BANGALORE : Moses Vishwa, owner of the small roadside eatery where three Manipuris were attacked on Tuesday, is aware the incident is in the national news.
“It started off small. They were sitting on two benches and eating. The Manipuri boys were talking and laughing. The three men (all van drivers) asked the boys to pipe down,” Moses said.
A few minutes later, Moses heard one of the van drivers asking the Manipuri boys, “What are you staring at? What are you saying about us?” To this, one of the boys replied, in Hindi, that they were not talking about them at all.
“This is when the drivers told the boys they should talk in Kannada. They said they were on Kannada soil and eating Kannada food and so they should talk in Kannada. The boys just ignored them,” Moses said.
However, one of the van drivers got up, and passing by the other group, slapped one of the boys on the neck. This is when the fight got physical. The drivers lifted a chair and almost flung it at the boys. “I intervened and asked them to take their fight outside. The two groups left after paying,” he said. By the time the boys could go to their bikes, the three van drivers were calling some of their friends to join them and they turned up.
By then, the fight had moved away from the eatery and Moses is not sure what happened next.