Hyderabad: Adding to the growing list of Islamophobic instances across the country, a Muslim fruit vendor in Karimnagar, Telangana was asked to take down the ‘Happy Shivaratri’ board on his moving cart by a BJP worker passing by on his bike on Monday night.
The incident, a video of which is doing rounds on Twitter, took place at the court area in Karimnagar.
In the video, the BJP worker can be seen aggressively arguing with the vendor as passersby tried to calm the issue down.
“Where did your equality go when Owaisi said that he will cut and kill? You should have said that Hindu-Muslims are equal back then. You should have said, Owaisi Saab, we are living harmoniously. Put your 15 boards,” he can be heard saying in the video.
The vendor, Syed Aslam, tried to calm the man down saying that everybody lives in equality. The vendor can be heard saying in the video, ”He is linking me with Owaisi. We treat everybody equally. Sir, did we treat you bad?” he asked the BJP worker.
The vendor went on to say that he has no connections with the Owaisis but is a supporter of the BJP’s Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar. “What do I got to do with Owaisi? I am a BJP supporter. Why did I put up the ‘Happy Shivaratri’ board? I want all to be happy, that’s why.”
In a video later taken by the Twitter handle, BNN Channel, the vendor said that just because he is a Muslim and he wears Kurta Pyjama, does he not have the right to wish people ‘Happy Shivaratri’.
“We live in a secular country and some bewakoof (fools) don’t understand that. Nothing will come out by doing Hindu-Muslim. I am seeing this for the first time that a Hindu is finding it problematic that a Muslim is wishing ‘Happy Shivaratri’. He should feel good that a Muslim is wishing him on the festival. But he has a problem that a ‘Muslim’ is wishing him,” the vendor says.
According to the vendor in the video, the Saffron party worker threatened him to take down the board or else he will come back with 100 men the next day.
“I come from Nizamabad and I am doing this business here for 5 years. I have put up the board in happiness that I got permission to do business here at the festival,” says the vendor.
When Siasat.com called up the Karimnagar Commissioner of Police V Satyanarayana, he said he was not aware of the incident. However, after sharing the video with him, he called back and said that the issue was just regarding the cart blocking the road and the biker using his horn.
Another Police official we contacted confirmed the incident and asked Siasat.com to not report the issue saying that it has been resolved. “I have called both of them (the Muslim vendor and the BJP worker) and the issue is resolved. It was just a discussion. Don’t report it because we have social responsibility. Ugly things shouldn’t be focused on,” he said.
Update:
According to a report by Newsmeter, the Commissioner spoke to the activist and explained to him to not cause such communal issues again. He also said that an FIR will be filed against the BJP worker under relevant sections.
