After three ladies from Arunachal Pradesh accused their neighbor in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar of calling individuals from the northeast sex workers, condemnation spread throughout India.
At a time when India is celebrating the success of a northeastern film, Boong, in receiving a Bafta award for best children’s picture, the purportedly discriminatory episode is gaining widespread attention.
A woman is heard calling the Arunachali women momo in a supposedly recorded video of the Malviya Nagar incident, which is making the rounds on social media.
She also says, Rs 500 mei massage parlour mei kaam karne waali dhandhewali [You work at massage parlours as sex workers for Rs 500]… Are you sitting here to do business? Have you set up a massage parlor in your house?
The event occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. on February 20 while drilling and electrical installation work was being done in the women’s fourth floor apartment, according to the police.
A woman is seen accusing the Arnuachalis of sex work in the alleged footage of the altercation, while her husband asserts that they operate a massage parlor.
At the time of the altercation, a police officer was on the scene. The cop can also be seen stepping in and attempting to diffuse the tension in the footage.
In a social media post on Sunday, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma vehemently denounced the occurrence, stating that prejudice and discrimination against northeasterns must stop.
Anger has been heightened by the social media sharing of multiple footage of the incident. Many people advocated for quick action and showed support for the women.
As one user put it, Shameful! They must be taken into custody. Sisters, remain strong. The Northeast and we are on your side.
Similar calls for the accused woman’s arrest were made by numerous others: No Indian should be treated like a foreigner in their own country. It is important to publicly acknowledge that racism is about more than just skin color; it is about power and the attempt to minimize someone because you believe they are different.
An X (previously Twitter) user wrote, India is diverse, which is our strength. If we cannot respect that diversity in our own neighborhoods, then we have failed each other.
Another X user wrote: Kiren Rijiju Northeast people are facing racial abuse all around the country,” tagging Union minister Kiren Rijiju. They are our own people, and as a cabinet member in the current NDA government, you represent that area.
Try sleeping with my husband
According to the video and other reports of the incident, what started out as a little argument quickly descended into violence, with the three Arunachali ladies claiming that the couple threw insults and made racial and disparaging statements about them and those from northeast India.
The Arunachali woman claimed that his wife made an even more offensive statement after she questioned the man about his comments about owning a massage parlor.
His wife invited me to go sleep with him when I questioned him about why he was saying that, she said.
Try sleeping with my husband and see how much strength he has, the woman is heard saying in the video. You’ll find out since you own a massage parlor.
Arunachal Pradesh neighbor who intervened to diffuse the situation claimed she was verbally attacked as well. “The man’s wife kept boasting that her father is a customs officer and threatened me, saying ‘we’ll make you strip and dance,'” one neighbor claimed.
Additionally, according to the women, the couple falsely accused them of caste discrimination.
They claimed that we were pursuing them due to their caste, which is wholly false. One of the women remarked, “We don’t even think that way.”
“Instead of talking about the main issue, they started targeting the northeast,” an Arunachli woman who is studying for the UPSC exams. They insisted that individuals from the northeast are ignorant. We charge Rs 500 for ‘dhandhebazi’, or sex work. They even threatened to physically harm me.
Allegedly, the accused couple, who also share a building, went upstairs and started arguing with them about the drilling and installation waste.
They reside on the first floor, while we are on the fourth. To install an air conditioner, we had contacted an electrician. As he had to drill a small hole to fit a box, some dust fell onto the balcony of the neighbours on the ground floor. It was a minor issue, but they began abusing our electrician, she said.
We apologised and explained it wasn’t intentional, but they kept hurling more insults at us, the woman said, adding that the fight quickly became personal. She added they instantly apologised and claimed it was an accident.
We did not expect them to call the police since the dispute was minor, the women claimed, expressing disbelief at the couple’s decision to involve the police over what they considered to be a petty matter. However, they did, and they even filed a lawsuit against us.
She claimed that even after the police arrived and took note of our identities, the couple persisted in calling us names based on our race.
According to reports, Harsh Singh and his wife Ruby Jain are the subject of a formal complaint filed at the Malviya Nagar police station under BNS sections 79 (word intended to insult a woman’s modesty), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 3(5) (common intention), and 196 (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.).
The event, according to advocate Reena Rai, who is representing the three women, is indicative of the ongoing racial discrimination that northeastern residents of the nation’s capital suffer.
They ought to have given these women, who live far from home, a sense of security as neighbors. Instead, they made offensive comments and harassed them,
Also Read: IDFC FIRST Bank Reports ₹590 Crore Fraud at Chandigarh Branch
We share the same Indian heritage as everyone else. Just because we’re from the northeast, why do we get treated like outsiders? Our right to equality and decency extends to us as well.
