NEW DELHI – Buoyed by their success in ensuring hijab ban in colleges and schools, Hindutva groups are going all out for imposing economic boycott of Muslims and other non-Hindu communities in Karnataka. What’s shocking is that members of the saffron fraternity taken over the role of the police to implement the boycott.
On Wednesday, a video surfaced on social media showing members of the Bajrang Dal patrolling at Ugadi fair in Bengaluru’s Nelamangala to enforce economic boycott of Muslims. They were seen asking Hindus vendors not to buy meat from Muslim shopkeepers.
#bajrangdal members patrolling streets in Nelamangala #Ugadi fair in #Bengaluru asking #Hindus vendors not to buy meat from #Muslim shopkeepers. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ay6AXjTaqX
— Imran Khan (@KeypadGuerilla) March 30, 2022
Another Hindutva group, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has come up with posters urging Hindus not to do business with Muslim vendors during the Ugadi fair.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Mysuru unit of the VHP met local tehsildar demanding that non-Hindus should not be given jobs in temples and nor should they do business in temple fairs and Jathras. Mandya unit of the VHP demanded the same after meeting the tehsildar.
#VHP Srirangapattana #Mysuru unit met tehsildar demanding non #Hindus to be not given jobs in temple and temple trusts. And non Hindus to be not allowed to do business in temple fairs or jathas. #Karnataka #muslimvendorsban pic.twitter.com/NRj2nNujMl
— Imran Khan (@KeypadGuerilla) March 31, 2022
Campaign against halal meat is another dimension of the economic boycott of Muslims.
Bajrang Dal’s Chikmaglur unit carried out a door-to- door campaign distributing pamphlets warning Hindus against buying halal meat from Muslims ahead of Ugadi celebrations. The Hindutva group has started a state-level campaign against purchase of meat from Muslim chicken shops.
In Shivamogga, a Bajrang Dal leader brutally assaulted Muslim chicken shopkeepers after asking for non-halal chicken from them.
As regards the demand for ban on halal meat, state Chief Minister Basavaj Bommai said that the government is studying the entire issue.
Earlier, under pressure from Hindutva groups, temple authorities in Karnataka imposed a ban on non-Hindus doing business in the temple areas. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the state supported this move claiming there is a law in this regard.
According to IANS, recently, Hindutva organisations banned Muslim traders in Puttur Marikamba fair, Mangaluru Maarikamba fair, Marigudi temple fair in Udupi. Memorandums have been submitted to ban Muslim traders from participating in Adda Gadde, Kigga fares near Sringeri in Chikkamagalur district.
Meanwhile, the Hindutva campaign for economic boycott came under sharp criticism from various quarters. A prominent businesswoman, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, urged CM Bommai to resolve the religious divide in business sectors.
Reacting to the ongoing campaign for boycott of Muslim traders, the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, tweeted, “Karnataka has always forged inclusive economic development and we must not allow such communal exclusion. If ITBT became communal it would destroy our global leadership. @BSBommai please resolve this growing religious divide.”
On Monday, Karnataka unit of human rights group PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) wrote to chief minister expressing their concern over the economic boycott against Muslim businesses terming it “dangerous” and “unconstitutional”.
“The call for social and economic boycott should deeply worry all Indians because of the tragic history of the aftermath of such boycott calls in world history. In Nazi Germany hate speech dehumanizing the Jewish community was followed by calls for social and economic boycott which was followed by the enactment of law depriving Jews. Rawand and Myanmar followed a similar path in their path to committing the crimes of crimes, genocide,” reads the PUCL letter.
This article first appeared on clarionindia.net