Rising tomato prices: The latest weapon against Muslims in India
The leader of Assam state has blamed Bengali-speaking Muslim vegetable vendors for price spikes. It’s absurd but dangerous. Apoorvanand and Suraj Gogoi Sociologist, RV University, Bengaluru, 26 Jul 2023 A vendor arranges tomatoes at a vegetable market in Ahmedabad, India, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Vegetable prices have risen across India in recent weeks, because of El Nino-related disruptions, but the leader of the state of Assam has blamed Bengali-speaking Miya Muslims [Ajit Solanki/AP Photo] “Who are the people who have increased the prices of vegetables now?” Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of the northeast Indian state of Assam asked rhetorically when speaking to reporters about the surging cost of vegetables in state capital Guwahati — and indeed, around India. Sarma then answered his own question with a straight-faced lie. “It is Miya sellers who are selling vegetables at higher rates,” he claimed, referring to Assam’s Bengali-speaking Muslims, who have lived in the st...