Turning into hate-crime perpetrators
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 13, 2014 -

What was intended for the good of all may at times be backfired if one is not careful enough in words and deeds.

And, this is equally application in the ongoing fight against the menace of racial discrimination that the people from Northeast region are subjected to in other parts of the country, more particularly in the National capital, Delhi.

On Wednesday, non-local businessmen in Imphal were forced to shut down their shops, shunned all business transactions and remained indoors following the 18-hour 'curfew' announced by the Joint Students' Coordinating Committee (JSCC) of six student bodies namely All Manipur Students Union (AMSU), Manipur Students' Federation (MSF), Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (DESAM), Students Union of Kangleipak (SUK), Kangleipak Students Association (KSA) and Apunba Ereipakki Maheiroi Sinpang Lup (AIMS).

Of course, the clampdown has been imposed by the umbrella body of the six student bodies in protest against the spike in incidents of racial attacks on people of Northeast origin in the national capital and the failure of the Government of Delhi, Centre, Manipur and other Northeastern States to safeguard the life and ensure dignity of every North Easterner living in other parts of the country, more particularly the National Capital either for study or employment.

However, while the efforts of the student bodies to take up the cudgel of fighting against racial discrimination is appreciable, singling out the non-local businessmen and forcing them to stay indoors by clamping curfew, could very give out a wrong signal to all.

From facing sneering remarks and abuses hurled on them on the roads to giving nicknames like 'chinki', 'chowmein' or 'momos', and from the difficulty of getting accommodation to questioning of their nationality everywhere they go, it is fact that racial discrimination is a part of daily life of the people from Northeast living in other parts of the country.

But the issue of racism against Northeast people remained ignored until some major incident like the death of Nido Tania, a 19-year old innocent student from Arunachal Pradesh, after he was brutally beaten up by a group of shopkeepers in South Delhi's Lajpat Nagar market, surfaces.

Fortunately this time, within days of Nido's death, a series of similar instances of racial attacks on Northeast people including rape of a minor girl from Manipur and physical assault on students, etc, have taken place for everyone, who for so long have remained on denial mode, to see and understand the harrowing existence that people of Northeast origin have to go through.

The problem faced by the Northeast people has also been compounded by the callous attitude of the Delhi police, who even refuse to register complaint of racial attacks.

In such a situation, the failure of the Government of Delhi, Centre, Manipur and other Northeast States to take up necessary actions and measures promptly to ensure protection of their own people from being made the target of hate crimes is surely condemnable.

So, more than the perpetrators of the hate-crimes, there is an urgent need to sensitise the Government and its machineries, and this should be our target.

But to achieve that target, why to make anyone scapegoat and turned ourselves no better than the same perpetrators of hate-crimes that we are trying to fight against?

Let's think over this.