34 NE MPs need one voice to solve racial problems at Delhi

Oken Jeet Sandham *

Rally against Racial Discrimination on NE at Delhi on 29th Dec 2008 :: Pix - Malem Ningthouja (MSAD)

The violence perpetrated on the northeast students including girls by the locals and their landlord in nation's capital and also the Police's subsequent refusal to admit their FIRs against the culprits is only the repetition of the past. On many occasions, most of the crimes, which could have been averted, took place due to the inattentiveness of the Police personnel in Delhi.

This year in the month of January, a northeast girl again was raped in Delhi by a man who offered her a lift from near her office. Soon after the incident, a complaint was lodged with the Dwarka Sector 23 Police next day morning, but the police did not act. So when the police did not act swiftly and timely, the arrest of any culprits was almost impossible.

We have highlighted number of horrifying incidents the northeast students underwent in the past not only in nation's capital but also other major cities of the country. It is a pity that in most of the cases, the law enforcement agencies behaved in a similar fashion, leading to encouraging those perpetrators.

A girl from the northeast was abducted and gang-raped by 4 car born miscreants in Delhi some eight years back. There were wide spread condemnation and protests against the crime in the capital and even the Parliament was rocked not because she belongs to the northeast but the very behavioural attitudes shown by the capital cops. Had the cops taken prompt action as soon as the two friends of the victim informed them, she could have been rescued before the miscreants made any further advance to rape her.

The miscreants after about two hours of gang-raping the girl had the audacity to come back to the spot from where she was initially abducted and dumped her there. By this time even, the Police was not seen around and this very attitude of theirs had inflamed the north-easterners. The Northeast MPs had stormed the Parliament and questioned the motives of the cops who made a mockery of the laws of the land.

After three months of this incident, another gory incident of stabbing two girls from the northeast took place at the infamous India Gate, Mumbai. One girl died on the spot while other was seriously wounded.

Soon after the sensational incidents, the Mumbai Police personnel who caught the killer tried to justify that the latter was unsound as he attacked several people including his own father and brother earlier in the day.

One wonders as to how the explanation could be taken as logically correct. If the killer had really attacked many people including his father earlier in the day, there must have been enough alarm and they could have nabbed him before committing another crime. But there was no such sign till the killer attacked the unfortunate two girls from the Northeast at the world's famed "India Gate' at about 05:45 P.M.

Therefore, the Mumbai episode remains mysterious till date. One wondered whether the Mumbai Police in fear of reprisal from the north-eastern people tried to paint the whole scenario as done by an unsound man so as the matter could rest there abruptly. Regrettably, nobody questioned so far why the alleged deranged man was allowed to go on killing spree throughout the day with impunity.

Sadly, nobody dared alarm about the terrified acts of the killer nor did they try to help the victims lying in a pool of blood on the ground except one person who picked the girls up and managed to reach them to the hospitals.

The Delhi Police's refusal to admit FIRs filed by northeast students was not new. But there is a new development that the Police in Delhi started threatening those Northeast students who brought criminal cases to their notice.

There were instances where even the Delhi police joined bashing up northeast students. Sometime in the middle of September last year, an ASI and his two associates of the Delhi Police had to be suspended for allegedly abusing and assaulting of northeast boys. Initially, the Police higher ups were trying to hide the identities of their subordinate officers who were involved in abusing the northeast students but they had to act when the northeast MP Sanjay Takam intervened.

Most interesting development that used to happen sometimes was even the police personnel who were involved in assaulting northeast students could even manage to fabricate stories in collusion with doctors of the country's famed AIIMS that these boys were under the influence of alcohol.

Another sad part that used to happen in Delhi was whenever any rape, molestation and assault occurred on the northeast students; people in the locality were seen hardly coming in their rescue. In some instances, they allowed the accused fleeing from the scene. So sadly there is no sense of security in the minds of these helpless northeast students.

Thousands of students from the northeast are swarming Delhi alone annually for pursuing higher and other studies. The number is likely to increase in the next few years because of the unending political conflicts in the region. On one hand, the Northeast youth are frustrated due to the prevailing situation; on the other, their security elsewhere in the country including Delhi is not secure.

We are happy that the Centre had already laid foundation stone for a 500-bedded hostel for the Northeast girls studying in Delhi. We need more such hostels for the northeast students studying in the national's capital.

At the same time, we along with our 34 MPs from the region still need to play an effective role in the capital to create a sense of oneness and security. Out of these 34 MPs, some of them are Ministers in the UPA Ministry. One of them is holding in-charge of the Department of North East Region (DoNER). We should also tell those personnel who refused to entertain FIR or threatened Northeast students that what they did is not only against the law of the land but it will also bring a serious gap between the people of the region and the mainland people.

To certain extent, we can expect solution to this uncultured behaviour of some cops in Delhi, when our 34 MPs with a single voice rise against the racial discrimination on the floor of Parliament.