Panic flight could damage image of Northeasterners in the long run

HOME MINISTRY ISSUES NATION-WIDE BAN ON BULK SMSes AND MMSes
EVEN SMS THREATS APPEAR TO BE RUMOURS
RUMOUR-INDUCED EXODUS COULD IRREVOCABLY DAMAGE RELIABILITY AND SET BACK EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS IN THE LONG RUN FEAR PROFESSIONALS

GANGTOK, 17 Aug: The Prime Minister was joined by Parliamentarians cutting across party lines today to reassure people from the North East that they were safe and welcome all over the country and those who have stayed behind in what has developed as the ‘Ground Zero’ of rumour-induced panic – Bengaluru/ Bangalore  – insist that the city is safe. But these appear to have met with only limited success as people continue to flee Bengaluru even as the situation has normalised even in Pune in Maharastra, the only place where incidents of actual attacks on North Easterns were reported last week. It needs to be added here that panic flights were reported from Chennai and Mangalore as well today although these were at much lower levels than the exodus from Bangalore where special trains to the northeast were pressed into service today as well.
Mikchung Bhutia, an IT professional from Sikkim who has been living in Bangalore for a while now and keeps in close touch with the Sikkimese population there, confirms that neither he nor anyone he knows has received any SMS or MMS threatening people from the North East [as a retaliatory action against the violence seen in Kokrajhar in Assam].
The rumour mongering, however, seems to have gone a step ahead with the purported threat SMSes now appearing to be a rumour in itself.
Speaking to NOW! from Bangalore, Sweta Rai from Sikkim who teaches in a Bangalore school, echoed Mr. Bhutia’s information, confirming that she has not received any message threatening or warning her of attacks and neither has anyone from Sikkim she knows received such SMSes.
“It is all second hand information; someone who knows someone claims to have received such SMSes. There is absolutely nothing of the sort that people are scared of happening here,” Ms. Rai asserted, adding that she has siblings living in different parts of the city and there have not been any untoward incidents anywhere.
She adds that the Bangaloreans have become so conscious of the situation that they are going out of their way to make sure that people from the North East feel secure and welcome in the city. In some instances, to and fro police escorts are being provided to college students to reassure them of their safety.
As evidence of Bangalore being safe, police authorities there inform that the helplines opened there for people from the North East have received many calls, but all to enquire on the situation and none to report of any untoward incident or threat.
The exodus however continues and since the panic is believed to have been triggered by threat SMSes, the Ministry of Home Affairs has announced a ban on bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days starting today. More than five SMSes or MMSes from one number cannot be sent in one go. MMSes have been restricted to 25kb. The ban has been imposed throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the Bangalore police today arrested three persons for allegedly spreading rumours regarding the issue. This too, was initially misreported in the media as arrests made for attacks on North Easterns. By evening, it was confirmed that the arrests were not for attacks [none of which, the authorities in Karnataka insist have taken place yet] but, as mentioned, for spreading rumours.
The Bangalore Police have intensified patrolling in localities populated by people from the northeast, including college-going students, blue-collar and white-collar employees, security guards and women working in beauty salons. This was confirmed by students and professionals from Sikkim based in Bangalore while speaking with NOW!
Also as part of the investigation, cyber sleuths attached to the Bangalore city police crime branch have started cracking at the sensational messages sent through SMS and MMS, e-mails and postings on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter that caused panic and fear among the people from the region.
As per media reports, most of the messages received on mobiles through SMS or MMS are originating from Assam and other North Eastern states, Mumbai and Kolkata in Hindi, Assamese and Bengali without names or place from where they were being sent.
“The fact that only northeast people/ students are getting rumours and not others on their mobiles as SMS or MMS reveals that they are being sent from the north-eastern region to their kith and kin living in Bangalore or other cities of the state,” a Karnataka police official was quoted as saying in a national daily.
Most of those fleeing the city have confirmed as much, stating that they were leaving not because they have been personally threatened but because family at home is insisting they return, fearful that something might happen.
Speaking from Bangalore, Mr. Bhutia insisted that all was well there.
“There is nothing to fear, I would particularly like to tell the parents of students here not to panic. Their children have come here to study and if they return home when there is no reason to, their studies will suffer,” he pointed out.
Mr. Bhutia has been receiving frantic calls from parents worried about their children studying in Bangalore for the past three days. “The moment you fear, you are playing into the hands of people ready to take advantage of it,” he adds.
The exodus, especially because it is based on rumours, has severely, possibly even irrevocably, undermined the credibility of North Easterns working here, Mr. Bhutia points out, adding, “Those working here, who have left, do you think they will get their jobs back when they return?”
It will be difficult for them to convince prospective employers of their reliability, a work ethic that the community had earned through years of hard work, he underlines.
About 2,40,000 people from the northeast region live in Bangalore and another 1,00,000 in other cities across Karnataka. Businesses have taken a bad hit with security agencies, restaurants, beauty parlours, which mostly employ those from the North East, suddenly short of manpower. On last count, as many as 20,000 people from the North East are believed to have fled from Bangalore alone.