Shady solutions
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: Ocotber 18, 2014 -

The death of Nido Tania, a 19-year old student from Arunachal Pradesh, a day after he was attacked by some shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar market of South Delhi following an alternation provoked by a racist comment on the colour of his hair on January 30.

The assault on two young hapless women from Manipur in full public view by some local goons at Kotla Mubarakpur five days earlier after the prank targeting them misfired.

The rape of a 14-year old minor girl from Manipur by her landlord’s 18-year old son in Munirka area of South Delhi on February 7 night.

The brutal assault on two Manipuri youths by a group of motorcyclists in Ambedkar Nagar area of south Delhi on February 9 and the latest incident of robbing a 20-year-old student from Manipur by four men in Nizamuddin area when he went to buy a recharge coupon for his mobile phone on February 10.

The brutal assault of two Nagaland students at Gurgaon and three Manipuri students at Banglore for not speaking Kannada just recently have brought the issue of racism to the forefront.

All these incidents have taken place in such quick succession that one is left simply dumbfounded.

Is it mere coincidence that all these incidents have come to light one after the other or is it opening up of the deep-rooted hate that some people harboured against people of Northeast origin in other parts of the country, particularly the National Capital Region (NCR)?

This is a question that we need to find an answer for proper understanding of the issue of racial discrimination perpetrated towards people of Northeast origin.

Only then, one could come up with at least some effective measures to deal with the problem of escalating hate crimes against Northeast people.

It is interesting to note how some of the measures that have been put in place or proposed in the name of ensuring protection to people of Northeast origin in other parts of the country and the clamour of the political class to outdo each other in trying to show off themselves as true friends of the victimised Northeast people have fallen flat on their own faces, revealing how wretchedly incapable they are of addressing the issue, let alone finding a solution to the problem, which they themselves have denied its existence for so long.

After the recent announcement of the Delhi police to organise self-defense training sessions for the north-easterners residing in Delhi to ensure their protection from racial discrimination in the National capital, Bangalore University has come up with an ambitious plan to set up a separate hostel for students from the Northeast region to protect them from being targeted, racially or otherwise.

As we had questioned earlier on the rationale behind the decision of the Delhi police to impart self-defence training to people of Northeast origin, which would only lead to more ugly confrontations while at the same time stereotyping people from Northeast as aggressive savages, how the isolation of students from the Northeast region in a separate hostel away from the rest, along with installing CCTV cameras and making security arrangements, etc, is actually going to ensure their safety and protection from the hate crimes, which originated from the very mindset of the perpetrators?

Perhaps, the authorities of Bangalore University could enlighten us on this.