Share
PTI NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 22
The Home Ministry today ordered a probe into allegation that employees of Northeast origin at an Ahmedabad hotel were asked to stay away during Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to the city. Sources said the Ministry asked the Intelligence Bureau to find out the veracity of the order and, if so, who issued it and why. There were also reports that Northeast origin employees at a mall in Ahmedabad were asked not to come for duty on the day Xi visited the Gujarat capital last week. The IB has been asked to send its findings by tomorrow after probing the allegations of both the incidents. The sources said that the Home Ministry ordered the probe taking serious objection to the allegations. Last week, taking umbrage at the reports, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had said, "It is an insult to the northeast. They doubted us as if we are not patriots. Are we not citizens of India? This is not good for the region." Meanwhile, the Arunachal Students' Union Delhi (ASUD) has also condemned the alleged "racial segregation" meted out to people from North-East during the Chinese President's visit. Keeping away employees from North East from hotels in Ahmedabad, where the Chinese Premier stayed, to "prevent any anti-China protest in respect to Tibet" is a great humiliation to the people of the region, the outfit said in a statement. "Are Northeasterners not Indian? Why do we have to prove our identity as Indian again and again? It is very disheartening when such discrimination and segregation comes from the top level," it said. The outfit lamented that government has "neither settled the issue of stapled visa nor has taken firm stand on Chinese showing Arunachal Pradesh in its political map".
Principal Correspondent Kohima, September 22
Nagaland Legislative Assembly Speaker Chotisuh Sazo has expressed displeasure over the discrimination and segregation of the North East people, including Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, during the recent visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The Speaker lamented that during the Chinese President’s stay at the Gujarat Hotel, the authorities had had issued order against the North East workers of the hotel ‘not to come work’ during his stay. It is very unfortunate to learn about such discrimination and segregation of the North East people, he said while stating that the people of the region should ‘strongly protest’ such act. The Speaker also regretted that the exclusion of the Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju’s name from the list of delegation to meet the Chinese President. “East, west, south or north we are all Indians. Our colours may be different but we should stand for unity in diversity,” he added. If such a Union minister is discriminated in such a manner, than how can we think the common men will be treated, he quipped. Meanwhile, the Speaker demanded a thorough probe into the order asking northeasterners to stay away and come clean to prove “their credibility’ towards the people of the region. “Although there have been reports of racial discrimination meted out to the northeasterners in various major cities mostly national capital, the recent racial segregation carried out against the northeasterners serving in hotels and malls in Ahmedabad, Gujarat by way of asking them to stay away from the areas in view of the Chinese President Xi Jingpin’s visit to the city is an outright insult and humiliation to the people of the region,” Sazo said in a statement today. He said the manner in which they have acted against the northeasterners at the city is unacceptable. The Speaker further stated these highly questionable racial discriminatory acts meted out to the northeasterners deserve to be condemned in the strongest term as it had come from the top level.