Assam mourns the demise of its favorite singer but a Naga student’s viral comment fuels tension
Singer Zubeen Garg, the most popular face of the Northeast, met with an accident in Singapore on September 19 when he had gone there to perform at the North East Festival. His sudden demise brought mourning in his home state of Assam. But when the whole of Assam was saddened by his demise, Lisaree S., a B.Tech student in Civil Engineering of Kaziranga University. When Sangatam made a casual comment, it created a ruckus. In fact, after Zubeen’s death, the entire Assam was in mourning. In such a situation, Santgam could not find any vehicle to return to the hostel. In this frustration he said about the late singer, “Who is this Zubeen Garg?” Who has it?” This video quickly went viral and increased the tension.
The matter escalated so much that Sangatam was suspended from the university. Another video went viral along with it, in which some people are seen assaulting Santhagam and forcing him to apologise. This has increased concerns about the safety of Naga students in the university.
However, Nagaland Higher and Technical Education Minister Temjen Imna Along told a press conference in Kohima that Naga students were safe. As a precautionary measure, more than 300 Naga students have been evacuated from Kaziranga University to Nagaland. It is reported that students are thinking of returning to the university only after the atmosphere becomes normal.
Lisaree M. Sangatan, the student who made the controversial statement
This episode also reveals the condition of the North-Eastern states and the importance of cultural symbols. Zubeen was an icon of Assamese culture, but for other people of the North-East he was not so special. For this reason Sangatam said something lightly. The second question is that in the age of social media, even a small matter turns into a big controversy. A casual comment about commuting difficulties was immediately linked to Assamese pride and turned into an insult. The anger that erupted after that became communal and political. The outrage was not just over the student’s comment, but also over the fact that Assam’s most prominent cultural personality was not being recognized by anyone from the same region.
For Assam, Zubeen was such a person, on whose death the whole of Assam mourned as if it was the death of a family member. It was difficult for people to believe that their favorite singer is no longer in this world. People voluntarily closed shops in his honour, markets became deserted and everyone was paying tribute to him at their own level. As deep as this feeling is for the people of Assam, they want to be equally important to others. This is the reason why Sangtam’s comment drew strong reactions and was followed by the expulsion of hundreds of Naga students.
It was difficult for the people of Assam to believe that a young student did not know Zubeen. This raised the question whether the collective anger towards others by those who idolize Zubeen is so necessary? Can those who do not have information about Zubeen be harassed like this?
However, many people believe that it is unfortunate to assault anyone. Violence cannot be the answer to ignorance. After Zubeen’s death, some such videos also went viral in which many people are forcibly closing shops. This raised the question whether some people behind the mourning in the name of the singer were doing such acts with some other intention.
Although it is also true that Zubeen’s death united Assam, but incidents like this show that it may bring a crisis to the common cultural identity of the Northeast. No cultural personality would ever want it to be fragmented due to local discrimination.
