Bihar govt sends team to TN to probe alleged attacks on workers

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who spoke to his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin about concerns regarding alleged attacks on Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, has sent a team to Tamil Nadu to probe the allegations. On Saturday, March 4, CM Nitish said that he had directed Bihar Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to send a team to observe the ground situation in Tamil Nadu. Nitish Kumar seemed to have been referring to a report from the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, which alleged that Bihar natives in Tamil Nadu were facing “Talibani” style attacks.

The newspaper – based on a phone call with a Bihari man in Tamil Nadu – claimed that 15 Biharis had received life threats. A video story accompanying the report showed visuals of altercations between two groups of men. The report stated that nearly 15 Biharis were killed in Tamil Nadu and that people from Bihar were being attacked solely for speaking in Hindi. On Saturday, the Tamil Nadu police booked Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, a Twitter handle named Tanveer Post, and BJP spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for spreading disinformation that migrant workers have been fatally attacked in the state.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav had visited Chennai to congratulate the Tamil Nadu CM Stalin on his 70th birth anniversary on Wednesday, March 1. After returning to Patna, Tejashwi quoted the statement of Tamil Nadu DGP Sylendra Babu in Bihar Assembly and said that no violence has occurred involving Bihari labourers in Tamil Nadu.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have raised the alleged attacks as a major issue in Bihar Assembly. A delegation of BJP also met with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) leader Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav also claimed that he and his teams had received calls from Tamil Nadu requesting to be rescued. He also slammed the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister for making a statement in the state Assembly, alleging that he hadn’t verifying the ground situation.

Meanwhile, there is also a theory suggested in Bihar that labourers are simply returning home to celebrate Holi, and their remigration from workplace to their native place was being wrongfully presented by the Opposition parties. The Bihar government is now waiting for the report of the police team.