Why do we love to hate people from the Northeast?

We still call them "chinkis". We still stare and point out when we cross them on road. And even repeated cases of their murder, rape and assault have become just snippets of news for us. But hey, we cannot be blamed because it's no longer about survival of the fittest in this country, it's about survival of the majority.

To be a Northeastern living in Delhi or Bangalore is to be unsure whether you can eat your food at a restaurant and return home in one piece. Or take a walk to your college without getting kidnapped and raped. Or, why go that far, keep a blonde hairstyle without being beaten to death.

It is also to be disappointed by a government that has made plenty of promises and fulfilled none of them. It is to hope and rely on committees that submit their reports on discrimination and racial attacks on members of the Northeast community and then wait in vain for action to be taken on their key findings. And it is, in the end, being classified as a "chinki" in the land of proud north and south Indians.

It should come as no surprise then to our ruling government, which is basking in the glory of its recent wins in Haryana and Maharashtra, that these very same "slant-eyed people" from Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland refused to vote for it in the October 17 by-polls. The by-polls were a litmus test for the BJP government that it failed to pass. A trust it was denied. Clearly, the Narendra Modi wave cannot drown the injustices committed against this vulnerable section of the society and more obviously, it cannot just bank on empty promises and "special packages" to win over the lost trust.

But unfortunately, this is not just a case of incompetent government, which we often love to blame. Contempt for Northeastern people runs right through our frayed social fabric. Just look at the horrific case of Nido Tania who was mocked and beaten to death in Delhi or the incident in Bangalore where Michael Lamjathang Haokip, a student from Manipur, was beaten up by people who demanded he speaks in Kannada.

According to Bezbaruah Committee report (which was submitted in July and is currently gathering dust), more than two lakh people from the Northeast have migrated to Delhi between 2005 and 2013 and about 86 per cent of them have faced discrimination. And even though the Capital leads among the metro cities when it comes to racial discrimination, others like Bangalore are not far behind. Just two years after it witnessed a mass exodus of people from Northeast following rumours of many threats and assaults, Bangalore has become an unwelcome host once again and obviously learnt nothing from the past mistakes.

The committee had suggested creation of a special police squad, fast track courts, designated public prosecutors and even promulgation of a new law against discrimination. But a special police squad isn't going to be able to arrest everyone who thinks the country belongs more to "non-slant eyed" people and a fast track court won't be able to put behind bars every smug north or south Indian for whispering racial slurs under their breaths. The truth is that the mindset needs to change as much as the system, the society, and the government.