Discriminated at Jama Masjid, North-East Girl Takes to FB Live
The girl who is a student of the Law Faculty of DU shared her ordeal on a live feed on Facebook from Jama Masjid.
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A North-Eastern girl and her group of five students that included a German national were harassed in Jama Masjid with the ulterior motive of extortion of money.
The girl, Niyang Pertin, a student of the Law Faculty of Delhi University shared her ordeal on a live feed on Facebook from the Jama Masjid.
Pertin said that three men blocked them at the gate and demanded an entry fee of Rs 300 to allow them to carry their mobile phones inside, despite the fact that the entry is supposed to be free, at least for Indians.
Watch the Facebook live below:
When they argued that the other visitors weren’t being charged any money even though they were openly flaunting their phones within the premises of the mosques, the men changed their initial objection and told the students they were not suitably dressed to be let into the place of worship.
Pertin has written an open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, urging him to take action against such incidents of bias which is not at all uncommon in India.
Racial harassment is barely a new thing in a country like India, where the whole of North East is akin to China or Japan for most.
When The Quint reached to Pertin, she said that such events have occurred so often, that people from Northeast are “conditioned to carry IDs” to prove their nationalities.
Pertin stressed on the importance for a reform in school curriculums for a grassroots change in perception about Northeast India, than simply rely on government policies.
MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju was swift to take up the issue.
In an earlier incident, a resident of Imphal had reached out to Rijiju over an incident of racial bias. Despite the fact that action was taken against the perpetrators, such incidents continue to happen everyday.