End discrimination against North-East people
The death of Nido Taniam, a student from Arunachal Pradesh who was assaulted by a group of persons in Delhi, has once again shone the spotlight on the country's dark underbelly. There are two issues here: Racism and law and order. With regard to the first, the full facts are yet to emerge, but preliminary evidence seems to suggest that the attack had an element of discrimination. The shopkeeper, who led the assailants, had commented on the teenager's blonde hair and his Mongoloid features, which resulted in a heated argument.
An angry Taniam smashed the glass at the shop counter and a full-fledged street fight broke out. While last Wednesday's events took a particularly tragic turn with Taniam's death, the fact is that such incidents are hardly an exception in Delhi or for that matter even in other parts of ‘mainland India' (as people from the North-East generally describe the rest of the country). In August 2013, for instance, three Delhi University students from North-East were reportedly thrashed by locals in north Delhi; in February, 10 Manipuri boys were attacked on the DU campus. The year before, three Manipuris were attacked at a shopping mall in Bangalore, which frightened the city’s large North-Eastern community, and coupled with mischeivous text messages, fuelled an exodus from the metro. Even if street fights don't erupt in all cases, taunting North-easterners as ‘chinkis’, discriminating against them and stereotyping them all as ‘liberal' folks with ‘loose morals' is common practice. Moreover, it is not just the North-East people who are subjected to racial prejudice — dark skinned people from the south are jeered at in the north, hill folks are considered to be different from the plains people, migrants from the east are not always welcome in the west — not to mention the xenophobic tendencies seen against foreigners, particularly Blacks.
For a country as culturally diverse and indeed inclusive as India, it is tragic how often racism (or call it whatever else) rears its ugly head here. While the situation can only be remedied by a consistent and targeted effort to undo the fear of ‘the other', it will not change overnight. But this must not become an excuse for repeated violent attacks. Indeed, if such incidents are to be checked, the law must be stringently enforced and the perpetrators of such attacks promptly brought to book.
This brings us to the issue of law and order. In the case of Taniam, the local police did intervene but was clearly not effective enough. The teenager was reportedly made to pay for the broken glass but the shopkeeper and others were seemingly not taken to task for attacking the boy. Also, when both parties returned from the police station to their locality, there was a second round of fighting. When Taniam complained again, the police made both parties offer written apologies but still did not register a case against the shopkeepers. The teenager died in his sleep later than night, possibly from internal injuries. But why was the matter allowed to escalate to this extentIJ The local police station is only a stone's throw away from the site of the fight, and the market in general is well-manned by police personnel. There are uncomfortable questions here about the conduct of the police that need to be answered.