Chennai police have booked Tamil Nadu BJP leaders, including its president K Annamalai, for allegedly spreading rumours regarding the attacks on migrant workers in the state.

BJP leader Prashant Umrao was also booked for inciting violence and promoting enmity between groups. Police officials in Chennai also booked two journalists, including an editor at Dainik Bhaskar on the same charges. The issue is to do with claims these individuals and organizations made concerning false reports, the police says, of attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.

Last week saw multiple Twitter handles — most of them with a significant following from leaders of the BJP — re-tweet and share videos that claimed to show attacks on workers hailing from Bihar in Tamil Nadu.

Both Chief Minister MK Stalin and the Directorate General of Police flagged the videos as fake, while reassuring “guest workers” of their safety in Tamil Nadu. Multiple fact-checking websites, including Alt News, also debunked the videos, furnishing detailed proof over how several videos of unconnected attacks were portrayed as having taken place in Tamil Nadu.

“A few who find it hard to digest the peace and harmony prevailing in Tamil Nadu have been attempting to project the government of Tamil Nadu and its people in poor light. They will not succeed,” said a statement by Stalin, “Videos of personal clashes between two groups and such incidents unrelated to Tamil Nadu are circulated on social media claiming them to be happening in Tamil Nadu.”

Of particular note was a video of an individual being stabbed repeatedly, shared multiple times by several Twitter accounts, and being claimed as having taken place in Tamil Nadu. Fact-checkers pointed out that green auto-rickshaws noticed prominently in the background do not operate in Tamil Nadu.

Other claims included reports of a murdered migrant worker in Tamil Nadu, which BJP leaders claimed was a hate-crime perpetrated by Tamil-speakers. Fact-checkers debunked this claim as well, furnishing archived news reports of personal enmity between two Hindi-speaking migrant workers in the state that led to the crime.

The chief minister added that the government was mulling legal action against those who post fake videos of attacks on migrant workers with the intention to spread fear and panic. Stalin also spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and assured him that the safety of workers hailing from his state was of paramount importance to Tamil Nadu.

“Facts are twisted to make it appear as though migrant workers from Bihar are attacked in Tamil Nadu when people are living peacefully and law and order is maintained well and strictly, and all people are living in harmony,” said a video recorded by Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police, Sylendra Babu, with references to two videos now debunked as fake, earlier shared on social media with the intention of showing attacks on migrant workers.

In response to police charges, Annamalai shared videos of DMK leaders where he alleged they were making disparaging comments against the Hindi-speaking community. “I understand the DMK has filed cases against me for exposing their seven-decade propaganda against North Indian brothers,” he tweeted, “So, here is a video of what they spoke.”

The video shared by Annamalai is a compilation of speeches made by top DMK brass including Stalin, Central Chennai MP and former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran, and state higher education minister K Ponmudi, among others, making comments on Hindi-speakers and migrant workers.

“If Google CEO Sundar Pichai learnt Hindi he’d be laying bricks and building homes,” says Maran in one of those video grabs recorded at an event from a few months ago. “Those who learn Hindi are capable of only selling Pani Puri here," said Ponmudi 10 months ago, at a college graduation ceremony, his video grab also featuring on Annamalai’s tweet.

Meanwhile, reports of a mass exodus of migrant workers leaving Tamil Nadu over fears of attacks on them also did the rounds on Twitter. Fact-checkers, however, debunked this as false as well, pointing out that these workers were visiting their hometowns for Holi, and would return after the festival.

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(Edited by : Pradeep John)

First Published:Mar 8, 2023 4:20 PM IST