In an incident that triggers the haunting memories of the violence perpetrated on Hindus by the Islamists in Kashmir, a bunch of Islamists in Tamil Nadu belonging to a fundamentalist organization issued pamphlets asking the Marwari community to leave the state.
The pamphlet states that the Marwaris are funding the BJP which according to them is trying ‘to foment communal unrest’ in the state where Hindus, Muslims and Christians have apparently been living as ‘friends’. It also goes on to say that Marwaris are the ‘fuel’ that keeps the ‘vehicle’ BJP going and added that ‘if the fuel is stopped, the vehicle would ‘automatically stop.
It stated that any violence and damage to public property will be the responsibility of Marwari community and the government should collect compensation from them.
The pamphlet issued by a Tiruchi based Islamist group named ‘Tamizhaga Makkal Jananaayaga Katchi’ (Tamil Nadu People’s Democracy Party) has also accused the Marwari community of ‘stealing jobs and business opportunities from Tamilians’ and demanded that Marwaris leave Tamil Nadu and go back to their ‘native place’.
In the end, the pamphlet issues a threat, “We will provide a livelihood to those who come here.. if you do mischief we’ll shut down your shops permanently”.
To stir up conflict, the pamphlet also said that BJP leader Kalyanaraman spoke ill of Islam’s prophet because he has the support and financial backing of the Marwaris and asked all the shop keepers to close their shops in solidarity with Muslims in condemning Kalyanaraman’s communal speech.
Muslims in the area distributed pamphlets to the shopkeepers and not so subtly, asked them to shut their shops on 8th February.
This act of terror has sent a shockwave in the Marwari community who have settled in this area for generations and understand the local custom and language. The Marwari community is known to assimilate with any local population were it does business and have always maintained a cordial and respectful relationship.
BJP cadre protested against this hate campaign and sat in support with Marwaris and North Indian communities, demanding that TPDP must be held accountable for spreading hate against a particular community by advocating violence following which 4 functionaries from the fundamentalist organization were arrested by the police.
It is pertinent to know that TPDP was founded by one K M Shariff, a disciple of Palani Baba aka Ahmed Ali, a notorious fundamentalist Muslim leader.
This is not a new phenomenon in Tamil Nadu has seen against a particular community. The state is known for its notorious hate campaigns against Brahmins. Dravida Kazhagam, Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi, Thirumurugan Gandhi’s May 17 Movement have targeted and peddled hate against certain communities.
In recent times, Tamil Nadu has seen a dramatic rise in Islamic fundamentalism. A man named Dinesh from Chennai was attacked by 80 Muslims who threatened to kill him for distributing pens with the words ‘we support Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC)’.
(With inputs from Hindupost)
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