Bangalore: Engineering student from Manipur beaten up for not speaking Kannada

In a shocking incident in Bangalore, an engineering student from North East was mercilessly attacked by a group of men. His 'offence' was speaking in English rather than the local Kannada language. 

According to media reports, 26 year old Michael Lamjathang Haokip from Manipur went to a local restaurant in Bangalore on Tuesday to have dinner with his friends. The group was speaking in English when some men encountered them and asked them to talk in Kannada. According to Micheal the Kannadiga men said, “Your are eating Kannada food and living in Karnataka, why don't you speak in Kannada?”.

3 locals beat me up saying,you eat Kannada food, shud speak Kannada too: T Michael Lamjathang, Manipur student pic.twitter.com/CAsOh8zKs5

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 15, 2014

An argument followed and the accused pelted stones on him.

Michael was hit on his head and back. He had to undergo five stitches. Micheal's friends also sustained mild injuries. Michael lodged a report with the police and all the three accused have been arrested. All the three accused are said to be local taxi drivers. 

Alok Kumar,Addtnl CP on student attacked in B'lore : 3 ppl have been arrested,will take stringent action against them pic.twitter.com/NaLEkzZLBf

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 15, 2014

According to Micheal, the incident took place in the Kothanur area past midnight on Tuesday night. This is the latest in a series of incidents where people from North East have been targeted in Indian metros. Bangalore is currently home to around 240,000 people from the North-East. In 2012, a rumour that they would be attacked had led to a mass exodus before things were brought under control by the state government. The matter lead to uproar in the Parliament and all parties pledged to work towards eradicating such a menace. 

But in reality, such incidents haven't abated at all. In January this year, 19-year-old Nido Taniam from Arunachal Pradesh died after being beaten up with iron rods by shopkeepers. There have been also similar other incidents of hate crime in the capital.