Defuse tension with Africans in India

It is unfortunate that after all the effort that the Narendra Modi government has been making to reach out to nations in Africa for stronger political and economic ties, the recent incident of a brutal assault on some African youth by a mob in a mall in Greater Noida area of the National Capital Region has soured relations with the community in New Delhi. That the chiefs of missions of 43 African countries have, in a statement, hit out at the Modi government complaining that it took no “known, sufficient and visible deterrent action” against the miscreants cannot be brushed aside lightly. The statement has described the attacks as ‘xenophobic and racial in nature’ and has expressed disappointment at the lack of response from the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of UP to whom they had written. Calling the attacks as racial may be an over-statement but there was little justification in not responding adequately to complaints from the African diplomats. Even the United Nations spokesman in New York has said it hopes that the perpetrators of the attacks on African nationals in India would be brought to justice. Evidently, the Indian version has not been adequately projected to the international community.

It is believed that the marauding youths were angry because a 17-year-old Indian youth, who was allegedly led into drugs by some African students, had died earlier due to an overdose of drugs, but this cannot be adequate reason for African youth to be attacked in a brutal way as reprisal. The violence erupted late on Monday after police in Greater Noida released five African students detained over the teenager’s death. Instructively, African students have been blamed in many countries for drug-taking and for being a corrupting influence on local youth. But while action under the law of the land cannot be faulted, it is the duty of the police to protect the students from mob assault. The inquiry that the authorities have ordered must be completed speedily and action must indeed be taken against the mob leaders. While the Indian government has rejected the stand taken by the African diplomats and has claimed that not many among the diplomats had signed the joint statement, there must be an honest effort made to unruffle the feathers. At the same time, it needs to be made clear to African students that drugs-related offences would be severely dealt with under the laws of the land.