DELHIITE XENOPHOBIA

Human first - we all are fellow Indians - when are we going to realize it?

Another case of sexual harassment of a girl from the Northeast in Delhi! A Naga girl from Manipur was assaulted on the night of October 17 in Timarpur area. She was molested at a public telephone booth and even then the molester is at large. Past experience tells us how active is the police going to be? A while ago an Assamese girl was raped! Some time ago a brother and sister were allegedly beaten on protesting to preserve their dignity and self-respect; it was followed by another two youngsters from the Northeast being beaten!

Increasing comments on immigrants by the power elite – is Delhi witnessing a percolation of Mumbai’s culture of open hatred against other Indians? Okay, politicians make comments but some of these politicians have grown the political ladder exploiting this xenophobic sentiment of masses only.

Its not just with immigrants from the Northeast, stereotyping efforts are being directed against people from other parts especially Eastern India and Haryana.

Delhi, being the Capital city (state if it really qualifies!) cannot be treated like a Mumbai or a Chennai or an Ahemedabad or to say any other state of dominion of the Federal India in being accorded an exclusive aura of citizenry for those who reside here. If it symbolizes the seat of power of the Indian nation, it must be allowed to inculcate a cosmopolitan culture encompassing all Indians. And yet, Municipal Corporation of Delhi is beginning to reserve 85% of its jobs for domiciled Delhiites.

• It’s not implicating all the Delhiites but how come a ‘Dilli Dil Waalon Ki’ be so insensitive!
• And we make so much of noise when we ‘Indians’ face such incidents in countries like Australia, UK or elsewhere!
• No rhetoric but figures tell it as evident from increasing number of cases and things are getting worse, it’s not just about stereotyping now!
• What else can we assume after increasing debates on themes like ‘girls or people from the Northeast easy target in Delhi!’ though ‘these very easy targets’ and multitudes of other migrants and professionals provide subsistence and growth to a large chunk of the middle class Delhi in the form of the rent they pay!
• Seventy-eight out of hundred people from North-East India living in Delhi face racial discrimination, with crime against women, human trafficking and violence against people from the community emerging as major concerns, reveals a research study by North-East Support Centre and Helpline (NESCH).
• Of the 96 criminal case studies involving people from the North-East based here, 58 per cent were crimes against women (including molestation, human trafficking, beating, rape and attempt to rape), 26 per cent crimes against men, 5 per cent murders, 6 per cent non-payment of salary, 3 per cent related to non-refund of rent deposit and missing persons and 1 per cent media bias.

Why migrants are commoditized as something to be exploited for some petty means to be gained!

• Sometimes Mr Chidambram, sometimes its CM, sometimes some other senior functionary – they simply namecall and question the sovereign rights of other fellow Indians – to come and stay at Delhi!
• The league is long with like of Shiv Sena, MNS and so-called ‘Marathi Pride’ – Gujarat is for Gujarati, Rajasthan for Rajasthani and similar sectarian voices coming from almost parts of India, it’s the only the matter of scale they are being raised at.
• And Delhi has been heartless, following somewhat like Beijing in removing its slum clusters in the name of modernization that is being attributed to its lowest decadal population growth rate since 1931. But the worry is there is no answer to where they’re gone. They are human beings like us!
• We need to denounce such practices: regionalism and sectarianism is that bane of India that can wipe out the only saving grace that we just have started to realize-the power of civil society with successful Binayak Sen and Anna Hazare campaigns.
• And it becomes imperative to act as soon and as sincerely as we can see how political fraternity is acting to derail the gains of the movement.

So it’s not that politicians are going to come forward to check this intensifying flame of regionalism as it doesn’t fit in their vote bank politics. It again comes to us-the civil society. Let’s denounce all such practices by fellow Indians of Delhi towards other fellow Indians!

We need the vital signs of a healthy democracy now and Delhi, being the Capital seat of India, should lead process of reform instead of complementing to the sectarian politics of the likes of Shiv Sena or MNS.