Coronavirus: Are Muslims intentionally licking cutlery, plates for Hindus to eat in it? Fact check
In the wake of spread of Corona Virus in India, a video is being circulated on social media alleging that a few Muslims infected with the deadly virus are licking plates and cutlery with an intention to make non-Muslims eat in it to further spread the virus among the non-Muslims. Fact Crescendo, a fact-checking website had earlier fact-checked the claim of the video when it was being circulate adding that Muslims were licking plates and cutlery to Hindus to eat in it on Eid.
The fact check story had then concluded that it was a culture and tradition in Bohra Community to lick their plates and cutlery after finishing their meal so as to not waste any food.
Below is the story published on https://english.factcrescendo.com/ in June 2019 and its finding.
Here's what the story revealed:
A Facebook user named ‘Shiv Rajput’ shared a post on 6 June 2019. The post as translated from Hindi quoted “Special preparations on Eid for Hindu brothers. Carefully look after the Hindu Muslim brother.” As per this post’s claim, Muslims are putting their spit on plate, bowl and spoon before feeding the Hindus on Eid’s occasion. Let us see what the facts are!
FACT CHECK:
We were sceptical because we did not see the hat of the boys resembling the cap of Muslims, which raised our suspicion for fact check. We then started our investigation by searching on Google with ‘muslims cleaning plate using their saliva’ key words. What we got in the search is below:
In this search we got a video given by ‘Vimeo’, which is similar to the video given in the above post. According to this story, this video is of Bohra community, People of Dawoodi Bohra community do not waste food. That is why after eating, he lick all the utensils such as plate, spoon and bowl to ensure no food wastage and then wash the vessels.
To confirm this, we searched the screen shot of the video on ‘Bing Image Search’. What we got in the search is below:
In this search we got links to various websites which have given information about Bohra culture. Some of them also mention the traditional practice of ‘No Food Wastage. The most important thing is that the cap worn by the boys in the video of the above post matched with the Bohra community people shown in our search. We took the picture shown below from a publication on the Bohra’s eating style published by ‘Outlookindia’ and compared it with the screenshot taken from the video of the above post. The hat matched in both images as shown below.
This search confirms that the video shown in the above post is of Bohra religion and not the feast of Muslims during the Eid for the Hindus.
IN CONCLUSION:
Fact Crescendo has fact checked and confirms that the video shared in the post is with a wrong narrative. We categorise the story as FALSE.
FactCrescendo advises its readers to refrain from sharing such misleading and communally biased videos and do a self-check on the true narrative of such incidents before believing them.
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
