China syndrome

Despite being an integral part of India, the northeast and its states remain an amorphous mass for most mainland Indians, who often also mistake the nationality of people from the region. This was embarrassingly evident at the recently concluded Indian Labour Conference, where Manipur Labour Minister Hemochandra delivered a fiery speech. Later, a trade union leader referred to him as a minister from Nagaland. The young minister immediately corrected the leader. Then, Labour Secretary Mrutyunjay Sarangi interjected and made the somewhat politically incorrect joke that Hemochandra should be grateful that the leader did not mistake him to be from China, thereby turning the conference into an international event.