Infiltration in NE 'strategic' move for another partition: TN governor
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New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Thursday said "large-scale" infiltration in the Northeast is not just about migration for livelihood but a "strategic" move, aimed at engineering another partition of India, reported PTI.
Speaking at the inaugural session of “Seema Vimarsh”, a two-day international conference on cross-border infiltration organised at Delhi University's historic Vice-Regal Lodge, Ravi said the threat was serious and "no army can stop this."
"The kind of infiltration taking place in Bengal, Assam, and other Northeastern states is not just people coming here for a better life and economic opportunities, but it is strategic for another partition... a work in progress. We have to worry about this because no army can stop this. This is about Bharat's unity and integrity," Ravi said.
The governor said the problem of illegal immigration has persisted since independence, and successive governments have treated the Northeast as a distant frontier.
“After independence, we left our borders to our soldiers, thinking them to be areas of far away. Illegal immigration is the biggest problem in our Northeast areas since independence, and we left the people of the Northeast on their own, thinking that these people are different from us.
"Because of such thinking, the internal conflict between the tribals of Northeast and the rest of the country came into existence only after independence. There was no such conflict before independence,” he said.
He credited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for its role in strengthening the sense of inclusion among the people of the region.
“A group that has always worked in the Northeast for the betterment and to enhance inclusion is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. I want to thank the workers of the RSS for doing such good work for years," Ravi said.
