Sugandha Rawal (HINDUSTAN TIMES; July 30, 2021)

As Manipur’s Mirabai Chanu gets applauded for bringing medal glory from Olympics, fitness enthusiast Ankita Konwar wonders if people from the Northeast need to win medals to be recognised as Indians. She has started a conversation by calling out the racist attitude through her tweet, and feels we should accept our flaws.

“It’s is not going to change by just one person. I’m just trying to make it a point that these things exist in our society,” says Konwar, 29, who hails from Assam.

Opening up about what pushed her to give words to her thoughts, she tells us, “I know people who call out individuals from Northeast as ‘chinki’; I’ve corrected them many times. Now, I see them coming out and say, ‘We’re so proud of you’. When you see a post like that, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, now you think that we’re a part of India’, but when I’m there with you, then you don’t think so. It’s only when somebody is winning a medal that you can be a part of the country, so what about the rest of us then.”

Her tweet stems from her personal experiences, which continue till date. “People just come on my page and post comments like corona, Chinese, or chinki. It’s hurtful,” rues Konwar, who’s married to actor Milind Soman.

To those who disagree with her views, she says, “Your disagreement has nothing to do with what I’ve faced. You can’t tell me what I’ve lived was a lie. It’s so demeaning when you go out, and people look at you in a certain way, just because you’re from a particular place, or the way you look.”