From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday directed concerned authorities to take stern action against those who are passing racial comments or showing racial behavior to the people of North East in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
During the video interaction with the chief ministers of different states, a distressed Prime Minister also condemned such racial prejudice and underlined that such cases need to be dealt with firmly, an official statement said after the interaction.
The people from the North East are increasingly facing racism and discrimination in the rest of the country since the outbreak of the coronavirus. In some cases, people have gone so far as to make official complaints against Northeasterners suspecting them to be victims or carriers of the dreaded disease because of their Mongolid features.
Alana Golmei, an activist and lawyer who sat on the Bezbaruah Committee reiterated her demand to deal with such cases of attack on North East people under a separate law prescribing stringent punishment on racial discrimination ground.
Several Chief Ministers from the North East have also demanded to stop such racial attack on people from region.