NE students call off agitation
NEW DELHI: Students from the Northeastern states, demanding justice over Nido Tania’s killing, called off their protest on Saturday after the Delhi Police assured them of speedy investigation.
A delegation of students union also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The protest was held at the Lajpat Nagar market in south Delhi where Nido Tania, 19, was mercilessly beaten up by two shopkeepers on Wednesday afternoon following a row over his appearance and clothing. He died at a hospital on Thursday.
Students from Arunachal Pradesh had threatened that they would hold an indefinite protest.
“The Delhi Police have accepted our demands and assured that investigation will be speeded up so we have called off our protest,” said JT Tagam, former president of Arunachal Pradesh Students Union.
Scores of protestors held placards, raised slogans against discrimination and demanded justice. Nido Tania was the son of Arunachal Pradesh Congress legislator Nido Pavitra.
“It is a shocking incident and it is not the first time. It is not just about people from northeast, people from outside always face discrimination here,” said a protestor.
A group of people from the northeastern states also met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Harsh Vardhan.
“I hope prime minister (Manmohan Singh), home minister (Sushilkumar Shinde) and chief minister (Kejriwal) will rise to the occasion,” the BJP leader said.
Activists and people from the northeast termed it a “racial attack” while the region’s parliamentarians said they would take up the matter with the prime minister.
Kejarwal, meanwhile, asked that a magistrate investigate the incident as well as the police response. “There is no place for elements trying to spread hatred against people belonging to any particular part of the country,” Kejriwal said in a statement.
Police detained two shopkeepers and launched a murder investigation on Friday night, after being criticized for doing little following Wednesday’s altercation. “We are questioning several people in the case,” said Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat.
Officials said 20-year-old Nido Tania had been on vacation from his studies in Jalandhar, Punjab, when he was beaten by New Delhi shopkeepers who had ridiculed his appearance. Tania died in sleep on Thursday morning and an autopsy was being conducted to determine a cause of death.
NESO CONDEMNATION: Meanwhile, the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) has condemned the murder Nido Taniam.
In statement issued here on Saturday, NESO Chairman Samuel Jyrwa said that the NESO has taken a serious note of Lajpat Nagar police station’s refusal to register a complaint against the group of persons.
According to the NESO leader, the Centre and Delhi government led by Aam Aadmi Party also failed to live upto the expectations of the people of the Northeast, by not acting promptly against the culprits.
He urged the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and Delhi Chief Minister to take adequate measures to prevent recurrence of targeting people from the North East, to ensure safety and safeguard of North East students, studying in other parts of the country and give severest punishment to all the culprits.