Fresh details have emerged from Muslim dominated Malappuram district of Kerala where almost 22 Hindu Dalit families in the Cherukunnu SC colony had been allegedly boycotted and denied drinking water by Muslim groups for supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
It was reported yesterday that a Muslim family supplying water to the neighbourhood stopped the supply to these Hindu families from January 17 after three among them reportedly participated in an event called ‘Janajagratha Sadass’ supporting CAA. This event was held at Valanchery town a week ago.
According to a report in The Times Of India, Akhila Cherukunnu Parambil, a Hindu resident has said that the one Muslim family who supplied them water was pressurized by people of his community to stop supplying water to them, after photos of three men of the colony attending the pro-CAA program was circulated on a social media group.
Akhila said that the water supply scheme of gram panchayat has not been functional for more than a year and that they were forced to travel about 1 km every day to fetch water. One Muslim family had been supplying water to the local people.
“Recently, they arranged a facility to pump water from a water source to their home. They offered three buckets of water to each of the family in the colony. On Friday, a woman member of the family told us that photos of three men of the colony attending the pro-CAA programme as being circulating on a social media group in the locality and the family cannot continue to provide water as they were under pressure from a section of people to stop the supply”, said Akhila.
CP Velayudhan, a former CPM branch committee member, also confirmed that since the Muslim family had suddenly stopped supplying water many people in the colony, irrespective of party affiliations, were affected.
However, Sainudheen Kalappadathil, a member of the Muslim family has been quoted by the TOI report that the water supply was hindered due to some technical problem.
For the last three days, RSS’ Seva Bharati has stepped in and have been supplying water to the colony. Following the boycott of Hindus by Muslims, there is widespread anger for blocking the basic necessity of these residents.
It is pertinent to note that Malappuram in Kerala has one of the highest concentration of Muslim population and according to Census data nearly 70% of residents of the district are Muslims.
Shobha Karandlaje, the BJP MP from Karnataka flagged the issue on social media stating that Hindus of Kuttipuram Panchayat of Malappuram was denied water supply as they supported the Citizenship Amendment Act. The BJP MP also expressed her fear regarding communist Kerala taking baby steps to become another Kashmir.
Taking a cue from her, many BJP leaders raised the issue through their Twitter handles on Thursday, following which the revenue authorities decided to convene an all-party meeting and take immediate steps to restore the water supply. Now, there has been an FIR lodged against Karandlaje for ‘promoting religious enmity’.
Tirur tahsildar T Murali, who visited the colony on Thursday said that revenue authorities will file a detailed report of the incident to district collector Jafar Malik on Friday. “Panchayat authorities will take immediate steps to provide water to the colony,” he said.
The anti-CAA protests are increasingly turning communal lately which is evident across the country. As Muslim groups failed to put pressure on Modi government despite unleashing violence on streets across the country, now even targeted, planned attacks on Hindus are being reported.
