Unsolved case of Pravish Chanam : No answer even after 1 year
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 03 2018 -

If what the Youth Forum for Protection of Human Rights (YFPHR) has had to say is true then what now ?

If the CBI has said no to the approach of the Government of Uttar Pradesh to investigate the mysterious death of Pravis Chanam, what is the way forward ?

Importantly has the BJP led Government at Imphal taken note of the statement issued by YFPHR ?

If it is true then what is the stand of the Government on the issue ?

If it is wrong then fine, let the law take its own course of action.

The cry of the people should be understood in its correct perspective.

Pravis Chanam was not the first from Manipur to have met a mysterious end at the metros of India and there is so far nothing to suggest that this will be the last case either.

The cases are just too many. One just has to recall Loitam Richard, Reingamphy etal to recollect just two names at the moment.

No one seems to know what has happened to these cases underlining the point that ultimately it is only the dead who end up being the loser.

What is deeply disturbing is that racism seems to be deeply embedded in all these cases, raising the question if they would have ended up dead if they had only looked more like Indians.

It is in line with the increasing crimes against people of North East in the metros of India that the Government of India constituted the Bezbaruah Committee, after the murder of of a student from Arunachal Pradesh in New Delhi, Nido Tania in 2014.

But more than clear that even after the Bezbaruah Committee came up with an exhaustive list of steps to tackle the discrimination faced by North East people in the metros of India, the NE folks continue to be targeted, merely on the basis of their looks.

The question is, has the recommendations of the Bezbaruah Committee been seriously looked into by the Centre ?

Initially when the Committee submitted its recommendations, there were reports of the Government maintaining a stoic silence and four years down the line, what steps has the Centre taken up to implement the recommendations ?

The recommendations of the Bezbaruah Committee are recalled here, for there is the uneasy feeling that the death of Pravish Chanam could be linked to racial profiling, for which Delhi and NCR are infamous for.

The Act East Policy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fall flat on its face if such cases are allowed to be given the quiet burial.

If what YFPHR has alleged is true, then find out under what circumstances the CBI has refused to take up the case, even after the UP Government has approached it for the same.

The more important question is, whether the decision of the CBI has been relayed to the Government at Imphal.

It is already a year since the death of Pravish Chanam came to light and it is disturbing to note that far from making any progress into the investigation of the case, the question still is why the CBI turned down the directive to investigate the said case.

Loss of time means giving more time for vital clues to disappear and this is where one cannot help but see a design behind the delay to start the investigation.

It is this which is highly questionable.

Racial profiling of the NE people is still alive and kicking it seems.