A 23-year-old vlogger Bapan Nandi in Tripura was assaulted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for posting Eid greeting in a video.
Nandi said he was trying to promote communal harmony.
As the video went viral, BJP leader Anu Mura Singh and a few Hindutva politicians were irked with Nandi’s four-minute video.
NewsClick reported that the BJP leaders allegedly took the matter to the Police Line Bazaar area and filed a complaint against the vlogger. Following this, the police called Nandi for interrogation.
Meanwhile, Mura Singh and a few Hindutva leaders attacked Nandi. One of them recorded the assault and posted it on social media.
Subsequently, the video went viral.
In the video, a female BJP leader can be seen grabbing Nandi by his collar and thrashing him. She was also questioning why Nandi had portrayed himself “as a Muslim and demeaned Hindus.”
He should have stuck with his “Hindu origins proudly,” she added.
Nandi could be seen begging for mercy while he was being thrashed by the group, according to NewsClick.
“The Deputy Chief of East Gokul Nagar Panchayat called me and asked if I can visit his place. As I knew him I reached there and found about 40 men were waiting for me,” EastMojo quoted Nandi.
“The Panchayat leader slapped me and thrashed me in front of everyone. I kept asking what was my fault? Nandi informed him that the video was produced by another channel and the casting was done by him.
“No one was interested in listening to me,” he added.
It is reported that the police have registered the case on orders of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders.
Nandi claimed that he made the video for communal harmony. The video asked people not to get divided into communal lines and to celebrate the festival of Eid in harmony.
Two artists who acted in the Eid video, Uma Debnath and Sneha Bhowmik issued statements saying they never thought that the video will be so problematic or that it would any ruckus.
The artists and several other people have condemned the beating of Nandi and extended support to him.
