KOHIMA, Feb 28: The Global Naga Forum (GNF) “strongly condemns the shocking racially motivated assault and humiliation” of a Naga woman doctor in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. “According to multiple print and social media reports, the incident occurred on February 22, 2026, when the resident doctor of AIIMS Gorakhpur was harassed near Orion Mall and later followed to Gate No 2 of the institute campus”, the GNF said in a statement. She was allegedly subjected to racial slurs, sexually derogatory remarks, stalking and physical molestation, the GNF also said. “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 GNF added.
The statement then said there was another recent disturbing incident in Gorakhpur involving a young Naga woman who was racially profiled and intimidated in a public area. She was mocked for her appearance, verbally humiliated and made to feel unsafe solely because of her ethnicity, the GNF alleged. “These 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”, it added.
The GNF also said beyond Gorakhpur, 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. Three women from the Northeast were racially abused and humiliated in a residential locality in Delhi, the GNF said. Earlier, the killing of Anjel Chakma, a student from Tripura, showed how racially motivated hatred can escalate into fatal violence, it mentioned. “Taken together, these incidents and others before them reveal a recurring and dangerous pattern of racial hostility faced by Northeast citizens while studying, working and serving society in mainland India”, the Naga body said.
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The GNF then said it is against this backdrop of frequent verbal and physical violence against people of the northeast region that the Global Naga Forum expresses serious concern over a video interview in which Minister of Tourism & Higher Education, Nagaland, Temjen Imna Along, publicly argued that what Northeast people face in India is ’discrimination’ and not ‘racism.’ The GNF said the minister was contradicting and schooled on the difference between generic discrimination and structural racism in a video by the editor-in-chief of EastMojo in November 2025. “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 GNF also said.
The Naga body then said 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 further stated that 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 added.
The GNF then said it is especially dangerous when wrong notions on serious public matters such as racism are articulated in pursuit of political privilege or social-media popularity. It also said public representatives carry the responsibility to speak with clarity and sensitivity, not to normalise prejudice through careless assertions.
The GNF then 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. “Justice must be visible and unequivocal so that confidence among Northeast citizens is not further eroded”, it also said.
The Global Naga Forum then reiterated that racism against the people of the Northeast is real and a well-documented experience of the victims. “Acknowledging it is not divisive; refusing to acknowledge it only allows it to persist”, the GNF added. (NNN)
