Students and young professionals from the north-eastern states who are forced to move out of their hearths and homes to study or work outside the region have long felt slighted and in many cases have been subjected to racial abuse. The word “Chinki” to define all North-easterners because of their Tibeto-Burman or Austro-Asiatic features is not just disdainful but outright racist. Yet the chief ministers of the 7 states have never made an issue out of the fact that their people are subjected to such racial slurs. This issue has not been raised in parliament. Only now the two MPs from Meghalaya have made public statements against the crime committed on Angel Chakma, a young MBA Final year student who became a victim of a violent racial attack in DehraDun on December 9 last and succumbed to his injuries on December 26.
Considering that Anjel Chakma a Buddhist by faith is not the first to have become a victim of racial attacks and that others too have died or faced extreme harassment, it is rather strange that the Home Minister of the country has said nothing to assuage the feeling of the people of North East India who feel alienated at the moment for reasons they are not responsible for – their looks. When Nido Taniam a young man from Arunachal Pradesh was similarly taunted because of his hair colour, he protested. Taniam was beaten to death with rods and sticks and died as a result. This happened in February 2014. Following this incident the UPA Government then set up a Committee headed by retired IAS officer MP Bezbaruah. The Committee submitted its report and recommendations in July 2014 by which time the NDA Government had come to power. The recommendations were categorised into four broad groups such as creating awareness about the North East; quick, strong and fair action by law enforcing agencies; institutional guidance, help, information, counselling and orientation for students of North East before they leave the region and legal and legislative measures to support the efforts.
The key recommendation was for creating strict laws to address racial abuse under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (now BNS) and the offence should be cognizable and non-bailable. The FIR should be duly registered and investigation completed within 60 days by a special squad. It was also recommended that a special prosecutor be appointed for such cases of racial abuse and the trial should be completed within 90 days. It was also suggested that the IPC would be amended to include, “word, gesture or act intended to insult a member of a particular racial group or of any race,” and that a panel of lawyers should be appointed for legal assistance and consultation over mobile phone or email. The suggestion was that 50% of the panel members should be women and also that preference be given to lawyers from the North East. Sadly, none of the recommendations have been implemented so far. State Governments of the seven states should demand that the Bezbaruah Committee Recommendations be brought out by the Ministry of Home Affairs and strictly implemented in letter and spirit.
