Addressing the combined commanders annual conference Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi told officers that in a changing world they should be prepared to fight invisible enemies. This is very true. But one humbly makes a further suggestion to the Prime Minister. The government should also be prepared to fight invisible wars. This writer would like to draw attention to one such possible ongoing invisible war.

People of India’s northeast do face discrimination. The Bezbaruah Committee was formed to study the issue after a violent attack against a youth from the northeast in Delhi this year. It reported that over two lakh people from northeast migrated to Delhi from 2005 to 2013. Many faced some sort of "racial discrimination" in cities across India. There is nothing extraordinary about that. People from south India face discrimination in the north, Punjabis face discrimination in the south, Muslims face discrimination in Hindu localities and so on. Generally discrimination relates to renting accommodation and other such activity. But violent attacks on account of so-called racism is altogether different and a recent phenomenon.

This writer disputes the existence of racial bias against people from northeast. Indians display racial bias mostly on basis of colour and against Africans. People from northeast have Mongoloid features, lighter skin and are generally more comely. They resemble the Chinese who suffer from no racial bias on account of appearance.

Now consider the attacks against people from the northeast since the start of this year.

These attacks started after 20-year-old Nido Tania from Arunachal Pradesh was killed in broad daylight at Lajpat Nagar in Delhi in January. After that violent attacks and molestation of northeast people continued to mount. According to informed sources over 300 cases of assault against northeast victims were registered in Delhi within one year. The pattern is so clear, the timing of the spurt of such incidents so significant, and their political impact so obvious that only dense minds would rule out possibility of an invisible war launched by interested hostile foreign powers to separate the northeast from the rest of India. It is the easiest thing to hire mercenary criminal elements to launch such attacks. Recall the so-called racist attacks against Indians in Australia some time back. This writer rubbished racism and alleged staged managed attacks organized by third powers hostile to India in order to alienate our nation from Australia.

Subsequently the Australian Prime Minister signed a nuclear deal with India and sought closer ties. Does anyone hear about Australian racist attacks any more? Can racism be switched on and off at will? Given the herd instinct people do start following a common trend. Many incidents against Northeast people might be by hooligans. But the original inspiration of the violence needs a deeper probe. The Home Ministry should conduct narco tests on some of the guilty to get the truth. The results may be startling.