Bhubaneswar: A group of men bullied and harassed street vendors selling Santa Claus hats and other articles in Odisha on the occasion of Christmas.
Strongly objecting to the sale of items for Christmas celebrations, they warned the vendors, including a woman, to immediately leave the place with all the Santa Claus items.
The incident came to light after a video of the scene went viral on social media. It shows the men, one of them dressed in yellow outfit, getting out of a white car and shouting at the street vendors. They sought to know the religion of the vendors and where they have come from. The men shouted at the vendors for selling the hats.
Claiming that Odisha was a ‘Hindu Rashtra, they said that the sale of ‘Christian’ items is not permissible in the state. “Yeh Hindu rashtra hai. Yahan Christian ka chalega nahin (This is Hindu rashtra. We won’t allow Christian items here),” the man, appearing to be the leader of the group, is heard in the video.
The vendors told them that they were Hindus but selling Santa hats because they were poor. Reacting sharply, the man said if they were poor, they should sell Lord Jagannat’s merchandise instead of selling Christan items.
When some sellers said they had come from Rajasthan, the men said they had no problems with them selling their products in Odisha as long as they were not peddling Christian artifacts.
One from the group told the vendors that they must obtain permission from the authorities to sell Christian items. The man, who had started shouting in Hindi, also spoke in Odia for some time.
