Punjab police arrests YouTuber for 'a racist and anti-India' video

Paras Singh was held following an FIR filed by Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering

Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering: File picture

Umanand Jaiswal   |   TT  |  Guwahati   |   26.05.21: Punjab police on Tuesday arrested a YouTuber Paras Singh from Ludhiana following an FIR filed by Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering for “a racist and anti-India” video Singh had uploaded on Sunday triggering widespread anger and condemnation.

Besides Congress MLA Ering, FIRs were also filed by the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union, Adi Bane Kebang Youth Wing and All Arunachal Pradesh Youth Organization against Singh on Monday for his comments that Ering did “not” look like an Indian and that Arunachal Pradesh was “part” of China.

Arunachal police has booked him under Sections 124A (sedition)/153A and 505(2) of the IPC which deal with promoting enmity between groups.

The YouTuber from Punjab had uploaded the video in reaction to Ering’s May 21 letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting a ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India, said to be a new avatar of the popular mobile game PUBG banned last year, on security ground. 

Union minister of state for sports and MP from Arunachal Pradesh Kiren Rijiju took to his twitter handle to break the news of Singh’s arrest on Tuesday and that he has spoken to Ludhiana police commissioner to ensure Singh’s “urgent” transit remand since it was a “inter-state remand” so that he can be taken to Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh DGP R.P. Upadhyaya told The Telegraph that a three-member police team, led by inspector Techi Vijay, left for Chandigarh on Tuesday with a non-bailable warrant against Singh.

“He has been booked for sedition and spreading racial hatred. In the video, Singh is heard saying ‘from his (Ering) face he does not look like an Indian, looks like a Chinese’, and pointing to a map of Arunachal says  it is ‘part’ of China,” Upadhyaya said.    

China claims the frontier state to be a part of southern Tibet, a claim dismissed by India which sees Arunachal as its integral and inalienable part.

The video has evoked strong reaction.

Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said the video aimed at “inciting ill will and hatred towards the people of Arunachal Pradesh”.

Deputy chief minister Chowna Mein, condemning the “racist and arrogant act” of Singh, tweeted, “We are proud to be a State in the Union of India where even in the interior most we greet each other with a ‘Jai Hind’ and primary school children even in the border villages sing ‘Saare Jahaan se Achha, Hindustan Hamara’ with pride.”

In another tweet, he said, “To doubt our nationality because of how we look is a problem most of us from the North East of India face regularly in the mainland. What we look like, how we dress, what we eat and how we live makes us no less Indian.”