#dnaEdit: Fatal racial prejudice

It’s time to face the bitter truth if we still haven’t confronted it. Indians are as racist and intolerant as they come. They have narrow and fixed ideas about peoples and cultures, which give birth to stereotypes and often culminate in violence. They choose their targets carefully — Africans and people from the North-East are particularly vulnerable since they are a long way from home, with scant support system in an unforgiving city like Delhi. Shaloni, a Naga from Manipur, who was allegedly beaten to death by a group of six men late on Sunday night, was an easy prey for his attackers. It was wanton killing, driven by the perverse desire to teach Shaloni a lesson. His friends had fled when he was being beaten up, and by the time the police took him to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, there was little the doctors could do.

The Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju called it a “pre-planned unprovoked attack” while assuring the media “that the Home ministry would look into it”. There were similar assurances and passionate statements made in the wake of Nido Tania’s murder six months back. Tania used to be ridiculed for his distinctive hairstyle. The 20-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh had succumbed to injuries after being beaten up with sticks and rods, triggering protests on the streets of Delhi and a nationwide debate on racial discrimination. Politicians across party lines had condemned the murder and promised to put an end to hate crimes. The MP Bezbaruah Committee, set up in the aftermath to address security concerns of the people from North-East, has recommended a series of measures to the home ministry, including maintaining a database of the people from the region working in Indian cities and a sensitisation drive to alter the general and unfounded perception against North-Easterners. Meanwhile, ground reports evoke despondency as racial prejudice, manifesting in ugly forms, has taken on monstrous proportions. It’s now woven into our daily lives, colouring our interactions with people whom we consider strange and inferior.

The investigative agencies’ approach to racial hatred doesn’t reflect any special concern either. After all the outrage, CBI has booked Tania’s killers for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Contrary to Delhi police commissioner’s assertion that the police are sensitive to the plight of these people, it has been alleged that complaints on racial discrimination since Tania’s death have consistently failed to spur the force into action.

Tania and Shaloni’s deaths have shamed the country. They show the capital of a nation — that showcases its diversity to the world with much pomp and fanfare — in unflattering light. Delhi’s dubious reputation as a lawless city descends further with each such instance of bloodletting. The growing intolerance in cities, towns and villages is not a matter to be brushed aside since it rocks the very foundations of a pluralistic society that has for centuries accepted and integrated different faiths and ethnicities as part of its inclusive culture. 

The disputes leading to the two deaths were trivial and could have been settled amicably. Yet, violence appeared to be the only recourse and the easiest way to settle scores. If sticks, guns and bombs replace laws, we have a very serious crisis at hand.