That citizens of India from the North-East face rampant discrimination in the rest of the country is a fact well documented. The situation becomes all the more acute in the country's capital, where thousands migrate to for jobs and higher education.
In the latest such incident, Niyang Pertin, a law student from Arunachal Pradesh, was asked to pay Rs 300 if she wanted to enter Delhi's famed Jama Masjid. In the video above, she provides her account of the incident.
While she repeatedly points out that the amount is not the problem, Pertin states that other people were allowed to go in without being charged anything. She says that this can only mean this is a case of discrimination. Even police intervention did not stop the Masjid authorities from asking money, she says.
The video was posted on Twitter by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who has said that he will look into the matter himself.
Vinatoli Yeptho’s Five Rules For Whomever It May Concern, an angry slam poem about the discrimination women from the North-East face, had gone viral a few months ago: “And if you still do not obey these rules, my forefathers were headhunters. I was born out of a clan of warriors. Remember the world’s hottest chilli is growing in my grandmother’s garden.”
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