EMN
DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 19
Chief Minister, TR Zeliang on Monday told a delegation from the Northeast Students’ Society, Delhi University that they should consider the entire northeast region as one single entity “so that the mainland can consider the region as not only a separate entity within the country but also a force to be reckoned with.” According to a CMO press release, the student delegation was led by its president Hashokmi Kamkara. “Why should we segregate ourselves on the lines of states when the mainland considers the individual states as insignificant? Nagaland, with a population of barely 20 lakh does not size up to a single block in populous states like UP or Bihar. Likewise, barring Assam, all the other seven northeastern states have very limited population.
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“Moreover, we have very similar racial, cultural and traditional practices. Even our culinary tastes are similar,” Zeliang was quoted as saying. Recalling his younger days, he said, “I myself, hail from the village and I know how it feels to be a student in the city hailing from the village. I understand the difficulties many of you must have gone through, or are going through. But you must remember that this is the time in your life when you have to work hard so that you can be somebody later in life.
“You must not consider yourself as a Naga, a Mizo, a Tripuri, or a Manipuri. You must consider yourself as a northeasterner and a proud citizen of our great nation India. We may have our own differences back home, but these are petty matters and we must not let those differences hamper our peaceful co-existence here in the masses of humanity. Population-wise, we may be insignificant, but potentially we are no lesser than any other person or race of people.”
Zeliang also told the students that in today’s world there is no room for mediocrity. The students informed him that presently there are more than twenty-five thousand students from the northeast region studying in various colleges under Delhi University, and that every year, several thousand from the region throng to the University to seek admissions while several thousand come to the capital region looking for jobs.
The student leaders also informed the Chief Minister that a northeast cell has been set up in all the colleges under DU to look after the welfare of students from the region and that every year student leaders from the region extend assistance and information to the applicants from the region to find admission in various colleges and disciplines at the University.
