Hyderabad: A Muslim dosa vendor was verbally attacked and maligned by a mob of right-wing vigilantes in Vikas Bazar area of Mathura for naming his stall Shrinath Dosa Corner.
A video of the incident was later posted on Facebook by Devraj Pandit, the man who was leading the mob. The video shows Devraj arguing with the Muslim vendor. He asks the vendor to name his food stall after Allah and not after Hindu gods. Pandit goes on to argue with the vendor and says, “Sab hindu bhai yehi sochke aayenge ki ye hindu ka stall hain (All Hindu brothers will come to this stall thinking this stall is run by a Hindu).”
The mob then vandalized the dosa stall and chanted “Krishna bhakt ab yudh karo, Mathura ko bhi shudh karo (Devotees of Krishna wage war, help purify Mathura).”
Devraj Pandit also accused the vendor of “economic jihad”, claiming that Hindus don’t get employed because of people like him. Pandit appealed to his Facebook followers to “rebel against such vendors who seek the aid of Sanathana dharma”. Interestingly, Pandit identifies as a devotee of priest Yati Narasinganand Saraswati.
This is the second case this month, post the arrest of Uttam Malik, one of the accused in the Jantar Mantar anti-Muslim slogans case, wherein priest Saraswati’s name has recurred.
According to journalist Alishan Jafri, who documents anti-Muslim violence in India, the vendors have sold their old cart and changed the name of their stall to “American Dosa”.
In the past few days, several incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes have been reported in India, particularly in the Hindi-belt. On Thursday, a 45-year-old Muslim hawker selling toasts on road was allegedly beaten up by two men in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district after he failed to produce the Aadhaar card to prove his identity.
On August 25, a Muslim youth was assaulted by mob on theft suspicion in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly. He was dragged by his hair, beaten up, stomped on his neck and his legs were tied up to make him “confess” to theft.
Earlier, Tasleem Ali, a 25-year-old bangle seller, was brutally beaten up by a Hindu mob in Indore city for allegedly using a fake name.