Dimapur, April 9: The Naga Hoho (NH) has expressed concerned over aggressive racist profiling, slurs, attacks and discrimination of people from Northeast region are subjected to in cities during the nationwide lockdown.
“There are cases reported from many places. There are also many cases which are not being reported. Many suffer such indignity silently,” it said.
Citing some examples, the NH said two women from Manipur, one in Delhi and the other in Mumbai were spat on by bikers and both were called ‘Corona,’ while in Ahmedabad 9 women from Nagaland were picked up for forced testing and quarantine. In Mysore and Hyderabad some students were not allowed to enter grocery stores to buy essentials and in Kolkata a 24 year old from Sikkim who was unwell was denied entry in two hospitals, and later summoned by the police and locked in an isolation ward with others suspected of covid-19.
“While the case of racism is not new associating a pandemic to a race is unacceptable,” it stated.
In this connection, the Naga Hoho appealed to the Chief Ministers and MPs of Northeast states to reach out to the Prime Minister of India and urge for the safety and security of the people living in different cities and direct every state to take up cases of racism stringently and sensitize the police and people.
“India is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and with a long history of caste and racism should have anti-racial law in place,” it said while placing on record that no one, even if they are not Indians or are from India, should face racism in the country. (Page News Service)
