India must stop racism for unity's sake

Lester Rehoboam Makang *

Going by the trend of selective crimes of violence against the people from North East in different major cities like Delhi and Mumbai, one can safely draw the conclusion that racism is on the increase in India.

Evidently, racist attitude has come to be deeply ingrained in the minds of the mainland Indians and there is little doubt that the whole series of inhumane attacks on the members of Mongoloid group are racially motivated.

But what adds fuel to the flames is the wilful neglect and callousness on the part of the Indian administration and its security mechanism towards such ghastly incidents of racist violence which has literally given further impetus to the rise in racism in our so-called democratic society.

The recent rape and brutal murder of a Tangkhul girl Ramchanphy Hongray in the national capital unmistakably points to the disturbing facts mentioned above.

True to its form, the Delhi government only came up with a knee-jerk reaction and passed off as a neutral party. Even the law enforcement agencies are deliberately dilly-dallying in bringing the culprit to justice even though enough time has elapsed.

If it is not a denial of justice , then what is it?

Well, what did Indians feel when the Australian government failed to stop a spurt of alleged racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney some time back?

Did not it cause an uproar in India?

On the contrary, those incidents definitely hurt the feelings of the Indian masses as well as that of the rulling class. If so ,then why is the Indian government not showing any concerns over escalating crimes against the Norteastern community that are being committed before its very eyes?

This just goes to say something about the powers that be that smugs of a conspiracy of silence. Now the time has come for both the Union government as well as State governments to realise the looming threat rampant discrimination has posed to the collective unity of the country.

It is a great shame that while we are selling the idea of peace, coexistence and democracy to the international community , we are starved of the same ingredients back home.

Until and unless the Indian government puts an end to this evil practice, its profession of "Unity In Diversity" will always remain too far-fetched a notion.