MHA instructions to States Addressing a larger issue
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 21, 2012 -

Jamia Students protesting against discrimination towards NE students on 28 October 2009 :: pix - Ibomacha oinam

In instructing the States to adopt a zero tolerance policy against racial profiling of people from the North East, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has backtracked from his earlier posturing in Parliament and in the process has taken a step forward to tackle an issue which is very much alive and kicking.

It is also important that Delhi and by extension mainland India and the people of the North East region understand that racism or racial profiling goes beyond the mere understanding of a person's physical appearance and ethnic identity or even race, such as Aryan, Mongoloid, Dravidian etc but encompasses a socially structured mindset which then spills over to the realm of politics and the polity of the land.

Or it could mean profiling a people from any particular region without prefixing the term racial or racism and this is a reality which has to be acknowledged while dealing with the issue.

That the instruction of the Union Home Minister came after the deaths of Loitam Richard and Dana Sangma have kicked a up lot of dust and galvanised people from different parts of the country to take to the street should open the eyes of the people from the North East region that their deaths should be seen beyond the loss of two young lives.

Back in 2004, the brutal killing of Th Manorama served as the spring board to address a bigger issue, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, forcing the Prime Minister of the country to fly down to Imphal and constitute the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission and in the process bring the Act under the limelight and give a boost to the lone struggle taken up by Irom Chanu Sharmila.

If the death of Manorama woke up the political establishment to the controversial Army Act, then the death of Loitam Richard too should extend beyond the death of a young student and seek to address a bigger issue which all people from the North East have had to face at one point of time or the other once they cross the chicken neck.

Let it be very clear, in seeking justice for Loitam Richard and Dana Sangma, the issue of racial profiling too should be addressed with the intensity it deserves.

The Sangai Express has already rubbished the histopathological report and heart ailment 'fairy tale' as a smoke screen, and it is here that certain important questions need to be raised.

As evidenced by the external injuries as well as the profusely bleeding nose and swollen face of the late student, it stands that he was subjected to brutal assault by his hostel mates.

Now the question is, what could have provoked the hostel mates to assault him so savagely ?

Temperamental is the word that the Dean of the institute used to describe the late student underlining it with the argument that he used to stay up late in the night.

Now is this what the defence counsel is going to rely on when the case is dragged to the Court ? What has the Acharya's NRV School of Architecture got to gain by spreading canards about the late student even going to the extent of drug abuse, which has been negated clearly in the Toxicology examination ?

This surely could not be about protecting the prestige and image of the institution but points to something larger.

What has the Bangalore police or the experts who conducted the post mortem examinations got to gain by pointing to the heart ailment alibi ?

This is where racial profiling and the discrimination that comes along with such adjectives has a story to tell. It was not so long ago that Delhi police issued a list of dos and don'ts for students and professionals from the North East, including their food habit.

How many times have the police, especially in Delhi and NCR refused to register a case, whenever the victim was someone from the North East ?

Mr Madhuchandra, the man who helmed the North East Helpline at Delhi for years has told and will have many tales to tell of the humiliating experience he has had to face and none of the stories would have been plucked from the wind.

The time to sound politically correct is past. Time to call a spade a spade and people from the North East have been stereotyped and profiled to the convenience of many so called mainlanders.

And here we would also like to add that juxtaposing the 'murder' of Loitam Richard with the killings of migrant workers in Manipur would amount to missing the woods for the trees.

That Manipur is in a conflict situation is a point that no one should forget and people get killed regularly, whether they are indigenous people or migrant workers.