PATNA: A day after Tamil Nadu Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu released a video clarifying that videos claiming to show attacks against migrant workers from Bihar in the state are false, the Bihar government decided to send a team to TN on Saturday to ascertain the truth behind the alleged attacks and assist workers seeking to return to their home state.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave a direction to this effect on Friday after a BJP delegation called on him, seeking his intervention. Nitish directed Chief Secretary Amir Subhani and DGP Rajwinder Singh Bhatti to send a special team to TN to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, TN Labour Minister CV Ganesan said migrant workers from several states are living peacefully, without any threat, in TN. The minister said there is no truth to the allegations on social media that workers from north India are being attacked by locals. “TN is known for its industrial development and peaceful society. Action is being taken against those spreading canards,” he said in a statement, adding that workers from other states had been employed in TN for a long time.
Earlier, the allegations were discussed in the Bihar Assembly, with Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav stating senior officials of Bihar are in touch with their TN counterparts. Quoting the TN DGP, Tejashwi said the videos are of old incidents in Tiruppur and Coimbatore and aren’t of clashes between locals and migrants.
Tejashwi was in Chennai just a few days ago to participate in the birthday celebrations of TN CM MK Stalin, who made a call for opposition unity against the BJP. Launching a scathing attack on BJP MLAs in the House, Tejashwi said, “These people have only one work: to spread canards. BJP leaders only do negative politics and claim themselves to be patriots by chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.”
“Now, they should say whether TN is not a part of India and if it is, why are they spreading hatred between the people of two states,” he asked. “The videos are fake and you can get it verified by the Union Home Minister,” Tejashwi said. Bihar’s leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha of BJP alleged to reporters that migrant workers from the state are scared after the videos went viral and accused the TN DGP of suppressing facts.
For its part, the TN police on Friday also tweeted a clarification in Hindi regarding the videos. The tweet in Hindi said one video was of a recent murder in Coimbatore due to personal enmity and the accused had been arrested. The video has nothing to do with workers from Bihar. The police also warned that legal action will be taken against those spreading rumours and that people should verify the authenticity of the videos and comments before sharing them on social media.
Clips debunked
TN DGP had already debunked the viral videos, stating they did not show any clash between migrants and locals in TN
(With inputs from T Muruganandham & Gautham Selvarajan @ Chennai)