Some incidents due to cultural ignorance and lack of understanding, says Rijuju

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Wednesday a strict advisory was in the process of being issued to all States amid incidents of people from the northeast facing racial slur as COVID-19 spreads.

Mr. Rijiju, who represents Arunachal Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, also said the issue was taken up with the North East division in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“Some incidents of racial remarks against northeast people have emerged in some parts of India in the wake of #Coronavirus due to cultural ignorance, prejudice mindset & lack of understanding. Matter discussed with NE Division, MHA. Strict advisory is being issued to the States,” Mr. Rijiju tweeted.

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On March 17, Arunachal (East) MP Tapir Gao had also raised the issue in the House. Raising the matter during the Zero Hour, he requested the government to issue an advisory to all the States to protect students from the northeast who were “facing discrimination to the extent of vacating them from the rented apartments”.

“It is like double coronavirus for students from the northeast….students are asked to vacate hostels and rented accommodation after being subjected to racial comments like dekho dekho ye coronawala aaya (look the corona people are here)…This is a conspiracy to cut off the northeast from the rest of India through racial discrimination,” the BJP MP said.

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A few days ago, a video from Pune went viral where a woman covered her nose while standing next to a woman from Manipur at a grocery store. In the video, the Manipuri woman confronts the other woman for gesturing at her.

Wuhan in China had been the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak.