Black...? Then line up here, don’t jig!

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Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself, says the Holy Bible. But, are we doing it? Not, if one is to go by the experience of these Nigerian students. Their neighbours don’t want them. They’ve no place to go.

It was 53 years ago Martin Luther King Jr was introduced as 'an untouchable from the United States of America' to a group of students by their school principal when he was travelling in Thiruvananthapuram.

Recalling the uncharitable remarks Dr.King later said the episode forced him to think about fact that 20 million of his brothers and sisters were still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society.

“And, as I thought about this, I finally said to myself, yes, I am an untouchable and every Negro in the United States is an untouchable” Dr.King — one of the greatest icons of universal peace — who was assassinated in 1964, later said.

Now the question is: has the people’s mindset changed for any better? No one would’ve bothered to pose this question but for the recent stand-off between a group of Nigerian students and flat dwellers in Thrikkakkara in the city outskirts.

The students to whom the flats have been rented out allegedly indulged in obscene postures much to the chagrin of the neighbouring flat dwellers. But, did they really do such a thing? Police officials who investigated the case on record have denied.

Instead, they believe the Nigerian students were the victims of a continuing feud between the owner of the flats who rented them out and the members of the flat owners’ association members at the apartment complex.

Eastern Group – the renowned curry powder manufacturer – which rented out 22 of its flats to the Nigerian students, however, denies any such feud. A key company official said the institution where the students studied was cautioned immediately on receipt of complaints.

“We, of course, know the complaints were frivolous. But, if the residents don’t want them what can we do?” the official wondered. The initial complaint, please stomach it, was that the students didn’t walk into their flats in a proper manner!

“You know their lifestyle. Listening to songs with I-pod, they used to jig. I don’t think dancing here is a crime yet”, quipped a top police official. He further confirmed EuroTech where the students study immediately intervened.

“Now like kindergarten students they walk into the flats in queue! What do we gain out of it? It’s a shame that as a society we’re yet to assimilate the multi-cultural changes that’s sweeping across this city”, he said.

The students’ trauma didn’t end there, according to him. They’re soon accused of wearing low-waist jeans. But, the question is: how could they be given a dressing down when low-waist jeans is the in thing even among our youngsters today?

The flat dwellers, according to the police official, soon realized they needed to bring in a much more serious charge to oust the “unwelcome” students. It was thus they invented the story that they lifted their dhoti before a minor girl.

“I’ve never come across any Nigerian who wears a dhoti”, the official commented sarcastically. He also accused the flat-dwellers of improper behavior before the city police commissioner M.R.Ajith Kumar when they met him to file a complaint.

Ajith Kumar, it’s learnt, tried to convince the flat dwellers the need to treat foreigners with dignity. But, in between, someone asked him would he take action only when all the women in the apartment were raped by them. The terribly upset CoP, sources, said showed them the door.

A police official says no one ever would’ve complained if the flats were occupied by the students from US or UK. “Instead, the residents there would’ve competed with each other to win them over”, he noted.

Social activist C.R.Neelakandan agrees racism is still in the Malayali psyche. “But, I think this a case of cultural gap. The Nigerians’ body language and gestures could’ve upset them. The government should do a socio-psychological study”, he suggested.

New Democratic Organisation (NDO) chairman and social activist Sunny M Kapikkad, however, felt it’s the upper caste mindset which condemns even the most harmless act like jigging. “They tend to see that as an act of arrogance”, he explained.

Meanwhile, sources in EuroTech said they’re on the look-out for another apartment complex to shift the beleaguered students. “We’ve told Eastern Group that we’ll vacate by April end. But, the problem is nobody is willing to rent out flats”, sources said.

Fixing a flat is not an easy affair since EuroTech would need to give three options to Nigerian Embassy officials who alone have to choose the right one as students’ education is funded by Nigerian government.

As the impasse continues, Sunny said NDO would take up the issue with the Oommen Chandy administration. “We’ll organise and fight it out. We’ll see to it that these students get justice”, he affirmed.

Tailpiece: The flat owners association on Monday in a protest meet threatened to go on a hunger-strike if the Nigerian students were not evicted immediately. And, as irony would’ve it, it coincided with the 64th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who himself was a victim of racial abuse once!