Chidambaram denies discrimination against NE students

Chidambaram was speaking in the Rajya Sabha following a calling attention notice by Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley over the deaths of three northeast students in Gurgaon Delhi and Bangalore quotIt is not correct to say that students of northeast states are more vulnerable as compared to students from other regionsquot Chidambaram said replying to Jaitley who alleged quotracial profiling and discrimination towards students of northeast who go to different parts of the countryquot Dana Sangma the niece of Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma an MBA student in Amity University in Gurgaon was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her hostel room last month after a teacher allegedly accused her of cheating during exam This has been denied by the university Delhi University student Samiran Saikia from Assam also committed suicide due to examination pressure while Richard Loitam from Manipur was found dead in his room allegedly after being badly thrashed Chidambaram said police were investigating the deaths after registering cases and conducting postmortems Chidambaram said there was a quotsubtle discriminationquot against various sections of the society quotSometimes ago it was based on the language Sometimes it was based on regions Every south Indian who came to Delhi was called a Madrasi But things have changed nowquot said the minister who hails from the southern state of Tamil Nadu He said the government encourages quotlots of northeast people especially boys and girls coming to the rest of India for better opportunitiesquot quotTheir initial reaction will be sense of discrimination I am confident that this sense of discrimination will goquot he said adding that the government will take steps to ensure their security quotI am confident that all state governments will discharge their constitutional responsibilities to ensure the safety and security of all people residing within that statequot quotI wish to state categorically that any student belonging to northeast is free to travel and reside in any part of the country They have right to security and peace and governments are obliged to ensure their safety and securityquot He said far as Delhi is concerned a quotlot of measures have been takenquot Eight cases of offences against women from the northeastern state were registered in the capital in 2010 he said quotSeven of these have been worked out and 11 persons arrested In 2011 seven cases were registered six prosecuted and 10 people arrestedquot the home minister said He said the government in Delhi had designated deputy commissioner of policelevel officers as nodal officers to specifically address problems faced by students from northeast quotA northeast connect cell headed by a joint secretarylevel officer has been formed that serves as a coordination point with resident commissioners of eight northeastern states in the capitalquot he added Some members raised the issue of alleged racial profiling during the March 29 BRICS summit in Delhi during which police had detained some Tibetans amid apprehension that they would disrupt the high profile meeting attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao The police had also detained northeastern people who have Oriental features during the raid The police the home minister said quothave categorically stated that there was no racial profilingquot quotDuring the checking process some Indians including a few from the northeastern states were detained for a short while and let off as soon as their identities were confirmedquot u00a0