[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Centre’s acceptance of the M.P. Bezbaruah Committee recommendations with regard to immediate safety measures for the North East people in the metros is an encouraging development. However, this development is still a negligible parcel in combating racial discrimination against the North East people. The approach of the Central government in this connection is appreciable by all. But, this column would like to suggest that too much emphasis on the ‘head-on’ measures should not be encouraged. Such measures should not be the frame of the whole combating gear against the racial discrimination. In fact, too much focus on ‘head-on’ measures will bring detrimental results.Five years jail term and the likes have the potential of creating more problems than resolving the issue if not handled with care. So the authorities should take extra care that rooms for provocation do not crop up while implementing such direct measures.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the Central government has accepted the recommendations of the M.P. Bezbaruah Committee that has suggested immediate measures to ensure the safety of people from India’s northeast in Delhi and other major cities. He said the government is committed (to the) safety and security of the people from the northeast region living in Delhi and other metropolitan cities.
The committee headed by M.P. Bezbaruah, a member of the North Eastern Council (NEC), was formed in February, 2014 after 19-year-old Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, died in New Delhi after he was attacked. The Bezbaruah Committee was examining the concerns of people from the northeastern states living in other parts of India before it submitted its report to the Union home ministry. The Bezbaruah committee, in its report, has noted that there was the “most common demand” from people from North Eastern region was to make words like ‘Momos’, ‘Chinkis’, Chinese’, ‘Chichi Chu Chu’ or any other derogatory remarks relating to race, culture, identity or physical appearances to be made punisable.
Media reports said the Committee has “recommended a provision in Section 153 of IPC to provide for imprisonment up to five years with a fine to whoever, by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise attempts or promote to attempt on the ground of race or place of origin or such other grounds relating to racial features or to racial behaviour and culture or to racial customs or participates in such activity intending to use criminal force or violence...”
The provision for imprisonment will be there even if any person is “likely to cause fear or alarm or a feeling of insecurity amongst the members of that racial group.”
