Northeastern girl alleges discrimination at Delhi's Jama Masjid, asks when will we be accepted as Indian

NEW DELHI: Discrimination against northeastern people is not news to people in New Delhi. And it has happened again.

A girl from

Arunachal Pradesh

named Niyang Pertin claimed that she, along with some of her friends, was discriminated against at old Delhi’s

Jama Masjid

on Wednesday.

Three men at Masjid's gate number 7, she alleged, asked them to pay Rs 300 to carry their phones inside, while others around her openly took their cell phones inside without anyone blinking an eye.

Union minister of state for home affairs, Kiren Rijiju, retweeted the video in which she narrated her experience, and assured Niyang that he will personally follow the incident. "Despite Home Ministry taking various steps to stop discrimination against the North-East people this still happened! I will follow it up," Rijiju tweeted.

Twitterati spoke unanimously against the discrimination meted out to the girl and messages of support and call for immediate action poured in.


"I and my friends were particularly targeted and asked to pay Rs 300 each to take mobile phones inside the premises of Jama Masjid. When we asked as to why only we are being charged, we were told to mind our own business," Niyang said in the video.

I don't know when the time will come when we will not be asked to prove our nationality and accepted as an Indian," she added.

Later, Niyang wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the issue to his attention and urged him to take action against such incidents of bias.


"People from the North-eastern part of India are no strangers to having to go through the ordeal of proving their nationality every time they visit any national monuments, parks etc. The sad part is we have gone through this so many times that we have slowly become conditioned to accept it and have our ID’s ready to prove our nationality during such trips within our own country. When will the government finally take up actions to check on this issue which is an everyday occurrence," she asked in the open letter that she has posted on her Facebook profile.