On Monday (19), Kallol Bhattacharjee, a journalist and author who tweets by the handle @janusmyth, made a post on Twitter pertaining to the violence in Leicester in eastern England which turned out to be controversial in no time.
Bhattacharjee's tweet was actually in response to the Indian high commission's (in the UK) condemnation of the violence between local Hindu and Muslim communities. While it said that it strongly condemned the violence perpetrated against the Indian community in Leicester and vandalization of premises and symbols of Hindu religion, Bhattacharjee responded saying the fight was between two groups of Indians -- Hindu and Muslim Gujaratis.
"Reports suggest that the fight is between two groups of Indians. Hindu and Muslim Gujaratis are fighting each other. So it may not be entirely correct to say that Indians were attacked," he said.
The same day, Bhattacherjee had made another Twitter post, saying, "Leicester is famous for being a Gujarati area. Tension has been high since India-Pakistan Asia Cup match. Hindus and Muslims have taken turns in attacking each other since trouble began over loud celebration after the match."
He also posted the link of a 2005 article published by Indian daily Hindustan Times titled 'In Leicester, do as the Gujaratis do'.
Opindia, an Indian right-wing news portal, slammed the journalist saying the latter made such "contentious remarks" and "attempted to strip the victims of their Indian identity and project the attack as an ethnic clash".
It also said in the same article, "In a subsequent tweet, the ‘journalist’ resorted to bothsidesism and falsely claimed that Hindus and Muslims took turns attacking each other. He also pinned the blame on ‘loud celebrations’ in the aftermath of the India Vs Pakistan Asia Cup match for the month-long violence against the Hindu community."
'Leicester is full of Gujaratis. This is expected behaviour'
The article then said that it was not the first time that a prominent 'journalist' spoke against Gujaratis in the aftermath of the Leicester violence. It cited a tweet which was posted by journalist Deepal Trivedi who said. "#Leicester is full of #Gujaratis. This is expected behaviour" while retweeting a post made by another journalist saying. " I’ve seen the footage from #Leicester where about 200 supporters of Hindutva took out a rally shouting Jai Shri Ram in a Muslim area. Let me just say to all my fellow Indians, Hindutva has deeply broken our country. Please do not export these divisions worldwide."
The Opindia article said Trivedi "insinuated that Gujaratis from India were responsible for the violence in Leicester". It also called her a "Congress kick-back".
Trivedi tried to defend her tweet after she faced criticism and in one of her subsequent tweets, said, "For all those who misinterpret or have missed out... i repeat: Leicester is full of #Gujaratis. Only fools can deny this. And these educated are so "blind" that they think #Gujaratis mean #Hindus only!
@zafarsareshwala is one such Muslim who is a Proud Gujarati. So chill!"
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