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print versionStatement Addressed to the African Media and Civil Society Information Networks
Press Release
30 March 2017
We, representing concerned citizens of India, are extremely disturbed by the assault on 4 Nigerian students in Greater Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, adjoining Delhi. We condemn in the strongest possible terms these attacks carried out by a mob which chose to take law into its own hands on mere suspicion which has also since turned out, as confirmed by the local police, to have been without foundation. That these assaults were made on foreigners who have come to India in friendship and goodwill makes these even more reprehensible.
We are relieved that the four African students who were injured in these attacks are now reportedly safe and out of danger.
The incident nevertheless requires deep introspection on the part of the authorities and our polity and society as a whole. We find that a number of troubling tendencies that have recently come to the fore in our country appear to have converged in the Greater Noida incidents. First, discriminatory, restrictive and narrow-minded attitudes towards many of those who are seen by some of us as being different from ourselves whether in terms of colour, origin, opinions, mannerisms, lifestyle or in the degree of power, resources and influence they may or may not command, have strengthened over the years.
Second, not only some foreigners but also some of our own people have in recent times been targeted as a consequence of the growth of a mob mentality among sections of our people in recent years.
Third, there is an increasing tendency on the part of a section of our people to arrive at conclusions on the basis of unverified assumptions and, under cover of these, to take law into their own hands.
It is urgently necessary to call a halt to such brutality and to bring the miscreants responsible for such criminal conduct to book.
As concerned citizens we express our profound regret and deep sympathies to the families of victims of such fiendish behaviour which is shameful enough even without its racial overtone and compounded several times because of that reprehensible aspect. We would like to stress that mobs consisting of our fellow citizens which act in the way they did in Greater Noida are a disgrace to our society and do not represent our country or people. Our governments have made umpteen assurances in similar cases in the past but we earnestly expect that they will ensure exemplary punishment to the perpetrators. We expect our government also to meet all costs of treatment of victims and to provide protection to students and visitors from abroad and, more especially, those who come to our land from African countries. We are cognizant of the close interaction of the peoples of Africa and India in their struggle against colonial rule. We recall also the many historical connections that Indian and African peoples have had over the centuries both over land and sea. Our country has been host to many persons of African origin over the centuries who have become a living part of us. Likewise, we are cognizant of the many Indians who have found their home in Africa and have become a part of that great continent’s life and struggles. We are truly ashamed of what has happened and will strive to change the mindset that appears to lead to such acts.
Released via People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS)
Battini Rao, Convenor PADS (95339 75195, battini.rao[at]gmail.com
(The above release is available at: http://sacw.net/article13177.html )
[SEE ALSO:
An appeal to citizens of India regarding growing menace of attacks on our brothers and sisters from Africa http://sacw.net/article13178.html ]
