‘We are one country’: SC voices concern over assault on Kerala students in Delhi
New Delhi: "We are one country," the Supreme Court stressed on Tuesday while expressing deep concern over an incident in the national capital where two students from Kerala were allegedly attacked near the Red Fort.
The students were reportedly assaulted by police and locals, "coerced" to speak Hindi, and mocked for wearing traditional attire of their state.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe noted that it was troubling that individuals in the country were being targeted due to cultural or racial differences.
The victims are first-year students at Delhi University's Zakir Husain Delhi College. They were allegedly humiliated and "coerced" to speak Hindi because they were wearing a 'mundu'.
The top court was reviewing a petition filed in 2015 following a series of attacks on people from Northeast India, including the death of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in Delhi.
Earlier, the court had directed the Centre to establish a monitoring committee with the authority to take strict action in cases of racial discrimination, atrocities and violence, and recommend measures to curb such incidents.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, representing the Centre, stated that a monitoring committee has already been formed and that nothing further remains in the petition.
This submission was contested by the petitioner’s counsel, who argued that racial discrimination and exclusion of Northeast people still persist.
The bench remarked, "We read in the newspaper recently that a man from Kerala was ridiculed for wearing a lungi in Delhi. This is unacceptable in a country where people live in harmony. You should be more bothered about it. We are one country."
The court was informed that the monitoring committee, which is supposed to meet quarterly, has convened only 14 times in nine years. The apex court has now directed the petitioner to file a response on the Centre’s status report.
PTI