Shillong, February 2: Thousands of students belonging to different north eastern states on Sunday took out peace procession and protest march in Shillong protesting the killing of 19-year old Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Taniam, who had died after being assaulted by a group of shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi, and demanded justice.
Taniam, son of Arunachal Pradesh Congress MLA and parliamentary secretary in health and family welfare department Nido Pavitra, was beaten up by some shopkeepers following an altercation that was sparked because the shopkeepers made fun of his hairstyle.
Students from Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura joined in the protest rally which was organized by the Arunachal Students Union Shillong (ASUS).
The Khasi Students Union (KSU) members also joined in the protest rally along with students from the North Eastern Hill University and other colleges in the city.
The rally took off from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBF) premises to Khyndailad (Police Bazaar) before it rounded up at the Arunachal House in Cleve Colony.
The protested against racism and discrimination against North East students and people working and studying in Delhi and displayed placards demanding that such inequality treatment should be stopped.
Some of the slogans written on the placards read – “Mother India, we demand justice for Nido’s Life. Who decides, the colour for who?”, “Don’t treat us like Alien in our own Home”, “What is wrong in my hair colour”, “We are Indians”, “Change your perception, we are not foreigners”, “stop racism”, “our national capital is not safe for NE students”, “Beneath the armor of skin and bone and mind, most of our colours are amazingly the same” and others.
“We want justice and that the perpetrators of the heinous crime should immediately be arrested and punished as per law,” Kakyar Dulom, ASUS president said while condemning the Delhi police, especially those deputed in the area for failing in their duty, to stop the crime from taking place.
Dulom said that through this peace rally the students want to send a strong message across the country that they too are part and parcel of India and therefore not to victimize them.
Condemning against the inhuman act, ASUS spokesperson Tenzing Leta said, “Just because of his (Nido) hair colour, he was beaten up. In the Indian Constitution, there is no law that says you keep your hair like this or like that, so how can they judge a person from the colour of his hair,” adding “If Delhi people are sensitive, I don’t believe that they will treat people like this.”
Stating that this is not the first case of such racist attack in Delhi, Tenzing said, “Our demand from the union government is to ensure that such discrimination against the students from the region is not repeated.”- By Our Reporter
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