Monika Khangembam’s story could have easily been yet another Facebook post describing an out-of-the-ordinary experience that went viral, sparked a momentary debate, and then some online outrage, until the next story came along, starting a new cycle of “This story will make you ashamed to be an Indian” posts on social media sites.
For the uninitiated, Khangemba is a woman from Manipur who on July 9 wrote on Facebook about the racist behaviour she faced from an immigration official at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on her way back from a conference at Seoul. She said that the official had mocked at her for “not looking Indian enough”, and had asked her to prove her Indian identity (the blue passport should have been more than enough) by answering inane questions about the number of States in the country, the number of States that share borders with her home State etc.
She complied because she needed him to clear her paperwork but was understandably humiliated and justifiably outraged. Khangemba’s post went viral, with social media sites and then even mainstream newspapers covering it. But that wasn’t all – a day later, Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj also took note of the incident, tendered a public apology to Khangemba on the micro-blogging site Twitter, and also tagged Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh, who oversees immigration issues. Just in itself, this is a big deal. These days, most public figures use social media extensively as part of their larger PR exercises but few, especially public representatives, use to it to truly interact and engage with their electorate.
Minister Swaraj has been an exception to this rule, and the public has noted that with much satisfaction. It will be interesting to see if Minister Singh, who is relatively reserved on the Twitter, responds to her. More importantly though we’d like to see if this leads to some concrete action on the ground – Will the offending official be hauled upIJ Will there be long term efforts to sensitise immigration officials, as Minister Swaraj has suggestedIJ We’ll have to wait to find out. Until then, here’s to the power of social media!