In a shocking incident, a group of Bharatriya Janata Party (BJP) workers on Wednesday, 6 March, thrashed a student during a shoot of a TV news channel’s talk show for speaking against the government.
The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar when journalist Narendra Pratap was anchoring an election talk show for the Hindi news channel ‘Bharat Samachar’. The video, that has gone viral on social media, shows a mob brutally thrashing the student and calling him a terrorist.
‘They Called Me A Terrorist’
The student, identified as Adnan, was in Muzaffarnagar to write his board exams. His parents live in Saudi Arabia.
“I was passing by. I saw there was a show going on so I participated. I said there was no work happening. They started saying things like I am a terrorist. Then they started beating me up. They were BJP people. Police hasn't taken any action yet. I want them to be punished. They beat me up just because I am a Muslim. I spoke against the BJP. That is why they beat me,” Adnan told the media.
What Happened Exactly?
The Quint spoke to Pratap, who narrated the sequence of events leading to the student’s thrashing.
“The show was at 11 am in Muzaffarnagar. Political leaders of different parties were present. We were discussing the local issues the area faces. Till the time the BJP members were speaking, everything was going fine. But the moment anybody else, especially from any other political party started speaking, the BJP members would start chanting ‘Modi, Modi’,”said Pratap.
The chants led to an argument between the members of the BJP and the RLD, which even got physical.
“There was a student (Adnan) present in the show. I asked him about the employment and education opportunities in the area. He started speaking. The BJP members then tried to stop him from speaking because he said there were no changes taking place. He hardly spoke 3-4 sentences, but the BJP members started thrashing him up,” said Pratap.
“He started bleeding and ran for his life. The RLD members saved him. They wanted to get the police involved and took him away,” said Pratap.
The video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.
“Whoever was speaking against the government, they (BJP workers) did not let them speak. There were some members of the Bhim Army as well, they didn't let them speak either,” Pratap said.
“I tried telling them that everybody has a right to speak as this was not a party platform. I also told them that if people want to publicly speak of their problems, they should be allowed to, there’s no agenda set for the show,” he added.
The Quint tried to contact Adnan but his phone was switched off at the time of publishing this story.
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