03, Oct 2023

Socio-economic boycott of minorities is one of the important tools of persecution employed by far right and fringe elements to oppress minorities in the country. Last month, Radha Semwal Dhoni, from Uttarakhand shot a video of “nabbing” a Muslim vegetable vendor and harassing him. She points cameras at the Muslim vendors and asks them their names and their Aadhar card as well. She claims that they represent themselves as Hindus and that they have come from Lucknow. In the video she says that the vendors lie and spit on the vegetables and sell these in her area (where she lives). She asks them, “why do you come here? Why don’t you carry an Aadhar card? Do you want to sell us vegetables that have been spat on?” to this, one of the vendors says, “it’s not true, we are not spitting on vegetables”.