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Guwahati: ‘India shining’ looks good in newspaper
advertisements. But beneath the glitz and glamour that pervades our metros
lies the grim reality of abject poverty and rising unemployment that leads to
frustration, and, as was amply demonstrated in Assam this week, to violence.
What began as a protest against ‘outsiders’ competing for jobs in the
railways soon turned into a hate campaign against Biharis in Assam, taking at
least 30 innocent lives in the bargain.
It all started on November 9 when some candidates from Bihar who had
travelled to different centres in Assam to appear for the recruitment test
conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Guwahati in category D,
were prevented from writing the tests.
These candidates went back to Bihar with their tale of woes, which in turn
angered some people enough to attack railway passengers from Assam and other
north eastern states in trains passing through Bihar. Women were stripped and
in at least one case, a girl from Nagaland was gangraped.
This brought the influential All Assam Students Union (AASU) and other
similar organisations in the picture who called for a 24-hour bandh in Assam
on November 17, protesting against the attacks on Assamese and also demanding
100 per cent reservation for indigenous people for recruitment in all central
services which operate in the north-east.
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Assam and the 'outsiders' within
http://web.mid-day.com/news/nation/2003/november/69508.htm
By: Nitin A Gokhale |
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