In what appears to be a hate crime in Bangalore, 26-year-old engineering student T Michael Lamjathang Haokip from Manipur was attacked past midnight by three alleged cab drivers, Times Now reports.
This isn’t the first time and we’re afraid it isn’t the last. In fact today, just a day after the attack on a Manipuri man in Bangalore, two young men from Nagaland have been beaten up near Delhi by a local gang, reports Hindustan Times.
And guess what they were allegedly told while being assaulted? “If you were from Manipur, we would have killed you.”
What happened
According to CNN-IBN, two others, Ngamkholen Haokip, 28, and Rocky Kipgen, 25, who were with Michael when he was attacked also sustained minor injuries.
“They hit me with stones because I was speaking in the Thadou language. I got five stitches. I have filed a complain. This was a racist attack,” Michael told the news channel.
When has it happened before
While the two men from Nagaland are still being treated for injuries at the Civil Hospital one wonders why cases of racist hate crime are on the rise.
In July a couple from northeast was attacked by four men in Gurgaon. Two months prior to that, a Delhi University Law student from Nagaland was molested by a lawyer at a metro station. When she took the matter to court along with some friends, they got beaten up and threatened by a gang of lawyers.
Fresh from the scars of Nido Taniam’s death, where the 19-year-old son of Arunachal Pradesh Congress MLA was attacked with iron rods by shopkeepers in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar in January, two Manipuri women were assaulted by men who hurled racist abuses at them.
The protests that followed Taniam’s death did bring about some much needed awareness. But the dialogue needs to continue.
(reports collected from Firstpost)
What can we do
We know you’re bothered by the situation as much as we are. And you’re probably wondering what that single important question is.
The question is, “Where does racism stop?”
And the answer is, “It stops with you.”
Here are three things you need to do to stop racism:
1. Every time someone makes a racist joke, you speak up.
“Abe do you think she can see anything? Such small eyes these people have.”
– “She sure sees your stupidity.”
2. Every time someone propagates a racial stereotype, you butt in.
“Bongs are ‘liberal’ man. She’s totally available, look at her clothes if you don’t believe me.”
– “Liberal AND intelligent. And I don’t think such far opposites attract.”
3. Every single time someone is abusive towards someone for being the ‘other’, you STOP them.
“He is so disgustingly black. If I did something to him at night, no one would find out.”
– “What the hell do you mean? You want to hit someone because they aren’t your color?”
