New Delhi:
Rejecting the contention that students from the north eastern states are subjected to discrimination and racial profiling, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that the Government will take every step to ensure their security and asked states to do the same.
"The Government of India will take every step to ensure their security and I am confident that all state governments will discharge their constitutional responsibilities to ensure the safety and security of all people residing within that state," Mr Chidambaram said in Rajya Sabha.
He was responding to a calling attention notice by Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley in the wake of deaths of two students from north-east in Gurgaon, Haryana and Bengaluru.
Mr Chidambaram said the state governments were primarily responsible for the prevention of crimes arising out of discrimination, adding, the Centre accorded "highest importance to development of north-eastern region as well as prevention of atrocities against Schedule Tribe and will not countenance discrimination in any form."
Referring to the recent death of Dana Sangma in Gurgaon near Delhi and of Richard Loitam in Bengaluru besides allegations of racial profiling against Tibetans during the recent BRICS summit, he said these have caused disquiet and agitation among the community, specially students from the region. He said the police are investigating the deaths of both Dana Sangma and Richard Loitam after registering cases and conducting post-mortems.
Dana Sangma, a student from Meghalaya committed suicide due to alleged "discrimination" by the Amity University authorities in Gurgaon. Her body was found in her hostel room on April 24. She had been allegedly humiliated by an invigilator, who reportedly tore her answer sheet, after claiming to have caught her cheating in the exams.
Students and friends alleged that she was racially targeted and couldn't handle the humiliation.
Today Amity's Vice-Chancellor and Co-Vice-Chancellor said the rules of the college were applicable to all students and there was no discrimination towards her. "When caught with a mobile phone in the exam hall, exact same process was applied which is applied to other students in case of mobile phones being caught with students," Padmakali Banerjee, the Co Vice Chancellor of Amity University, said at press conference.
The college also said that her answer sheet wasn't torn and no abusive language was used as was alleged by some students to the media. The college authorities maintain that they are cooperating with investigators but the issue had turned into a needless political controversy.