# The Thane data centre, Manipur musician lynched, and protest at Eiffel Tower

An episode of [3 Things](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1406730235), 10 Sep 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75029621/3_things_2026_september_10_v1.mp3

First, we speak to The Indian Express’ Nayonika Bose about the proposed Amazon hyperscale data centre in Thane, residents’ concerns over its demand for water and electricity, and whether the economic benefits justify its environmental and civic costs. Next, we speak to The Indian Express’ Sakshi Chand about the alleged killing of Manipuri musician Chongtham Vikram Singh in Delhi, what CCTV footage and the police investigation have revealed, and why the case has renewed concerns about the safety of people from the Northeast. (13:40) And in the end, we examine the controversy surrounding a Hindu religious delegation’s private visit to the Eiffel Tower, allegations that women employees were sidelined, and the protests and official investigation that followed. (21:45) Hosted by Ichha Sharma Produced and written by Shashank Bhargava, Niharika Nanda and Ichha Sharma Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: In today's episode, we look at Delhi, where the alleged
[0:03] Speaker 1: killing of a musician from Manipur has renewed concerns about
[0:07] Speaker 1: the safety of people from the northeast. We also take
[0:10] Speaker 1: a look at Paris, where allegations that women employees were
[0:14] Speaker 1: sidelined during a private visit by a Hindu religious delegation
[0:18] Speaker 1: triggered protests at the Eiffel Tower.
[0:21] Speaker 2: But first, we talk about a proposed.
[0:23] Speaker 1: Amazon data centre that has triggered protests and worry for
[0:27] Speaker 1: residents who now may have to suffer the consequences of
[0:31] Speaker 1: India's digital boom. Hi, I'm Itchha Sharma, and you're listening
[0:38] Speaker 1: to Three Things, the Indian Express news show. When people
[0:47] Speaker 1: in Thane's fast-growing residential and commercial neighbourhood first heard that
[0:52] Speaker 1: Amazon was coming to their localities, many thought it would
[0:56] Speaker 1: bring jobs. Now, the land had earlier housed a chemical company,
[1:00] Speaker 1: and after it shut down, local livelihoods had taken a hit.
[1:04] Speaker 1: But residents later learned that what was being built was
[1:08] Speaker 1: not an ordinary facility.
[1:10] Speaker 2: This was a hyperscale data centre.
[1:14] Speaker 3: So, you know, the biggest contention amongst residents of Thane
[1:18] Speaker 3: is largely surrounding the location of the data centre which
[1:22] Speaker 3: is proposed to come up. And besides this, of course,
[1:25] Speaker 3: there's concerns over the resources that this facility is going
[1:28] Speaker 3: to draw.
[1:30] Speaker 2: That's The Indian Express's Nayonika Bose.
[1:33] Speaker 3: So what we need to understand is that this particular
[1:37] Speaker 3: hyperscale facility, it sprawls across 53 acres and it is situated,
[1:43] Speaker 3: you know, bang in the middle of a residential cluster
[1:47] Speaker 3: in Thani. So this particular facility, when it comes up,
[1:50] Speaker 3: it will be surrounded.
[1:52] Speaker 4: By high rises.
[1:53] Speaker 3: There's also small villages and padas called Balkung and Dukali.
[1:58] Speaker 3: There's hospitals, there's schools and there's a very busy road typically.
[2:03] Speaker 3: And that is also the biggest difference when it comes
[2:06] Speaker 3: to data centres across MNR.
[2:10] Speaker 4: And this particular facility.
[2:12] Speaker 3: Because in other parts of Mumbai metropolitan region, so if
[2:15] Speaker 3: we look at Mumbai, if we look at Navi Mumbai,
[2:18] Speaker 3: the data centres over here are small. concentrated largely in
[2:22] Speaker 3: industrial clusters or like these industrial complexes. That is not
[2:27] Speaker 3: the case in Thane where the data center is going
[2:31] Speaker 3: to be surrounded by like large.
[2:33] Speaker 4: Scale residential accommodation.
[2:35] Speaker 3: And locals have said one thing that they are not
[2:38] Speaker 3: against data centres as a concept, but they are just
[2:42] Speaker 3: concerned about the fact that the data centre is coming
[2:45] Speaker 3: up in their own backyard. And that is exactly what
[2:48] Speaker 3: they have been protesting over the last one, two months.
[2:52] Speaker 1: Nayanaka says that residents' concerns range from water and electricity
[2:58] Speaker 1: demand to heat, noise and air pollution from backup generators. Now, Thane,
[3:03] Speaker 1: of course, already faces a daily shortage of potable water.
[3:07] Speaker 1: And many residents say any additional pressure on resources will
[3:12] Speaker 1: affect them directly. Amazon, for its part, says the data
[3:15] Speaker 1: center will not draw power from the local electricity network.
[3:19] Speaker 1: So to understand what exactly are their concerns and how
[3:23] Speaker 1: cities now have to balance the need for digital infrastructure,
[3:27] Speaker 1: we speak with Nayanika in this segment. Now, Anika, for
[3:30] Speaker 1: our listeners who are hearing this term, hyperscale data center
[3:35] Speaker 1: for the first time, could you tell us what exactly
[3:38] Speaker 1: makes it different from an ordinary data center? And why
[3:42] Speaker 1: does that distinction matter for a city like Thane? So
[3:46] Speaker 1: there are four different types of facilities.
[3:48] Speaker 3: There's enterprise data center, there's co-location data center, AI data center,
[3:53] Speaker 3: and ultimately there's the hyperscale facility. As the name suggests,
[3:58] Speaker 3: hyperscale facilities are massive and they are designed to sort
[4:03] Speaker 3: of compute AI, big data, high performance computing. And they're
[4:09] Speaker 3: also large in terms of the area that they occupy.
[4:14] Speaker 3: And most of the times, these hyperscale data centers, they
[4:18] Speaker 3: are owned by hyperscale cloud providers. So generally, it is
[4:22] Speaker 3: Amazon Web Services, for example, or Microsoft or Google Cloud
[4:28] Speaker 3: or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. So yeah, that's the basic definition was.
[4:35] Speaker 5: Right.
[4:35] Speaker 1: And this number 422 megawatts sounds enormous. What does that
[4:41] Speaker 1: actually mean in practical terms? Like, how significant is that
[4:46] Speaker 1: level of electricity demand for one facility?
[4:49] Speaker 2: And will it affect household electricity supply?
[4:53] Speaker 6: Right.
[4:53] Speaker 2: It's a lot.
[4:55] Speaker 4: Let's understand it's a lot.
[4:57] Speaker 3: For perspective, if you make a basic cursory Google search, right,
[5:01] Speaker 3: you'll realize and it states that 422 megawatts of power
[5:05] Speaker 3: can cater to more than 10 lakh typical Indian households.
[5:10] Speaker 4: Households which are electrified, an average Indian household.
[5:14] Speaker 3: In Thani, this particular power, it is going to be
[5:17] Speaker 3: sourced from MSCBCL, which is the government agency which provides
[5:21] Speaker 3: power to Thani. Having said that, when we reached out
[5:25] Speaker 3: to Amazon spokespersons, they told us that this particular electricity
[5:31] Speaker 3: and for this particular facility, it's not going to be
[5:33] Speaker 3: drawn from local distribution network that supplies electricity to.
[5:38] Speaker 4: Homes, shops and businesses in Thane.
[5:41] Speaker 3: According to Amazon spokespersons, they will instead be connected to
[5:46] Speaker 3: an industrial facility. supply grid, essentially a high voltage transmission grid,
[5:51] Speaker 3: and also that they have established their own dedicated high
[5:55] Speaker 3: voltage substation. So according to Amazon, it should not affect
[6:00] Speaker 3: or it should not draw away electricity from houses in Thane.
[6:05] Speaker 1: And Nayanika, we know that water is probably the most
[6:08] Speaker 1: emotional charged issue in the city. So if Thane is
[6:12] Speaker 1: already short of drinking water, How can officials justify supplying
[6:17] Speaker 1: any water at all to a hyperscale data center?
[6:21] Speaker 4: So there are two things here.
[6:22] Speaker 3: Of course, Thane currently has a shortage of 31 MLD
[6:27] Speaker 3: of water. The city has a demand for 621 MLD
[6:31] Speaker 3: and the Thane Municipal Corporation is only able to supply
[6:35] Speaker 3: 590 MLD of potable water. But here, the argument that
[6:39] Speaker 3: the government, which is pushing for this facility, is making
[6:44] Speaker 3: is that they will not be supplying potable water to
[6:48] Speaker 3: this facility. So when we reached out to officials from
[6:51] Speaker 3: the Thani Municipal Corporation, they told us that the water
[6:55] Speaker 3: which is going to be supplied to this facility is
[6:58] Speaker 3: going to be drawn from two separate sewage treatment plants.
[7:03] Speaker 4: So this will be reused.
[7:04] Speaker 3: Recycled water and secondly Amazon for their part maintain that
[7:10] Speaker 3: this particular data center will not use water for cooling.
[7:13] Speaker 3: Instead they are going to use some kind of closed
[7:16] Speaker 3: loop cooling technology which will sort of circulate some kind
[7:20] Speaker 3: of pooling through their pipes without consuming water.
[7:24] Speaker 4: So for them the water Water is largely.
[7:26] Speaker 3: Going to be used for landscaping works and for catering
[7:30] Speaker 3: to the manpower working in the facility. So that is
[7:33] Speaker 3: how they justify usage of water and supply of water
[7:37] Speaker 3: in this particular facility.
[7:40] Speaker 1: And you highlight how residents are also worried that a
[7:43] Speaker 1: facility consuming this much electricity will generate enormous.
[7:48] Speaker 2: Amounts of heat and noise.
[7:50] Speaker 1: So what would that mean for the people living directly
[7:53] Speaker 1: next to this facility?
[7:55] Speaker 3: So 193 diesel generators are going to be operated whenever
[8:00] Speaker 3: there is in case of power failure, because these data
[8:03] Speaker 3: centers have to work all round throughout the day around
[8:06] Speaker 3: the clock. And when he was speaking to locals, they
[8:09] Speaker 3: were telling us that, you know, so according to the reports,
[8:13] Speaker 3: this happened. Data center facility is expected to be really high,
[8:17] Speaker 3: really tall. So the sound is not just going to
[8:20] Speaker 3: be concentrated into the smaller villages, but also it will
[8:25] Speaker 3: directly reach into the houses of people who also live
[8:29] Speaker 3: in the high rises. So primarily they have raised concerns
[8:32] Speaker 3: over these two things. Although Amazon, for their part, again,
[8:35] Speaker 3: they maintain that the noise pollution regulation and control rules
[8:40] Speaker 3: of the year two thubs.
[8:41] Speaker 4: So they maintain that they will be maintaining compliance.
[8:45] Speaker 1: And Anika, interestingly, residents had originally welcomed Amazon because they
[8:50] Speaker 1: expected jobs.
[8:51] Speaker 2: So what jobs will this project actually create?
[8:55] Speaker 3: Now that has become another big concern for local residents
[8:59] Speaker 3: in the sense that it would not benefit them in
[9:02] Speaker 3: terms of employment opportunities because when this facility is going
[9:08] Speaker 3: to be completely operational, it will require only 75 people.
[9:12] Speaker 3: at a time so right now under construction phase it
[9:16] Speaker 3: requires some 1200 people however being it's completely operational only
[9:21] Speaker 3: manpower of 75.
[9:23] Speaker 4: Will be required so there will not be.
[9:25] Speaker 3: Much employment opportunities in that sense which is another concern
[9:30] Speaker 3: for residents because prior to this particular facility, there used
[9:34] Speaker 3: to be a chemical factory on this very land and
[9:37] Speaker 3: it used to employ a large number.
[9:40] Speaker 4: Of local residents in the area.
[9:42] Speaker 3: Now that it was shut down to pay for this,
[9:45] Speaker 3: they really thought that the new facility, initially there was
[9:49] Speaker 3: an understanding amongst locals that this is going to be
[9:53] Speaker 3: a warehouse and warehouse owners creates a lot of employment opportunities,
[9:57] Speaker 3: which is not the case in this particular data center.
[10:00] Speaker 1: Facility and so if permanent employment is relatively limited and
[10:06] Speaker 1: there are so many disruptions for the locality that come
[10:09] Speaker 1: along with this facility what are.
[10:11] Speaker 2: The tangible economic benefits for thane itself Right.
[10:15] Speaker 3: What Thani seeks to gain is massive investment, which is
[10:18] Speaker 3: coming in from international industries. Moreover, now with the data center,
[10:23] Speaker 3: the data which has emerged as a very crucial resource
[10:26] Speaker 3: will now be available in your own backyard. So we
[10:29] Speaker 3: need to understand that ultimately the demand is being driven
[10:32] Speaker 3: because of our increased digital footprint and our increased digital usage.
[10:38] Speaker 3: So what generally happens is in the absence of localized
[10:42] Speaker 3: data centers, when you press the search button on your laptop,
[10:45] Speaker 3: if you may watch a YouTube video or you search
[10:48] Speaker 3: something on Google, that query could go as far away
[10:52] Speaker 3: as a different continent, sometimes a different country or a
[10:55] Speaker 3: different continent.
[10:56] Speaker 4: And that takes a lot of time that draws a
[10:58] Speaker 4: lot of energy as well.
[11:00] Speaker 3: So now as each country's data demand is increasing governments
[11:04] Speaker 3: are investing heavily into localized data centers in order to
[11:09] Speaker 3: decentralize storage and improve computing efficiency.
[11:14] Speaker 1: And nayanika talk about why has this region um the
[11:19] Speaker 1: mumbai metropolitan region become the center of india's data center
[11:23] Speaker 1: boom because there are at least 76 data centers in
[11:26] Speaker 1: this region right True.
[11:28] Speaker 3: It is, in fact, one of the largest data center
[11:32] Speaker 3: hub of India in terms of operational capacity. And what
[11:36] Speaker 3: makes MMR so appealing is its proximity to the coast.
[11:41] Speaker 3: So the region has more than 14 international submarine cable
[11:45] Speaker 3: landings and extensive fiber connectivity. And if you look at Mumbai,
[11:50] Speaker 3: if you look at Navi Mumbai, they already have established
[11:54] Speaker 3: business centers, districts. So the government has also made designated
[11:58] Speaker 3: data center zone. So it is naturally very appealing to
[12:03] Speaker 3: big companies which are investing.
[12:05] Speaker 5: Heavily, right?
[12:06] Speaker 4: And moreover, Maharashtra.
[12:08] Speaker 3: Government itself has been aggressively positioning itself as a major
[12:13] Speaker 3: data center destination. So last month, in August, for example,
[12:18] Speaker 3: Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, he announced that the
[12:22] Speaker 3: State had signed MOUs worth more than $ 300 billion to
[12:28] Speaker 3: develop data centers.
[12:30] Speaker 5: Right.
[12:30] Speaker 1: And we understand that there is also a national security
[12:33] Speaker 1: argument for building more data centers in India.
[12:37] Speaker 2: Could you tell us a bit about that?
[12:38] Speaker 4: Yeah, of course.
[12:39] Speaker 3: I mean, this particular factor has especially become evident to
[12:44] Speaker 3: governments across the world after, you know, the war in
[12:48] Speaker 3: West Asia broke out because there is a security angle
[12:51] Speaker 3: involved in this because, you know, very sensitive security information,
[12:56] Speaker 3: including your bank details, these are stored on servers outside
[13:00] Speaker 3: your countries. Sometimes, like I said, it could even be
[13:03] Speaker 3: on another continent. And there are possibilities that these countries...
[13:07] Speaker 3: may not share good ties with India, bilateral ties or
[13:12] Speaker 3: multilateral ties, or there may be an outbreak of some
[13:15] Speaker 3: kind of war crisis, which can make India very vulnerable
[13:20] Speaker 3: to foreign legal overreach, right? So that is another national
[13:25] Speaker 3: security argument here, which a lot of bureaucrats and experts
[13:30] Speaker 3: have pointed out to. And that is another reason why
[13:33] Speaker 3: the government is investing so heavily into these facilities.
[13:41] Speaker 1: And next, we turn to a murder in Delhi that
[13:44] Speaker 1: has once again raised concerns about the safety of people
[13:48] Speaker 1: from the northeast. Jungdam Vikram Singh was a musician from
[13:53] Speaker 1: Manipur who lived in Delhi's Kilokari village with his wife
[13:57] Speaker 1: and son. And on the night of the 6th, he
[14:00] Speaker 1: was allegedly beaten to death by eight men after he
[14:04] Speaker 1: objected to them making noise inside his building. The eight men,
[14:08] Speaker 1: who worked at E-Trees nearby, allegedly chased and assaulted Singh
[14:12] Speaker 1: before attacking him in the building. The incident has left
[14:16] Speaker 1: members of the northeast community in the city shaken, while
[14:20] Speaker 1: also bringing renewed attention to the discrimination and violence that
[14:24] Speaker 1: people from the region have faced in Delhi. Now, to
[14:27] Speaker 1: understand what happened that night and what investigators believe may
[14:31] Speaker 1: have been the motive, my colleague Niharika Nanda speaks to
[14:35] Speaker 1: the Indian Express's Sakshi Chand, who has been reporting on
[14:38] Speaker 1: the case.
[14:40] Speaker 2: Sakshi, do we.
[14:41] Speaker 6: Know what exactly happened on the night of 6th of September?
[14:44] Speaker 7: Yeah, so basically, as per the statement issued by the
[14:48] Speaker 7: DCP Southeast, Vineet Kumar, with regard to the incident, the
[14:51] Speaker 7: cops said that they had received a PCR call around 1.38 a.m.
[14:56] Speaker 7: And the caller mentioned that C. Vikram Singh, Mr. Strongthang
[15:01] Speaker 7: Vikram Singh, was dead. beaten up and taken to the hospital.
[15:04] Speaker 7: The cop said that the reason, the motive for the
[15:07] Speaker 7: attack was that he had objected to people shouting and
[15:10] Speaker 7: making nuisance at a dhaba, which was right in front
[15:13] Speaker 7: of his residence. And when he came down and objected
[15:16] Speaker 7: to the noise and the nuisance created by the delivery
[15:19] Speaker 7: boys of the dhaba, they assaulted him with.
[15:22] Speaker 5: Kicks and blows and he sustained serious injuries. The assailants
[15:26] Speaker 5: also ran up to his third floor house and assaulted him.
[15:30] Speaker 5: And following which he was taken to the hospital where
[15:33] Speaker 5: he succumbed to his injuries.
[15:35] Speaker 8: And we understand that Singh told his son that he
[15:38] Speaker 8: had been threatened earlier as well, right?
[15:41] Speaker 7: Yeah, so as per the FIR accessed by the Indian Express,
[15:45] Speaker 7: the FIR is registered on the basis of his son's statement.
[15:48] Speaker 7: The FIR clearly mentions that while they were on the hospital,
[15:51] Speaker 7: the taxi, the father, the victim basically, the father had
[15:54] Speaker 7: told his son that the boys who had assaulted him
[15:57] Speaker 7: had come from the dhaba in front of their house.
[15:59] Speaker 7: And the FIR also mentions the son saying that before
[16:04] Speaker 7: the victim fell unconscious, he had earlier also stopped some
[16:08] Speaker 7: of them from creating nuisance and disturbance in the area,
[16:11] Speaker 7: following which they had threatened him over this earlier as well.
[16:15] Speaker 4: Right.
[16:15] Speaker 8: And there are CCTV recordings from the building that have surfaced.
[16:19] Speaker 8: So what do they reveal about what happened inside and
[16:23] Speaker 8: immediately after the assault?
[16:25] Speaker 7: Okay, so there are two CCTV recordings apart from some
[16:29] Speaker 7: mobile phone recordings done by people present at the location.
[16:33] Speaker 5: The CCTV shows.
[16:34] Speaker 7: You know, like a group of men going up and
[16:36] Speaker 7: then rushing down a little after midnight, around I think 12.6
[16:40] Speaker 7: or 12.8 a.m. And the CCTV shows the men first
[16:44] Speaker 7: rushing upstairs and then again rushing back.
[16:46] Speaker 5: Once the alleged accused rush downstairs, we.
[16:49] Speaker 7: Can see that the victim being carried by a person
[16:53] Speaker 7: on their back to the ground floor to be taken
[16:56] Speaker 7: to the hospital. Yeah, so basically that's what the CCTV
[16:59] Speaker 7: recordings reveal and show.
[17:02] Speaker 6: And what kind of action has been taken against the
[17:04] Speaker 6: eight men so far?
[17:06] Speaker 7: Yeah, so all the eight accused, which is seven of
[17:09] Speaker 7: them are major and one is a minor. So seven
[17:13] Speaker 7: of them were arrested while one of them was apprehended
[17:15] Speaker 7: immediately after the incident. And the police have registered a
[17:19] Speaker 7: case and an FIR. The FIR mentions that.
[17:23] Speaker 5: you know.
[17:24] Speaker 7: Beating a person sections of thrashing someone to death and
[17:28] Speaker 7: even people when they attack someone with a common intention
[17:30] Speaker 7: that those are the sections that have been invoked in
[17:34] Speaker 7: the FIR and the arrests were made soon after the
[17:36] Speaker 7: incident all the eight accused including the minor are either
[17:40] Speaker 7: delivery boys or packaging persons at the dhaba across the
[17:46] Speaker 7: house and even like two three other adjacent dabas and
[17:49] Speaker 7: kiosks that are operating in that area.
[17:52] Speaker 6: And Sachi Singh was a musician. What else do we
[17:55] Speaker 6: know about him?
[17:57] Speaker 7: As per his friends, family, neighbours and people from the
[18:00] Speaker 7: North East community who had gathered in solidarity of the
[18:04] Speaker 7: event at.
[18:04] Speaker 5: His residence and at other places, they.
[18:07] Speaker 7: Said that Singh was a very well-known musician in the
[18:10] Speaker 7: North East. He was a lead guitarist for a band
[18:14] Speaker 7: called The Phoenix in the North East.
[18:17] Speaker 5: And he had also, I think.
[18:20] Speaker 7: Done a collab with Mame Khan, the video of which
[18:24] Speaker 7: went viral across social media, playing the guitar and Mame
[18:28] Speaker 7: Khanna singing.
[18:28] Speaker 5: I think it was a Coke Studio collaboration.
[18:31] Speaker 7: Apart from that, he has also been band members with
[18:34] Speaker 7: the different bands in the Northeast named Eastern Dark.
[18:38] Speaker 5: And other things like that.
[18:40] Speaker 7: In Delhi, even though he was retired as a musician,
[18:43] Speaker 7: he was still teaching some kids how to play guitar
[18:47] Speaker 7: and still spreading music. He comes from a very artistic family,
[18:52] Speaker 7: if I can say. Right.
[18:54] Speaker 8: And if we talk about his family, What are they
[18:57] Speaker 8: seeking from the police and the government at this stage?
[19:00] Speaker 7: So the wife of the victim had given a statement yesterday,
[19:04] Speaker 7: which is the 8th of September, to the media wherein
[19:08] Speaker 7: she called for a fair investigation and the accused to
[19:12] Speaker 7: be punished for brutally assaulting her husband. And she just
[19:18] Speaker 7: called for the highest level of punishment for somebody who
[19:22] Speaker 7: had taken away her beloved husband and wife. like a
[19:26] Speaker 7: son to their father they were just hoping for a
[19:29] Speaker 7: very impartial probe and they accused to remain behind bars
[19:33] Speaker 7: and obviously their safety since they lived there on rent
[19:37] Speaker 7: for the last decade their safety to be of prime
[19:39] Speaker 7: importance and not just their safety the safety of the
[19:42] Speaker 7: overall community that's residing in the city and in that area.
[19:47] Speaker 8: Right and sakshi this incident has once again raised concerns
[19:51] Speaker 8: about the safety of the people from North East. What
[19:54] Speaker 8: are the community members saying about the issue?
[19:57] Speaker 7: So there have been, of course, the social media has
[19:59] Speaker 7: flooded with multiple responses from people of the Northeast and
[20:03] Speaker 7: people who are living here and the community and everything.
[20:06] Speaker 7: But when, I mean, Veena Lakshmi Nepram, who's a big
[20:11] Speaker 7: name in terms of people who have fought for the
[20:14] Speaker 7: voice of democracy, Manipuri people in the northeast spoke to
[20:17] Speaker 7: us yesterday. She called out the incident as a racial
[20:21] Speaker 7: violence incident.
[20:22] Speaker 5: And she had also mentioned.
[20:24] Speaker 7: That, you know, it is time and again that these
[20:27] Speaker 7: incidents keep happening. She emphasized on the fact that how
[20:32] Speaker 7: Manipur is already at a war stage and, you know,
[20:35] Speaker 7: how people come to the city, the capital for safety,
[20:39] Speaker 7: for better opportunities that they can get here. and to
[20:42] Speaker 7: be attacked in such a way is something that they
[20:45] Speaker 7: do not expect. She also called out to the government
[20:48] Speaker 7: of India to educate people about the Northeastern culture and
[20:52] Speaker 7: Northeastern people so that these attacks do not happen in Delhi,
[20:56] Speaker 7: in the capital, because she said it's really disheartening to
[21:00] Speaker 7: see that such incidents are happening in the city. And
[21:03] Speaker 7: she also said that racial violence and racial discrimination was
[21:07] Speaker 7: very prevalent in the city. In fact, she also went
[21:10] Speaker 7: on to speak about how in earlier, it was the
[21:13] Speaker 7: Nidotanya case from where it had all started with the
[21:17] Speaker 7: entire thing of, you know, the Northeastern community being attacked
[21:22] Speaker 7: or having a racial.
[21:24] Speaker 5: Bias towards it. That's what, when she spoke to us,
[21:26] Speaker 5: she had said this.
[21:28] Speaker 7: And the family has not called out This incident and
[21:31] Speaker 7: the racial violence of twins, it has not even been
[21:34] Speaker 7: mentioned in the FIR. Let me be very clear, it
[21:36] Speaker 7: is not even in the sections of the police.
[21:44] Speaker 2: And in the end.
[21:45] Speaker 1: We talk about a controversy at the Eiffel Tower, where
[21:48] Speaker 1: women employees were allegedly asked to step away from certain
[21:52] Speaker 1: posts and limit their movement during a private visit by
[21:56] Speaker 1: a Hindu religious delegation, triggering a staff protest, a temporary
[22:00] Speaker 1: closure and an investigation by Paris authorities. The delegation was
[22:06] Speaker 1: linked to the Bocha Sanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swami Narayanan Sanstha
[22:11] Speaker 1: or BAPS, and visited the Eiffel Tower on Saturday. A
[22:16] Speaker 1: local trade union later said, female employees had been sidelined,
[22:21] Speaker 1: replaced and rendered invisible on the basis of gender. As
[22:25] Speaker 1: reported by the Indian Express's Divya and Subhijit Roy, the
[22:29] Speaker 1: union said that some women were asked to leave their workstations,
[22:33] Speaker 1: some were replaced by male employees, and women were instructed
[22:37] Speaker 1: not to cross.
[22:38] Speaker 2: Certain areas while the delegation was present.
[22:41] Speaker 1: The episode led workers to protest and the Eiffel Tower
[22:44] Speaker 1: was closed on Monday before reopening.
[22:46] Speaker 2: The next day.
[22:47] Speaker 1: The company that operates the monument, SETE, later acknowledged that
[22:52] Speaker 1: the delegation had requested arrangements that would limit interactions with
[22:56] Speaker 1: women and said those conditions should never have been accepted. BAPS, meanwhile,
[23:01] Speaker 1: said that the visit had been arranged at the beginning
[23:04] Speaker 1: of normal opening hours because of the size of the group.
[23:07] Speaker 2: It said that, to the best of.
[23:09] Speaker 1: Its knowledge, no one had been denied access but apologised
[23:13] Speaker 1: for any pain or inconvenience caused. The Indian government has
[23:16] Speaker 1: largely stayed out of the dispute. Ministry of External Affairs
[23:19] Speaker 1: spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the matter was purely between the
[23:24] Speaker 1: entities concerned. Now, the incident has also drawn strong political
[23:28] Speaker 1: reactions in France. Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire backed the striking
[23:33] Speaker 1: workers and called the exclusion of women unacceptable, while France's
[23:38] Speaker 1: equality minister said that no religion or doctrine could be
[23:43] Speaker 1: placed above the country's laws on equality. You were listening
[23:49] Speaker 1: to Three Things by The Indian Express. Today's show was
[23:52] Speaker 1: edited and mixed by Suresh Bavar and produced by Niharika
[23:55] Speaker 1: Nanda and me, Ichha Sharma. If you like the show,
[23:58] Speaker 1: do subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You
[24:01] Speaker 1: can also recommend it to someone you think may like it,
[24:04] Speaker 1: with a friend or in your family. This is the
[24:06] Speaker 1: best way for people to get to know about us.
[24:08] Speaker 1: You can also tweet us at Express Podcast or write
[24:11] Speaker 1: to us at podcast at indianexpress.com.

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