On Tuesday, October 26, an online portal, MuslimMirror.com, shared a video on its Twitter handle where some people were protesting against opening of a hotel. MuslimMirror claimed that the protests were because the hotel was owned by Muslims.
MuslimMirror claimed the hotel was being opposed because the owners were Muslims. It made its pinned tweet and in just few hours the tweet had gain quite an amount of reach.
Similar claims were made by usual fake news peddlers like this so-called Professor of Peace and Conflict Research Ashok Swain.
Swain also claimed the ‘mob’ was protesting against hotel owned by a Muslim.
However, truth, as always is far from the fiction the so-called ‘liberals’ and warriors of secularism are portraying.
Hotel Blue Ivy on the 80 ft ring road in Anand has been in legal trouble since past two years at least over allegations of violation of margin limit. In fact, on 5 November, 2020, the Anand Vallabh Vidyanagar Karamsad Urban Development Authority (AVKUDA) in a letter had mentioned that the construction of Blue Ivy hotel had violated the conditions and margin permission as per the plan approved.
Speaking to OpIndia, Dr Shailesh Shah, one of the petitioners against the illegal construction, said, “Our protest has been against the illegal construction of the hotel. It makes no difference to us whether the owner is Hindu or Muslim or anyone else. The fact that the margin limits were violated is a cause of concern and our protest is against the same.”
He added that he, along with other petitioners have been fighting a case against the illegal construction since 2019. Disturbed Areas Act has been in place in Anand, despite that it seems some builders have found a way to find loopholes to get their way. The above hotel has come up near a Siddhi Vinayak temple.
As per reports, right before the Disturbed Areas Act was implemented in the area, the documents for transfer of property were executed in 2019. On 4 December 2019, restaurant as well as gym had started operating in the premises. Subsequently, a special civil petition was filed in the Gujarat High Court. Even then the citizens had protested against the illegal construction of the building. In November 2020, the company, SK Finance and Investment was served a notice on construction carried out which was in violation of the conditions. Despite that, the builders continued with the construction activity.
Citizens had alleged that despite illegality of construction, the administration kept mum. Not only that, the citizens allege that they even tried to normalise the illegal construction by pushing through a revised map.
In November 2020, the Chitnish to Collector, Anand, had also written to the AVKUDA authorities regarding inaction of authorities on the illegal construction of Blue Ivy hotel.
As can be seen, in above letter dated 15 October 2020, the Chitnish to Collector had written to chief officer at AVKUDA regarding the application filed by the petitioners on the illegally constructed hotel and the inaction of the authorities.
However, Jamiat-e-Ulema gave it a communal twist and accused the petitioners of trying to spread communal disharmony. The Anand chapter of Jamiat had given an application. Speaking to OpIndia, Dr Shah said that the lawyer of the defendants, I H Syed, gave a communal twist to the case during one of the hearings where accused the petitioners of communalising the case which in fact is about illegal construction and violation of margin limits. “We would have taken it up even if the hotel owners were Hindus. What is violation of law is violation of law,” Dr Shah said.
On 25th October, 2021, the Gujarat High Court has granted 3 more days up to 28 October, 2021 to carry out proper measurement of premises and indicate to what extent the unauthorised construction is carried out.
Blueivy Hospitality Private Limited
Blueivy Hospitality Private Limited has three Directors, Krishna Hitesh Patel, Hasanali Sunsra and Mustakali Sulemanbhai Sunsara. The Sunsaras belong to the Muslim Chelia community, concentrated mostly in Gujarat. Chelias run many such restaurants in Gujarat, many of which are in the highways. They usually claim to be vegetarian hotels on their hoardings and have generic names such as ‘Visamo’, ‘Bharat’, ‘Tusli’, ‘Abhilasha’
