies of the government and also the bankrupt of ideas and resources.
