Karnataka right winger calls for ending ‘Muslim monopoly’ in fruit business

Similar scenes are quite common in parts of Delhi too

New Delhi, April 6 (Delhi Crown): According to reports by a section of the mainstream media published on Wednesday (April 6), an office-bearer of a rightist organisation in Karnataka called upon the Hindus to buy fruits from Hindu vendors only, and also urged them to break the “monopoly” of the Muslims in fruits business.

“There is a monopoly in fruit business by Muslims. We are also seeing that they are spitting on fruits and bread before selling it,” Chandru Moger, the Coordinator of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, was quoted as saying.

These Muslim businesses are “spitting Jihad”, he said and added – “I am requesting all Hindus to help end the monopoly of Muslims in the fruit business. I also urge them to only purchase fruits from Hindu vendors.”

He also urged more Hindus to be involved in the fruit business as, according to him, it is “monopolised by Muslims”.

Meanwhile, something of this sort has been happening in national capital Delhi too for quite some time. A few right-wingers forcibly stop vegetables and fruits vendors belonging to the Muslim community from selling these products by road-sides in parts of South-West Delhi, particularly in and around Najafgarh.

These rightists are mostly local villagers while the victimised fruits and vegetables vendors hail from different states, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and live in rented accommodation.

Around one-and-a-half years back a few Hindu youths had taken out a rally/march in the Samaspur village, near Najafgarh, calling upon all local villagers and other residents to evict Muslims living there as tenants.

They also directed the locals not to take the services of Muslims involved in services like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, masons, etc.

A couple of months ago, some locals in village Chhawla, adjacent to the BSF Camp, were seen forcibly removing a fruit-vendor from the area simply because he belonged to the Muslim community.

“You should not be seen in this area again,” the local youths were seen angrily as telling the fruit vendor.

Though, a couple of kilometres from village Chhawla, members of the Muslim community do a brisk business every day by selling non-veg food items in Deenpur area which is mainly a residential colony inhabited by people from different states.

On June 18 last year a Muslim fruit-vendor named Rizwan was brutally beaten in Uttam Nagar, barely 10 kilometres from Najafgarh, by unidentified men while chanting slogans like “Jai Sri Ram”.

Two days later, on June 20, Hindutva activists blocked a busy road in the area to protest against what they said was violence and encroachment by “jihadi fruit sellers”. These activists raised anti-Muslim slogans and gathered with lathis to send a “strong message” to the mostly Muslim vendors that they were not welcome in the neighbourhood.

Later, in the evening, activists and local shopkeepers recited the Hanuman Chalisa in the middle of the road in a display of “Hindu unity”.