Agartala, Oct 21 — Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Wednesday directed the state Director General of Police (DGP) G.S. Rao to coordinate with the Delhi Police over alleged derogatory remarks made by a content creator in the national capital against a young tribal man from the state.
A senior official of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said that Chief Minister Saha had asked DGP Rao to coordinate with the Delhi Police over the alleged racial harassment of the tribal youth from Tripura by the content creator. “Law will take its course of action,” a post on the CMO’s X handle said.
The alleged racial harassment of a tribal youth from Tripura by a content creator in Delhi, identified as Amir Shokeen, has triggered a major controversy in the state.
Political parties and leaders in Tripura, including the CPI (M), Congress and Tipra Motha Party (TMP), have strongly condemned the reported incident and demanded action against the content creator.
Two youth and student organisations affiliated with the TMP have also lodged police complaints in Agartala against Shokeen over an allegedly racist video targeting a youth from the state and containing derogatory remarks.
The Youth Tipra Federation (YTF) and the TIPRA Indigenous Students' Federation (TISF) submitted their complaints at the NCC Police Station in Agartala, urging the police to initiate legal action over the video circulated on social media.
According to the complaint filed by the TISF, the video, allegedly uploaded on September 19, shows Shokeen making racial remarks and offensive gestures towards an indigenous youth from Tripura during an interaction in Delhi. The complaint alleged that the youth was repeatedly called “Chinese” and that the name of Tripura was distorted into an obscene expression.
However, in the latest development on Wednesday, Shokeen apologised after the offensive video surfaced on social media and triggered widespread backlash. In a Facebook post, Shokeen claimed that the video was scripted and that the man featured in it was known to him. He said the man had previously worked at a friend’s cafe in Ahmedabad and described the exchange as a humorous video in which both of them were joking.
Shokeen maintained that he had no intention of insulting anyone through the video.
Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Assembly and CPI (M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, TMP founder and ruling BJP ally Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, senior Congress MLA and former minister Birajit Sinha, and several other senior leaders have strongly condemned the alleged incident and demanded action against Shokeen.
The controversy has brought the issue of alleged racial discrimination against people from the Northeast into focus, with political leaders and organisations in Tripura calling for appropriate action over the reported remarks.