Incidents Of Attacks On Migrant Workers in Tamil Nadu Is Real, Will Release Videos Shortly: DMK Election Strategist Prashant Kishor

Poll strategist-turned activist Prashant Kishor, who is out on Jansuraj Yatra in his home state Bihar, has accused the state's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav of lying over Tamil Nadu migrant workers issue.

Commenting on the alleged attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, Kishor said these incidents are real and should not be ignored.

"Bihar's Deputy CM has said that these are fake videos, but soon in a few days time, I will release the real video," added Kishor.

He did accept that few journalists shared the wrong video but said one should not turn away from the 'facts of the incidents'.

Kishor's statement comes amidst the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government facing heat over sharp rise in hate speeches directed against migrant workers.

Rattled over reports of migrant workers leaving the state, heads of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), hotels and restaurants association and construction firms attempted to assuage their fear and told them that they would be taken care of.

Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Annamalai on Sunday released a short compilation of speeches delivered by Dravidian party functionaries targeting migrant workers during the past few months.

As a key election strategist who designed the party's electoral campaign, Kishor played an instrumental role in DMK's return to power in 2021. Whenever DMK has resorted to ratcheting up the rhetoric against 'Hindi imposition' or its functionaries have delivered speeches targeting 'North Indians' especially Biharis, the opposition parties in the state have taunted it for hypocrisy of engaging an election strategist from Bihar.

Earlier last week, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav had clarified in the Bihar Assembly that two videos that surfaced on social media of Bihar's labourers being beaten in Tamil Nadu are ‘fake’ and accused BJP of spreading fake rumours.

Speaking in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav said, “Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu has given a statement that someone from Bihar has posted videos of Bihar labourers being beaten in Tamil Nadu but this is ‘fake’. Two videos are posted and both are false. This has been done to show that migrant workers of Bihar are not safe in Tamil Nadu. BJP’s work is to only spread fake rumours. Why are they misleading? Our Government and Tamil Nadu Government both will take action if any such incident happens".

Kishor said that the Tamil Nadu DGP has 'very carefully' debunked only two videos but prior to that more than five videos surfaced on the social media.

Kishor further claimed that a video has been released by the Central government and he will release it in two days.

On Sunday (5 March), Kishor retweeted a video by GRP Chennai twitter handle, and wrote, "This video was shared by Tamil Nadu Railway Police on 16 February".

He also asked the Tamil Nadu DGP to provide further information about the status of the FIR filed by Government Railway Police (GRP) Chennai, based on the video.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu: Chirag Paswan Interacts With Migrant Workers From Bihar; Submits Memorandum To Governor RN Ravi