Thousands in India Flee Amid Internet Rumors of Violence

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh has appealed for calm amid fears of ethnic violence.

More than 10,000 people have reportedly fled cities in India after threatening messages on social media sites fueled panic.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with freelance journalist Anu Anand Hall in New Dehli.

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Marco Werman: Confusion in India today as thousands of people continue fleeing the south and west of the country. The people on the move are from India’s northeast, and they’re fleeing because of rumors apparently fueled by text messages that are warning a possible ethnic or religious attacks. Prime Minister, Manmohan Sigh has appealed for calm and told parliament today that India’s unity is at stake. Anu Anand Hall is a freelance journalist in New Delhi, and she’s going to help us unpack this rather complicated story. First of all Anu, explain who is fleeing and what they fear right now?

Anu Anand Hall: The people who are fleeing are residents of the Northeast of India, and you might wonder what that means. Well what it means visually is that they look more East-Asian than Indian or South-Asian. And they’re people who work in the rest of India in IT or in services. And the reason they’re fleeing it’s pretty strange but it’s interesting, it’s rumor that has been doing the rounds in the form of text messages, tweets, and chain emails threatening people specifically from the Northeast saying that they would be targeted, saying that some people had already been killed, and saying that they should “go home” to their home states in the Northeast before the Muslim holiday of eve, which is going to be on Monday. So they’re actually getting on to trains and they’re leaving places like Bangalore or Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, all these big metros and going back to northeastern states.

Werman: Now, you said a lot of these emails and text messages are threatening these people who are fleeing. Who is behind these messages?

Hall: Well that’s the great mystery. No one actually knows what the source of these threats are. The government has actually moved to ban bulk text messages and mixed media messages for the next 15 days. They’ll tell the big telecommunication companies that you can’t allow any cell phone user to send more than five text messages at a time. And that’s in part to try and stop this panic.

Werman: And that can’t be enforced as a pretty practical solution for the next 15 days.

Hall: They’ve done it before, they’ve done it when there have been sensitive court decisions. I have family that live in Kashmir, and for months at a time you can’t send or receive text messages if you’re in Kashmir. So it is enforceable. What they can’t obviously police is the Internet.

Werman: So Anu, a bit of background is in order here. I think recently there were about 15 deaths in Assam. That’s a state in the northeast of the country where these people are fleeing back to. Is there a connection?

Hall: There is a connection in the sense that for the last several weeks there have been horrible clashes in Assam. And the clashes are between a tribal group called the Bodos and people that they are calling migrants, mostly from neighboring Bangladesh. That means that they do tend to be Muslim, but the conflict is not a religious one. It is really about resources. And it goes back to the fact that for decades now Indian politicians actually in states like Assam have allowed thousands upon thousands of migrants to come in. And they do it because it creates an immediate vote bank. So for short term electoral gain, they will give voter identity cards to illegal immigrants and, say, vote for me and so I remain in power. But what it’s ended up doing is, it’s ended up creating this horrible conflict between their own citizens and between people who are coming in for economic opportunity. And that has boiled over in recent weeks.

Werman: India is incredibly diverse in religion, ethnicity, economically speaking. I mean, aside from clamping down on bulk text messages, is the government in Delhi prepared to deal with this particular situation?

Hall: Well they’ve been very, very severely criticized by not owning up to the fact that politicians have created this problem and they’ve not tackled in. They’ve sort of swept it under the rug for decades. They are also being criticized for the fact that they’re trying to ban social media and text messages when what they need to do is to engage with people. A lot of people are saying you can ban text messages, but that’s a tiny solution. It’s band aid. And it’s not going to solve the problem. So the Indian government is doing what it sees fit, but no, I don’t think that anyone feels that they’re really tackling the root of this problem.

Werman: Journalist Anu Anand Hall, joining us from New Delhi. Thank you very much.

Hall: Thank you.

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