A recent incident in the Capital has the Northeast students community fuming at the police for their discriminatory attitude
VR Ngarinthing (left) and his brother Shinmi
It was easy to miss the small gathering of youngsters bearing placards in front of the Sarojini Nagar police station on a busy evening. After all, protests are not an uncommon occurrence in the Capital. The words on the placard— 'The police must stop racial discrimination’— however, were.
Last week, a group of 50 Naga students, under the banner of the Naga Students Union Delhi (NSUD), came together to protest an act of discrimination by the Delhi Police. VR Ngaranthing (21) and his brother Shinmi (26), Nagas from Manipur, said that on the night of 10 September, after a scuffle with locals outside their Humayunpur residence, the police did not only act hostile and ask the locals to “beat them to death”, but Assistant Sub Inspector Shri Krishan also assaulted Shinmi and a friend of his at the AIIMS trauma centre.
The city police, however, gave a different account of the incident. A police official at the Sarojini Nagar police station told TEHELKA that the Naga boys, with three of their friends, attacked two locals after they objected to the boys’ public drinking. “It’s a regular incident when these people drink on the road,” insisted the official. "Their injuries are minor while one local boy suffered broken ribs and the other fractured a hand. To save themselves they have brought in the discrimination angle, to put pressure on us and divert blame. They often do that,” he said. The official also revealed that a blood alcohol test had been carried out on the two boys and the reports came out positive. TEHELKA was refused access to the report.
Ngaranthing and his friends, however, claimed that no blood alcohol test had been conducted on them. “The doctors at AIIMS while treating us even told the police, initially, that we were not drunk. Later the hospital authorities issued a report that said we were. It’s surely a case where the police influenced the report,” said Shinmi.
Leiyaza Wushu Wunga, Assistant General Secretary of NSUD and a former spokesperson for the Tankhul tribe, said that most of the time students from the Northeast are discriminated against, as they lack proper political backing. Citing a case in 2009, where two Naga boys were beaten up by the locals in the same fashion and the police were as intolerant, Leiyaza said that the case was solved in no time and the accused police personnel were suspended because Navin Brahma, the then Joint Secretary of Home Ministry was close to the tribe leaders. “But without such contacts the police often create hostile situation for our boys,” rued Leiyaza.
Madhu Chandra, a human rights activist and the convener for the organisation North-East Support Center & Helpline, said that the Delhi Police has made it a habit to harass the students and youth of Northeast. “These people are easy targets since they don’t have much support here. The police, instead of catching the perpetrators, often harass the Northeast boys as that solves the cases quickly,” said Chandra. “It’s the mindset of the mainland people that often discriminate and, in the process, alienate them,” she added.
Discrimination towards the students from the Northeast is widely practiced in the National capital. Sanjoy Takam, the Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh said, “The civilians always look at them with suspicion just because they look different.” “The police is even more suspicious towards these boys because they are from Northeast. It’s true that some anti-Government elements work in the region but that does not mean that anyone from the Northeast has to be looked upon suspiciously,” he added. This kind of treatment will have a bigger impact in the politics of the Northeast, the MP pointed out. “A distance has already been created between the Centre and the Northeastern states and alienating the youth will only make it worse,” warned Takam.
NSUD and the boys have demanded the suspension of the three policemen involved in the Humayunpur case. The police was supposed to announce their decision on 17 September after an internal probe. However, when NSUD members inquired about the outcome of the investigation, they were informed that the case had been handed over to the vigilance department and the decision was postponed indefinitely.
With no conclusive evidence against the police in sight, the wait for justice for Ngaranthing and Shinmi will be long, it seems.
Soumik Mukherjee is a trainee correspondent with Tehelka.com. soumik@tehelka.com
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