'If the Bihar CM...': Chirag attacks Nitish over migrants row in TN

CHENNAI: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national president and Jamui MP Chirag Paswan on Monday attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over reports of targeted attacks on Bihar's migrants in Tamil Nadu. Paswan said, "If the Bihar CM would have worked for the betterment of my state (Bihar) then they would have been working in our own state and not migrated. It's because of the lack of opportunity in my state. The only person responsible for this particular scenario is our CM Nitish Kumar."

He claimed that people call him from Coimbatore stating that they have been attacked and threatened. "I request the Tamil Nadu CM and the Government to look into this matter on humanitarian grounds. If this happened in any district of the state, CM should act and take action and if it's just a rumor then action should be taken against those doing this," Paswan said urging for a thorough investigation of the reports.

Earlier, on March 3 the LJP chief also wrote a letter addressing Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention on the matter regarding the alleged assault on migrants in Bihar and tweeted a copy of the letter. After unverified reports on social media claimed that migrant labourers were targeted in Tamil Nadu, Nitish Kumar on Thursday expressed concern over the situation which he said came to his notice through newspaper reports.

The reports created a ruckus in the Bihar Assembly with the opposition demanding Nitish Kumar's resignation. Tamil Nadu BJP also sought to blame the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government. Tamil Nadu Police has deemed the reports as fake.

The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) also released a joint statement on the incident and said that the videos showing the attacks on Bihari migrant workers are false. On Saturday, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin spoke to his Nitish Kumar stating that his government will always stand to protect the migrant brothers.

"Strict legal action will be initiated against those who deliberately post fake videos of migrant workers being attacked and spread fear and panic in the state," chief minister Stalin said in a statement. Stalin said that it is highly condemnable that some people are indulging in such dirty politics on social media.

Tamil Nadu State BJP President released a statement stating that migrant labourerswere are safe in Tamil Nadu but the Chief Minister Stalin led-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its alliance party leaders are the reason for the hate against them. He also opposed the spread of false news on the attack on the people from Bihar in the State, saying that Tamils don't support "separatism" and "vile hatred" against north Indians. Tamil Nadu's Director General of Police Sylendra Babu released a statement, saying that the video doing rounds of social media was "false" and "mischievous".

"Somebody in Bihar posted false and mischievous videos saying that migrant workers were attacked in Tamil Nadu. Two videos were posted. Both are false as these incidents happened at an earlier date in Tiruppur and Coimbatore. One was a clash between two groups of migrant workers from Bihar while another was from a clash between two local residents in Coimbatore," the top cop said.