New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday apologised to Manipuri girl Monika Khangembam, who alleged that an immigration officer at the Delhi’s IGI Airport had hurled racist remarks at her.
Taking note of the Facebook post by Monika in which she alleged that the immigration officer looked at her passport and said “Indian toh nahi lagti ho”, Sushma said that while the immigration department doesn’t fall under her minister, she would take up the matter with Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Monika had, on Saturday, alleged that an immigration officer at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport ‘humiliated’ her by repeatedly questioning her nationality while she was on her way to Seoul for a global women’s conference.
Monika Khangembam, a corporate communications professional, had written on her Facebook wall that the immigration officer asked questions like “How many states are there in India?”
When Khangembam told the official that she hailed from Manipur, he allegedly asked her to name the states Manipur shared its border with.
“I helplessly answer him as he is not proceeding with the process. And then he continues, ‘kaha se ho’. I said Manipur and he is like, ‘so tell me how many states Manipur shares borders with. Name them’. I totally lose it and I look away and roll my eyes and don’t answer. And he is still insisting me to answer. I said I was really getting late and he goes like, ‘aircraft aapko chodke kahi nahi jaa rahi. Aaram se jawab do’ (the aircraft will not fly without you).”
This is not the first incidence when people from Northeast have faced racism and discrimination. In December 2014, a 29-year-old Manipur man was brutally assaulted by a group of men in Gurgaon.
Earlier that year, 19-year-old Nido Taniam was also brutally beaten in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar locality who later succumbed to his injuries.
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