Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday reportedly earned the ire of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over police mishandling of North Eastern student Nido Tania’s death. In a meeting with Shinde, Rahul pulled him up for shoddy functioning of the Delhi Police and asked him the reason for delay in filing the FIR in this case. He also expressed dissatisfaction over Shinde’s decision in a couple of serious incidents recently.
After Rahul’s reprimand, Shinde constituted a six-member panel to look into complaints of persons from the N-E. It was also decided that the Resident Commissioners of all N-E States in Delhi would maintain a database of the N-E students’ presence in Delhi with their contact detail and strengthen the 24-hour helpline dedicated for N-E students and persons.
Sources said that the Gandhi scion also took the Home Minister to task for not following up the matter with “sincerity.” Rahul also expressed annoyance that Shinde did not get back to brief him about the Nido case. When the Congress vice-president called him on Monday, Shinde was in Maharashtra and did not contact Rahul on returning to the Capital.
Sources said Shinde tried to make Rahul understand the nitty-gritty over “territorial jurisdiction” which delayed the registeration of FIR, but an annoyed Congress vice-president told Shinde that as a Home Minister he must take steps to resolve the re-occurrences of territorial jurisdiction problems.
Registration of FIR in the December 16, 2012 gang-rape case, which shook the nation, had also got mired in territorial jurisdiction. During the course of a 30-minute meeting, Rahul sought to know from Shinde how frequently he conducted meetings with the Delhi Police Commissioner and how he followed up with the top brass of Intelligence units for updates to prevent xenophobic incidents.
The handling of dharna by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a couple of days before the Republic Day celebrations too came up for discussion. Sources said after consultations with Shinde, Rahul later called all the Congress MPs from North-East led by AICC General Secretary In-charge luizinho Faleiro to discuss steps to end harassment of people from the region.
Faleiro, who led the delegation, said Rahul wanted not only to ensure justice in the case of Nido Tania but also address the issue of discrimination of people from the North-East and all other communities facing similar issues in the country. At least 16 party MPs from lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha hailing from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram attended the meeting and presented remedial measures to curb such discrimination.
Early in the day, N-E students marched towards Parliament and courted arrest demanding an anti-racism law in wake of the death of Nido after being allegedly beaten up by some shopkeepers in South Delhi. They then demanded that MPs from North-East States come to the police station to hear their demands following which the Minister of State for Minority Affairs Ninong Ering along with eight MPs from North-Eastern States reached the police station.
The six-member committee formed by Home Ministry is headed by retired IAS officer MB Bezbaruah who will submit a report within two months after examining the causes behind the attacks/violence and discrimination against the people from the North-East. Bezbaruah is also a member of North-Eastern Council.
Home Ministry Deputy Secretary S Saha is Member Secretary and retired IAS officers HWT Syeim, Allen Temshi Jamir, Tape Bagra and P Bharat Singh as members. Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police, Robin Hibu, who hails from that region, will also be in the team of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which will assist the committee.
According to the copy of the order available with The Pioneer, the Chairman of the Committee would co-opt members, one each from the other North-Eastern States like Tripura, Mizoram and Sikkim as well as one lay member. “It has been decided to constitute a Committee to look into various kinds of concerns of the persons hailing from the North-East, who are living in different parts of the country, especially metropolitan areas and suggest suitable remedial measures, which could be taken by the Government,” the order issued by Deputy Secretary of MHA’s North-East Division, Ajay Kanoujia said.
The MPs earlier also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who asked them to place their views before the committee constituted to address the grievances. Rahul also took part in the protest by N-E students at Jantar Mantar early this week.