Vegetable vendor threatened by BJP MLA

2020-04-29

Main Information

  • Victim Names Ajiz-ur-Rahman
  • Date of Incident 2020-04-29
  • Nature of Violence Institutional discrimination
  • Causal factors Religious identity
  • Religion of Vicitim Muslims
  • Name of Perpetrator Brij Bhushan Sharan
  • State Uttar Pradesh
  • City/District Lucknow, Gomti Nagar
  • Party in Power BJP

Other Information

  • Location of Incident Gomti Nagar
  • Perpetrator Organization Other Right Wing Hindutva
  • Place of incident N/A

In a video that has surfaced during the COVID-19 Lockdown, MLA Brijbhushan Rajput can be seen intimidating a vendor and harassing him when it was discovered that he was a member of a minority group (Muslim community). Rajput is seen intimidating the vegetable vendor and telling him not to come back into his neighbourhood after a young boy who was with the man revealed that the man was indeed a Muslim. Since COVID-positive individuals had to travel from Delhi's Tabligh Markaz to other regions of the nation, many BJP officials have begun denouncing the whole Muslim population. MLA Brijbhushan Rajput later claimed that he was simply shunning the man due to his lies and the fact that in some areas, there had been a significant rise of COVID-19 infections among vegetable vendors.