Nagaland Minister tackles racial discrimination using humour; video goes viral

Nagaland Minister Temjen Imna Along has gone viral after using humour to address the very serious concern of racial profiling of Northeast Indians due to their unique features.

“People say Northeast Indians have small eyes. Eyes might be small, but we see very well,” Along said, to raucous applause at a recent public gathering.
The Minister went on to make another joke at his own expense, which was very well received by those in attendance.

“The advantage of having small eyes is that less dirt enters the eyes and when I have to attend a long programme, I can sleep discreetly,”

The clip of Along making the comments has gone viral after it was uploaded by ‘We the Nagas’.

“Much love from Delhi to all of our north eastern brothers and sisters ❤ You guys are pure ❤,” wrote an Instagram, while another said: “That sleeping thing i have done more than once and best part is i never got caught.”
Along, who is the Minister of Higher Education & Tribal Affairs, is not the first who has raised concerns about the racial profiling of Northeast Indians.

Minister Temjen Imna Along humor at its best.

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A 2021 study commissioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) on racial discrimination and hate crimes against people from the northeast States found that the “northeast India seamlessly fits [an] Indian’s imagination of a Chinese person”.

The study found that 78% of the people from the region who were interviewed believed that physical appearance was the most important reason for prejudice against them.
It needs mention here that the Bezbaruah Committee, headed by M.P. Bezbaruah, Member, North Eastern Council, was set up in February 2014 to listen to the issues raised by people from Northeast India living in other areas of the country, especially metro cities. The Committee filed its report with Ministry of Home Affairs on July 11, 2014.