New Delhi/Agartala: Union Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju strongly condemned the alleged racial and derogatory remarks made by a Delhi-based content creator against a tribal youth from Tripura, saying that the police will teach him a hard lesson.
The Central Minister said that the police in Delhi and Tripura will teach him a hard lesson for his actions.
Rijiju, who joined many other leaders to condemn the action, wrote on X, “This evil man will be punished. There was delay in lodging the official complaint but Delhi Police and Tripura Police will teach him a hard lesson. People who tolerate such wicked behavior in the society are also responsible for the spread of hatred.”
The reported racial harassment of a tribal youth from Tripura by a content creator in Delhi, identified as Amir Shokeen, has triggered a major controversy in the Northeastern region.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha already directed the state Director General of Police (DGP) G.S. Rao to coordinate with the Delhi Police over alleged derogatory remarks made by the content creator in the national capital against a young tribal man from the state.
A senior official in Agartala said that the Tripura Police have identified the victim and are in touch with him.
“An FIR has already been registered, and teams will shortly leave under a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) level officer,” the official said.
Political parties and leaders in Tripura, including the CPI(M), Congress and Tipra Motha Party (TMP), have strongly condemned the reported incident and demanded action against the content creator.
CPI(M)’s two youth organisations — Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Tribal Youth Federation (TYF) and two youth and student organisations affiliated with the TMP — Youth Tipra Federation (YTF) and the TIPRA Indigenous Students’ Federation (TISF) — have also lodged police complaints in Agartala against Shokeen over an allegedly racist video targeting a youth from the state and containing derogatory remarks.
All the youth and student organisations urged the police to initiate legal action over the video circulated on social media.
According to the complaint filed by the TISF, the video, allegedly uploaded on September 19, shows Shokeen making racial remarks and offensive gestures towards an indigenous youth from Tripura during an interaction in Delhi.
The complaint alleged that the youth was repeatedly called “Chinese” and that the name of Tripura was distorted into an obscene expression.
However, in the latest development on Wednesday, Shokeen apologised after the offensive video surfaced on social media. In a Facebook post, Shokeen claimed that the video was scripted and that the man featured in it was known to him.
He said the man had previously worked at a friend’s cafe in Ahmedabad and described the exchange as a humorous video in which both were joking.
Shokeen maintained that he had no intention of insulting anyone through the video.
Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Assembly and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, TMP founder and ruling BJP ally Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, senior Congress MLA and former Minister Birajit Sinha, and several other senior leaders have strongly condemned the alleged incident and demanded action against Shokeen.
The controversy has brought the issue of alleged racial discrimination against people from the Northeast into focus, with political leaders and organisations in Tripura calling for appropriate action over the reported remarks.
Demanding Amir Shokeen be brought to Tripura, TMP supremo Debbarma, in a Facebook post, on Thursday, said, “We will show him our history and an example needs to be made of him so this disgusting act is not repeated by anyone.”
“I have also spoken to the victim who happens to be from Ananda Bazaar area in Kanchanpur (in northern Tripura) and offered him all help if he wants to return to our state,” he said.
(IANS)
