Days after the BJP breached the Left citadel in Tripura with the support of a Tribal outfit, the party's state incharge Sunil Deodhar today said people from the Northeast staying in other states should adopt local culture and lifestyle for their own safety and apparently to avoid "clashes".
Deodhar was felicitated by Goa BJP leaders and workers for the party's spectacular performance in Tripura polls wherein the saffron party ended the Left rule after 25 years.
Addressing a press conference, Deodhar, who has been associated with the BJP's ideological mentor the RSS, appealed to people from the Northeastern states to participate in local festivals of states of their current residence.
"My suggestion is wherever you work, accept the local culture and language. Locals should not feel that you have come from outside. They (people from the Northeast) should participate in local festivals and (adopt) local culture. Every state has its own culture and they should follow it," he said.
If a person from Nagaland continues his "taur tarika" (lifestyle) here then there will be clashes, said Deodhar who is considered the architect of the saffron landslide in Tripura.
BJP's Tripura ally Indigenous People Front of Tripura (IPFT) is a tribal-based party in the Northeastern state and is a member of the North-East Regional Political Front, a group of political parties of the northeast that supports the National Democratic Alliance.
"People from the Northeast should understand that they can walk safely on roads in Aizawl (capital of Mizoram) even in midnight because of the prevalent social atmosphere there.
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"However, they could not walk safely in midnight on streets of Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai or Goa in midnight....That is why I said they should adopt the local culture," he added.
Deodhar said the incidents of "clashes" between locals and the people from the Northeast have come down drastically in recent years.
"I think among other things the social media is responsible for this revolution. Because of social media, people (from other states of the country) are realising that these people are not foreigners or Chinese but are very much Indians," he said.
A number of cases of attacks on people from the Northeast, apparently over racial discrimination, were reported from Delhi and other parts of the country in the past.
The Centre had formed a committee under M P Bezbaruah, a member of the North-Eastern Council, in 2014 in the wake of the attacks.
The panel had recommended that the government took special police initiatives to ensure the safety and security of the north-eastern people living in Delhi-NCR and other parts of the country.