Condemn racial discrimination on the Northeast people
PR from MSAD (Manipur Students' Association Delhi)

Office of the Manipur Students' Association Delhi
New Delhi

Ref No: 20091029-1/PR
30 October 2009

Condemn racial discrimination on the Northeast people
MSAD press statement

Dear friends,

First of all MSAD would like to condole for the untimely departure that Ramchanphi Hongray was forced to take by the criminal. We share the pain of the aggrieved family. We protest the crime and condemn the criminal.

Today is not the first time that we take ourselves to the street to fight Indian racism. As the history would illustrate, the horrible and heartbreaking Ramchanphi Hongray Incident of 24 October 2009 was not the first of its kind that the Indians has enacted for us.

We would like to reiterate our stand that we are not safe in India. Delhi is a glaring example of the series of unabated and deliberate racial discrimination on us for our physical look and linguistic ascent that are different from the 'Indians.'

Quite often we are being singled out as different and inferior from the rest of the Indians and overcharged, branded, castigated, insulted and harassed by the local landlord, neighbourhood, shopkeepers, taxi & rickshaw drivers, officials and law enforcing agents. This year alone mention may be made of:

• On 17 April 2009 Giupuiliu Gangmei, a five year old Zeliangrong Naga girl, was raped and murdered in the broad daylight at Mahipalpur.
• On the night of September 20, 2009 a Chiru Naga boy from Manipur was severely beaten up with iron rod by local goons at Outram lines.
• On the night of 21 September 2009 a Moyon Naga women Manipur was molested and beaten up by the neighbour in Murnika Village.
• On 11 October 2009 a Naga husband and his wife were assaulted by a group of local goons. The police failed to register an FIR until it was widely protested.
• On 14 October 2009 local guys of in Nariana assaulted and attempted to rape a Mao Naga girl.
• On 24 October 2009 a 21 year old Arunachali girl was molested by a team of students of a government run school at Bharat Nagar.

We would like to assert that the Ramchanphi Honray Incident was a repetition of racism. We would like to make it very clear that the illegality of racism in our context may not be perceived from the legal paradigm alone. It has to be contextualized in a cultural milieu of the Indian political overtaking on us. Call it an Indian colonial situation or use a different term, the situation remains the same.

What is undisputed is that we, the mongoloid people who hailed from the northeastern part of India, are culturally and racially different from the rest of India. The difference is a reality. We are being forced to be in the Indian Union through executing historical fault-lines superimposed on us.

While the Unionism is being enforced on us, the inferior position that we enjoy within the Indian Union becomes a precondition for the Indian cultural racism that restricts us from enjoying social respect from the dominant Indians.

As a result, for more than five decades we are bearing with the racial injury inflicted on us. If the Indian law cannot practically place us to the category of the respectable, we need to frame our own law and defend ourselves.

Let us unite
Thanking you

Sd-
Human Rights Committee, MSAD


Apunbana Yaipharae
(Unity is Victory)

Manipur Students' Association Delhi (Estd. 1971)

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The sender can be contacted at msad(dot)manipur(at)gmail(dot)com
This PR was webcasted on October 30, 2009 .

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