Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in
BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya became the laughing stock of the nation when he remarked that he suspected some of the labourers conducting repair work in his house were Bangladeshi because they ate poha, a snack made from puffed rice.
NDTV quoted Vijayvargiya saying, “There is some construction work going on at home. Outside, I saw some six-seven labourers sitting with one thali piled up with a huge amount of poha — maybe 10 plates — and eating. I asked, why are you eating poha? They did not answer because they could not speak Hindi. Then one man said they are Bengalis. I suspected something. I asked why they had been hired here. The answer was, they are cheap labour.”
Poha is a beloved snack in different parts of India including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Shockingly, Vijayvargiya made the statement in Indore, a city known for its Poha pride. Twitter swung into action to educate the ignorant politician. Hashtags like #PohaTwitter and #PohaOnMyPlate started trending. Sample this salvo by proud poha-loving Indoris:
https://twitter.com/Banoliyaa/
According to this poha fact, indore is going to declare as one of the state or capital of bangladesh. Damn in indore every nukkad offers poha and mostly every poha is tasty here. Wait does bangladesh have good poha?
Never mind. Poha jalebi Shyd hi hoga. #Poha #PohaTwitter— yash banoliya (@Banoliyaa) January 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/
#PohaOnMyPlate is a kind of compulsion or the taste of Indore, of which every Indori is proud of, the same Indore to which @KailashOnline belongs and has made his political career from!
With this, he has tried to burn the tradition of Indorehttps://t.co/xq40bGIYkV— Madhav Mantri (@madhavmantri) January 24, 2020
And here’s more:
https://twitter.com/reshma_
I hate POHA !
Can I use this as a proof that I’m an INDIAN? #PohaOnMyPlate
— Reshma Alam (@reshma_alam9) January 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/
I have heard Sudama took “Poha” for Krishna & he loved it❣️
“Bangladeshis” not just infiltrated Bharat but Mahabharat too ??#PohaTwitter #PohaOnMyPlate #KailashVijayvargiya pic.twitter.com/fnUjbNWYpg— जनरल नरभक्षी™ (@GDnarbhakshi) January 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/TXingh/
One of my friend marked safe #PohaTwitter pic.twitter.com/6cfUxA3QMe
— Tajiinder Singh (@TXingh) January 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/
Look what I found on my #poha this morning#PohaOnMyPlate #PohaTwitter pic.twitter.com/qG61Nf72i9
— Pao (@Devil1nDetail) January 25, 2020
Vijayvargiya may have been lampooned by poha-loving Indians, but his anti-Bangladeshi stand cannot be ignored in the present political climate. With the burgeoning movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Population Register (NPR) and the recently concluded National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, there is a strong united voice emerging against divisive forces of the ruling regime.
However, of late, there has been an increase in instances of people being harassed after being accused of being Bangladeshi. Recently, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike demolished huts of alleged Bangladeshi immigrants in the Kariyammana Agrahara area. The residents of the impoverished shanty-town were mostly daily wage earners. Social media videos had claimed that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were sheltered in the settlement. The video of the demolition was also shared on Twitter by Mahadevpura’s BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali where he too reiterated the stance alleging that the residents were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
But, upon investigation, it was revealed that most residents of the settlement were from different parts of the country, including Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and even north Karnataka. The High Court has stayed the demolition for now, though many residents have been forced to go back to their home states.
Earlier in October 2019, 29 men, 22 women and nine girls were picked up during a raid in Marathahalli, Bellandur and Ramamurthy Nagar areas of Bangalore. The people detained were mostly daily wage workers earning their living as construction labourers, garbage collectors and doing menial jobs under contractors. Some of them are also employed by the contractors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). In November, 59 of them were transported to West Bengal for eventual repatriation with Bangladesh.
