Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday in a telephone call with Nitish Kumar reassured his Bihar counterpart about the safety of migrant workers, amid reports of alleged attacks on people from Bihar that officials have dismissed as fake.
Chief minister Stalin said that those indulging in rumour-mongering were acting against the country and its integrity, according to a statement released by the chief minister’s office.
“Tamil Nadu Government and the people will always stand to protect our migrant brothers,” Stalin told the Bihar chief minister, according to the statement.
“I have spoken to the honourable chief minister and my brother Nitish Kumar on phone and assured him that all the workers are our workers and they are helping the development of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, I assured that none of these issues will impact them” the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said.
Stalin warned that strict legal action will be taken against those who deliberately spread rumors on social media by posting videos and pictures and thus spread fear and panic.
“Some people doing politics in this lowly manner on social media is highly condemnable,” the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said.
Stalin said that in recent times, there was seen an increase in the number of workers from all states coming to Tamil Nadu in search of employment opportunities mainly in the service sectors. The reason for this, he said is that Tamil Nadu provides employment in various sectors such as construction, small and large enterprises.
“Some people who can’t wait to spoil this peaceful situation with the intention of insulting the culture of the Tamil people, with the aim of giving a bad name to the government,” Stalin said.
However, he said that “Workers from all states here are aware that the situation is normal here. That is why. Even now workers from other states continue to Tamil Nadu.”
In the press release Stalin was cited as saying, “Migrant labourers need not fear. If there is any threat, you can reach out to the helpline numbers of the police department announced by the police.”
The chief minster said said that journalists and social networking site users should understand their responsibility, fact-check before publishing and function with journalistic ethics.
Meanwhile, earlier today Bihar Chief Minister said that a team of officials will be in Tamil Nadu to probe the reports of alleged attacks on Bihar labourers.
The issue also saw heated scenes in the Bihar assembly. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter to state that Tamil Nadu Police has clarified that the videos are “baseless.”
“DGP Tamil Nadu is categorically stating that it is completely baseless and rumourmongering that migrant workers of Bihar are being targeted in Tamil Nadu. Old video of violence is mischievously being spread stating people of Bihar are no longer safe in Tamil Nadu, creating panic,” Tejashwi tweeted.
Also, Bihar Police said on Friday that the Tamil Nadu Police had informed them that videos circulating on social media showing alleged attacks on migrant labourers in the southern state were false and “misleading”.
“Bihar DGP has spoken to TN DGP. Other senior officers of the Bihar Police are in touch with senior officials of the Tamil Nadu Police. The Tamil Nadu Police has said that the said videos are fake and misleading,” Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Patna, Bihar Police official JS Gangwar told ANI.
Earlier, referring to fake videos circulating on social media of migrants being attacked in the southern state, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu said that they were false and “mischievous.”
“Somebody in Bihar has posted a false and mischievous video saying that the migrant workers of Bihar are attacked in Tamil Nadu. Two videos are posted and both are false videos. These two incidents happened earlier in time in Tiruppur and Coimbatore. In both cases, the clash was not between Tamil Nadu people and migrant workers. One was a clash between two groups of Bihar migrant workers and another video was a clash between two local residents of Coimbatore. They are all Tamil Nadu people,” DGP Babu had said.
District Collectors in Tamil Nadu have issued appeals in Hindi asking migrant workers not to be scared.
