Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Saturday that those spreading rumours about attacks on migrant workers from Bihar are anti-nationals, reported ANI.
Rumours of attacks against daily wage workers from Bihar had led to panic following which the law enforcement authorities in Tamil Nadu had issued a warning. The Tamil Nadu Police had earlier this week that the videos spreading the rumour on social media platforms were fake. The police had alerted social media users that a video claiming that “Hindi speaking people from Bihar are being assaulted by Tamil speaking people of Tamil Nadu” was not correct.
“Those spreading rumours that workers from other States are being attacked in Tamil Nadu are against the Indian nation, they infringe the national integrity,” Stalin said on Saturday, reported PTI. “Some doing cheap politics over a non-issue is condemnable.”
Stalin’s comments came two days after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked officials to look into reports of attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu. The Bihar government had also decided to send a team of senior officials to Tamil Nadu.
On Saturday, the Dravida Munetra Kazgham party leader also said that he spoke to Kumar and assured him “that all the workers in the state are our own workers, they help us in the development of our state and that no harm will happen to them,” reported ANI.
Meanwhile, Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Association, a workers organisation, urged Stalin to telecast messages in Hindi to quell apprehensions of the labourers coming from Hindi-speaking regions to the state, reported PTI.
The administrations of Tirupur and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, where a high number of migrant workers are employed in the textile industries, issued statements of taking stringent action against those spreading rumours that the place was hostile for the workers.
As the rumours about attacks against migrant workers spread, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar also criticised the Kumar-led government for its alleged inaction. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav then challenged the BJP to approach the Centre if they were not satisfied with responses of governments of the two states.
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