Itanagar: The Arunachal government on Monday booked a case against a YouTuber from Punjab for his alleged racial remarks against a Congress MLA and “ill will towards the people of the state”.
The YouTuber Paras Singh, who runs a channel named ‘Paras Official’, called Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering a “non-Indian” and apparently claimed the “state was a part of China” in a video posted on May 23. This sparked furore among Arunchalees as well as people from other parts of the country.
In his video, Singh checked out Ering’s account on Twitter and said: “I don’t think he’s an Indian.” He went on to say that he wasn’t sure how people from Arunachal look.
Not just that, Singh also pointed to the map of Arunachal Pradesh and said that the state belongs to the people of China. “In a way, they are with them (Arunachal is with China, touches India a little),” he said.
The racist slurs were hurled after Ering Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban the re-launch of PUBG Mobile India’s new game Battlegrounds Mobile India.
“Re-launching the game was a mere illusion and a trick to collect user data of the citizens, including children and transfer it to foreign companies and the Chinese government,” Ering wrote in his letter.
Ering said that if the game is allowed to relaunch, there is a “very high potential of a breach of privacy and cybersecurity of the citizens”.
“A case has been registered against Paras Singh for racial hatred and the cyber crime branch in Itanagar is investigating the matter,” DGP R P Upadhyaya said, as quoted by PTI.
Ering too, when contacted, said he would soon file a case against Singh.
In a video shared after the backlash, Paras Singh apologized for his remarks, adding that he would be careful from hereon. Singh said that he had made the video in a fit of rage and that he is still a “kid” and wants one chance to correct his mistake.
Another video was later uploaded in the channel, in which Singh’s mother can be seen apologising on his behalf, saying that he is a “kid”. Singh’s mother claimed that some people came to their house and took him away, saying that he was being taken to the police station.
Singh’s channel on YouTube has 4,58,000 subscribers. His earlier videos are live streams or recorded videos of his gaming.