In a video that went viral on Monday, Nahid Hasan, SP MLA from Kairana, was heard making a communal appeal to Muslims to not buy goods from shopkeepers close to the BJP. “Buy your grocery from Jhijhana or Panipat [neighbouring towns]. If you take this pain for a month, these shopkeepers would understand your value. Their homes run because we buy goods from them. Still we have to suffer,” he was heard saying. He also described the administration as “BJP-minded.”
Later, he clarified that he was speaking for the poor. “I was speaking for the vendors who were being forcibly removed from the market by the administration that is biased towards the BJP supporters,” he alleged.
Panel set up
The Shamli police have taken cognisance of the video. Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar said he had constituted an inquiry committee under Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Srivastava that would check the veracity of the video and the context of the appeal made by the MLA and submit its report in a day. “Following the orders of the district magistrate, we are undertaking an anti-encroachment drive in the town. We are removing squatters from the government land. It is not against vendors of any one community,” Mr. Srivastava told The Hindu . He said the administration was not taking any chances during the festival season in the communally sensitive city.
