The hole within the Centre

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was only after the BBC worldwide broadcast news of the killing of Nido Tania by shopkeepers in Delhi ,that Delhi went into action and that too, with seeming reluctance after students of Delhi University who hail from the North-East region staged protest at the Arts Faculty building in North Campus demanding immediate arrest of the culprits in connection with Nido’s death. The Assam BJP had condemned the heinous crime which was unprovoked but in fact was committed by racist prejudice on account of Nido’s hairstyle. India is the foundation of several ancient cultures and most people boast about it but this murderous hooliganism in the country’s capital speaks volumes of the uncouth and uncivilized nature of most denizens of Delhi today.Heaping indignities on northeast people on the mainland is nothing new for it has been going on for many years now but this has aggravated in recent times. True, a journalist here and there has written something about such discrimination but has it left any impact? Editors of the big media houses also were caught napping and not reacting to the incident when it blew all over the streets of the nation’s capital. The shame may be on some people of New Delhi and for which the majority must bear the reputation. Those who did not have the guts to intervene when the incident happened right before them. But this is the disease of big cities. People prefer to turn away rather than get involved because such a nature is only meant for the movies where the celluloid hero can fight several ‘goondas’at one go. But not so in real life. As to the role of the police, it is even more disgraceful. They refused to take statements and complaints and it was only when a senior police officer, Robin Hibu, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh gave an order that the police were compelled to register the case. If one thing be true of the Delhi police, it is this … like their counterparts in Bollywood films they turn up at the last moment and pistol outstretched tell the villain in English: “You are under arrest!” Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi paid homage to Nido and assured the students at Janatar Mantar that he would ensure northeasterners get the respect they deserve. This is not the first instance that people from the northeast have stated that they are discriminated against. Is it surprisingly at all then that the cry for sovereignty is still heard ? More such cases coming to light will lend itself to the fervor for preference to live in isolation according to their own genius instead of kowtowing to the bigoted majority community with dust on their faces. Narendar Modi asserted that in Delhi when people meet each other they say “Jai Ramji ki” but in Arunachal they say “Jai Hind!” And the irony of it all, in the nation’s capital they killed a boy from this same state bordering China, whose people stood loyal to the Indian Army in the face of being mowed down by the Chinese army in Indo- China war … they killed him because they did’nt approve of his hairstyle. That level of ignorance in the nation’s capital is not a centre that will hold the nation together.