Hyderabad, February 16 A Muslim street vendor was allegedly harassed by a group of YouTubers during the recently held biennial mega tribal festival at Medaram in the Mulugu district, and was forced to eat the food he was selling.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media, showing the group associated with a YouTube channel questioning the vendor selling Kova buns (a sweet made from milk) about the manufacturing date and quality of the food.
The vendor from the Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh is heard saying that he is just a worker.
The group then allegedly asked him to eat the food and demanded to see his Aadhaar card.
The Mulugu district police said on Monday that no formal complaint has been lodged in this connection.
Another video circulating online showed people from the vendor's village expressing support for him, saying they had been consuming his Kova buns for several years.
The vendor, Vali, said that he and other bun sellers from the village, suffered a loss of more than Rs 1 lakh after discarding their stock following the viral video.
"…where can we sell? Some people will show it (the video) on their cell phone. That's why we threw our stock," Vali told a reporter.
Further, he said that several people called to console them, but the incident has left them demoralized.
"…We were just selling, never even imagined that we would go viral."
A relative of Vali, who also ekes out a living selling Kova buns, said that this year they decided not to attend the Srisailam Shivaratri fair with their wares in the wake of this controversy.
"…We never faced any issues at Hindu fairs earlier. We sell at Srisailam. Shivaratri is business time for us. Since this video surfaced, we feared something could happen," he said.
Calling it their only source of livelihood, the vendors said they hoped to resume business once the issue was resolved.
Responding to a picture going viral in which Vali was seen sitting beside SDPI leaders, he said he had no links with that party but met them after they promised to extend support.
Reacting to the incident, Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh said that such divisive and communal behavior has no place in Telugu society.
In a post on 'X', he said: "Dear Brother Vali, I am deeply sorry that you had to endure this. Such divisive and communal behavior has no place in our Telugu society, which has always stood for harmony, mutual respect, and brotherhood. I will meet you soon and look forward to tasting your famous Khoya bun! We stand together."
Earlier, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the incident.
He demanded that the Telangana Police register cases against those who harassed the vendor, stating that such acts of intimidation and communal targeting are "unacceptable" and must be dealt with firmly under the law.