00:00 Many a times it happens that when we look at North East, when we look at Jammu and Kashmir,
00:05 we think that it is all about snow, trees, mountains, beaches and other things.
00:13 But there are civic issues as Amit was mentioning, there are internal issues, societal issues
00:20 that need to be played.
00:22 How relevant will it be for the centre to get into the intricacies of a state which
00:29 has its own dynamics, of a zone which has its own dynamics like North East and then
00:35 try and solve the issue.
00:38 Is it important for the centre to always have a double engine government in a particular
00:41 state to solve the matters?
00:43 The centre has the power to do it otherwise also.
00:46 But is this what is needed or are we trying with these pictures, you know, that we can
00:54 travel, film shooting, you can go there for vacation and then just forget about it.
01:03 Are we trying to save a tree with an iron fence but the tree is hollowed by termites?
01:10 See, Pankaj, very interesting proposition is the fact that many people from Delhi, from
01:19 that mainland side think that North East is one state, one region.
01:23 But North East itself is a mini Asia, ok?
01:26 Mini Asia.
01:27 So in Manipur people are fighting among themselves, Nagaland people are fighting among themselves.
01:33 So when you talk about North East, people tend to think that we all are the same.
01:37 When I joined ONGC in 92 in Gujarat, people asked me, "Do you speak Bengali?"
01:45 I said, "Bengali?
01:46 He's in West Bengal, I'm from North East."
01:50 So that is the understanding of mainland people about North East.
01:54 And do you know that there is a...
01:55 I will also share a story.
01:56 I will also share a story.
01:57 So please get it.
02:00 So we, the mainland Indians, so-called mainland Indians have to have the concept, have to
02:06 have the concept that there could be Indians who doesn't speak Hindi.
02:12 There could be Indians, Baka Indians who are not Hindus.
02:16 So even, only if there is some understanding and acceptance from the mainland India that
02:23 Mr. Chhante, who hardly speaks Hindi, who cannot read Hindi, but ok, not a Hindu, Christian,
02:31 but he's a Baka Indian.
02:32 So that concept has to come first.
02:34 And in the process of integration, in the process of integration, that is the most important
02:39 thing.
02:40 I will also share a story that a journalist has said that North East people are very talented.
02:46 What I used to tell among my young people in Mizoram is that we North East people, especially
02:52 the Mizoros, we look like Chinese, ok?
02:54 We look like Chinese.
02:56 But the passport is Indian.
02:59 The passport is Indian.
03:00 Here in India, there is a guy who looks like Chinese, but his passport is in Indian.
03:08 So for that gentleman, for that boy, for that girl, there is a very big scope of getting
03:12 a job in a multinational company.
03:15 So you people have to accept us, accept us North East people, who is not a Hindu, who
03:21 doesn't speak Hindi, is also a Baka Indian.
03:24 I think our young generations are really geared up to call themselves Indian.
03:30 At the same time, I think North East can contribute a lot.
03:34 So what I personally feel is that people start talking about development in North East, but
03:41 what you have asked is that at what cost?
03:45 We also want to maintain, everywhere I go, I call myself Kriyadar Chante, Mizo Christian
03:52 Indian tribal.
03:53 I am a Mizo Christian first, and then Indian tribal.
03:57 So that combination has to flourish in India also.
04:00 Actually, as soon as I am sidelined, I am pushed against the world because I am a Mizo
04:07 Christian and Indian tribal.
04:08 That will not help.
04:10 Because as a community, Mizo also wants to flourish.
04:14 In India, as a Mizo Christian tribal.
04:17 That's everyone's right.
04:18 That's everyone's right.
04:19 Yeah, yeah, that's everyone's right.
04:20 Otherwise, as I have just mentioned, there was a very hot discussion in one gathering
04:27 where I was invited as a special guest, whether we should allow the Indian railways to go
04:35 to the interior part of Mizoram.
04:37 And I said, as per the constitution, Indian railways is a union list.
04:43 The Mizo students or the Mizoram government has nothing to do with that.
04:48 So the only thing we have to see...
04:50 Not a state list, yeah.
04:51 Yeah, it's not in the state list.
04:53 It's in the central list.
04:55 So what is my idea is that our people, young generation have to be gear up.
05:00 It is very good to be Indian.
05:02 It is much better to be Mizo Christian.
05:05 So being a Mizo Christian and Indian, I think we can really achieve something.
05:09 And you can expect miracles from this side of the country.
05:12 Absolutely.
05:13 On this note, Feryat Achangji.
05:15 Yes, sir.
05:16 Yeah.
05:17 No, for that purpose, I used to call myself, I must be one of the most Indianized Mizo.
05:24 The ambassador.
05:25 Yeah.
05:26 My children were born, brought up in Bujjara, that part of the country.
05:33 But still they are very much Indian Mizo Christians.
05:38 So India, we have to accept the unity in diversity.
05:42 Absolutely.
05:43 So let us accept somebody who looks like so black, like an African, so white, like Jammu
05:52 and Kashmir guys.
05:53 And a Chinese looking Indian also, that we have to accept.
05:57 The moment if you have accepted that integrity in diversity, unity in diversity, I think
06:02 the whole country, the whole India signing will be more, even in North East also.
06:06 I think North East is really gear up.
06:09 Absolutely.
06:10 Yeah.
06:11 Absolutely.
06:12 Absolutely, sir.
06:13 It is very refreshing to talk to you.
06:15 And you have been very candid, very candid about, you know, saying this.
06:21 One of the former, I would say now, Congress leaders had made a comment that people of
06:28 North East look like Chinese, people of South India look like Africans and all this.
06:32 And he was shown the door also.
06:35 You know whom I am talking about from Congress.
06:37 He lives abroad though.
06:39 But having said that, see these things will only be used as a political tool so long as
06:45 you and I don't tell our kids that, hey look, this whole part is India.
06:51 They are our brothers and sisters.
06:53 And yes, there are geographical reasons for a particular appearance.
06:56 The story that you mentioned about, you know, people thinking that North East is a separate
07:02 state altogether, forgetting about Mizoram, Nagar and Tripura.
07:07 The same thing happened with me also, sir.
07:08 I was travelling from Nairobi to Delhi and we had a stopover in, I think, Abu Dhabi.
07:15 I have worked for several years in South Africa and because of work I was there in Nairobi.
07:20 So when I reached Abu Dhabi, there was, I think a person from UK, if I am not wrong,
07:27 he was also in transit and he just casually asked me, where are you coming from?
07:31 So I said I am coming from Kenya.
07:33 And he said, oh, you are coming from Africa.
07:36 So even Kenya being considered, whether he knew about it or not, but yes, Africa is also
07:43 considered same, if we talk about social, one country itself, be it Nigeria, be it Chile,
07:50 whatever you say.
07:51 Had I said South Africa, he would have still thought there was a name Africa.
07:55 But this is what I felt, that there are places in India also that we say that hey, North
08:00 East, straight away.
08:01 But every state is very unique there.
08:04 And what you told about the Meso-Christians, Mizoram, and you graduated from Indian School
08:09 of Mines, at that time I was growing up in Bokaro Steel City, not far away from there.
08:14 Okay, that's right.
08:16 Yes, so it's always, you see, the boundaries and the distance become so close.
08:22 I mean, we, you know, sharing the same geographical space, there should be no boundaries and no
08:29 division around that.
08:31 Thank you Mr. Riyata, always, it's a heart to heart talk, as your name also suggests,
08:35 I believe, Riyata Changde.
08:37 You had told the meaning of your name also last time.
08:40 That's right.
08:41 Thank you so much.
08:42 That's right.
