Kohima, February 27 (MExN): The Naga Peoples Front (NPF) and the Global Naga Forum (GNF) today condemned the alleged racially motivated assault and humiliation of a Naga woman doctor in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, and called for immediate action against those involved.
The Naga People’s Front (NPF) termed the incident as deeply disturbing and unacceptable. “Derogatory slurs, stereotyping, exclusion, and physical assault remain recurring experiences that undermine the guarantees of equality enshrined in Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution,” it stated in a press note.
The NPF advocated for the effective implementation of the recommendations of the Bezbaruah Committee, constituted to address concerns of people from the Northeast living outside their home region. The party urged the concerned authorities to ensure swift justice and stronger safeguards against such discrimination.
The NPF also affirmed that the Naga political movement is rooted in a long historical struggle for self-determination and the protection of Naga identity. “For decades, the Nagas have asserted their political and historical rights with clarity and determination. Notably, there is no history of institutional or systematic discrimination against non-locals in Nagaland. Individuals from other regions who come for business or livelihood have lived and worked peacefully among the Naga people,” it said.
“Standing for Naga rights does not imply hostility towards others,” the NPF said adding that mutual respect and peaceful coexistence must prevail.
The NPF added that it remains committed to “defending Naga identity and political rights while firmly opposing all forms of racial discrimination and injustice wherever they occur.”
In a press statement, the GNF said that “that such an incident took place in the vicinity of a premier national medical institution exposes the vulnerability of professionals from the Northeast even within public and institutional spaces,” the Forum stated.
According to the statement, citing multiple print and social media reports, the incident occurred on February 22, 2026, when a resident doctor of AIIMS Gorakhpur was harassed near Orion Mall and later followed to Gate No. 2 of the institute campus. She was allegedly subjected to racial slurs, sexually derogatory remarks, stalking, and physical molestation.
The GNF also referred to another recent incident in Gorakhpur involving a young Naga woman who was allegedly racially profiled and intimidated in a public area. She was mocked for her appearance and verbally humiliated, the statement said, adding that such incidents are “not isolated episodes of misconduct; they reflect a pattern of targeting women from Nagaland and neighboring states on the basis of their racial identity.”
Pointing to incidents beyond Gorakhpur, the Forum stated that “similar past and recent incidents in other cities leave no room for denying systemic, structural racism against people from the Northeast who do not look and sound like the people in India’s heartland.”
The GNF expressed concern over a video interview in which Nagaland’s Minister for Tourism and Higher Education, Temjen Imna Along, reportedly argued that what Northeast people face in India is “discrimination” and not “racism.” The Forum stated that the Minister “was rightly contradicted and schooled on the difference between generic discrimination and structural racism in a video by the Editor-in-Chief of EastMojo in November 2025,” and added, “We strongly stand in support of the Editor’s intervention.”
“When a public representative engages in public misinformation on an issue of such public consequence, as the Minister did, he legitimizes the denial of racism against minorities instead of helping to resolve the problem,” the statement read.
The Forum further cautioned that “positions on such serious issues, when taken lightly especially by those in authority, risk emboldening extremist and majoritarian elements in the country who already view the people from the Northeast as ‘outsiders’.” It added, “Statements that downplay racism will only encourage Akhand Bharat activists and like-minded groups to continue acts of racial abuse with greater impunity.”
“When students are killed, women are harassed, and professionals are attacked because of who they are, their ethnicity, one is compelled to question how such realities can be dismissed as mere ‘discrimination,’” the GNF stated.
It also said, “It is especially dangerous when wrong notions on serious public matters as racism are articulated in pursuit of political privilege or social-media popularity. Public representatives carry the responsibility to speak with clarity and sensitivity, not to normalize prejudice through careless assertions.”
The Forum appealed to the authorities in Uttar Pradesh to “immediately arrest the perpetrators involved in the Gorakhpur incidents, publicly identify those responsible, and ensure punishment under the law.”
