Opinion The EC touch

The Election Commission held a special voter registration camp in Delhi last week for Northeast residents of the city. Many turned up to enrol themselves as Delhi voters because, as one of them said, “when you vote, you matter”. In Delhi, a metropolis of migrants to which no one really belongs, few have felt the pangs of unbelonging as much as those who travel here from the eight states of the Northeast. The recent death of Arunachal Pradesh’s Nido Taniam in the city, at the hands of people who taunted him about his hair and then beat him up, has made them even less sure-footed on its streets. It’s the kind of violence that convinces a minority that they do not matter. It has  been rightly called out as racism, which also manifests itself in daily sniggers about appearance and food, and assumptions of sexual immorality.

While Taniam’s death provoked condemnation, and grandstanding, from many parties, the government responded on many levels, from a special police cell to a helpline, to a committee to address the concerns of people from the Northeast. The harder job of blunting the intolerance ingrained into society and institutions remains. In this context, the EC’s gesture at inclusion seems particularly apt, as it clears up a space of assertion for those at the receiving end of such discrimination.

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The voter card can be many things, a document that eases mundane problems like opening bank accounts, or a solution to the vexed question of identity in a hostile city for a community whose perceived foreignness is often hurled as an accusation. Despite the reality of the racism they face, many people from the Northeast are invested in the city and its economic possibilities — and this is one of the ways to lay claim to it.