The Ugly face of racism
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 10 2012 -
The incident of mob molestation of a Manipur woman in broad daylight at Bangalore on December 7 and the failure of the Karnataka Government and more particularly its police force to take action on the FIRs filed by the victim even after two days of the horrific incident, has once again exposed the insensitivity of Karnataka police towards people with Mongoloid features from the North East region.
It has also raised a big question mark over not only the safety measures assured to people from Northeast by the Karnataka Government in the wake of recent mass exodus of NE people from metropolitan cities across the country including Bangalore, but also over the tag of 'Best Indian city to live in' accorded to Bangalore by a survey of the global HR consultancy Mercer.
What is even more despicable in the latest incident is the attitude of the traffic police in giving a free hand (literally) to the unruly mob to indulge in racial prejudice against the lone and defenseless Manipuri woman, who is a theatre artiste and playwright.
The victim was just driving home from work and stopping at the traffic light at the DVG Road Junction in Basavanagudi area of the city when a speeding motor cycle bumped at the rear of her car, damaging the bumper.
However, when the woman got down to check the damage, the motor-cyclist starting abusing her using vulgar language and soon a group of passersby joined the motorcyclist in molesting her.
All these scenes were being unfolded despite the tall presence of a traffic policeman just across the road watching and enjoying.
Now the question is why the Karnataka Government and its police force are shying away from taking up prompt action on the two FIRs filed by the victim if they were sincere enough in their assurances of protecting the people from Northeast in Bangalore?
One of the FIRs has been filed against the motorcyclist who hit her car but let off by the traffic policeman and the other against a group of men and the policeman who shoved her and passed lewd and racist comments.
While we acknowledged that initiating action against the rowdy mob would be almost impossible as the terrified woman would be in no position to identity any of them, why the Karnataka Government and its Police Department are keeping silent over the accused traffic policeman, whose photograph had been flashed in almost every news channel and newspapers, is worrisome.
In fact, the whole Karnataka Police Department has refused to speak or give any comment over the issue.
This deafening silence on the part of Karnataka Government and its police force from taking up necessary action against their own erring personnel would only widen the gap of trust that they have been trying hard to narrow down after the recent mass exodus of NE people and no amount of survey reports that claim Bangalore to be the most live-able Indian city would help in undoing the harm that had been done.
It's high time for officials in higher echelons of Karnataka Government to realize that their avowed sensitivity to the issues on racism against NE people, which even Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh himself had vehemently denied earlier, has not definitely gone down to the lower level officials in khaki on the roads of the 'Best Indian city to live in'.
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