By Express News Service

MALAPPURAM: As many as 21 Scheduled Caste families in Cherukkunnu colony in Kuttipuram panchayat near here have allegedly been denied drinking water for seven days for participating in a recent Jana Jagratha Sammelanam, a programme held by BJP to explain the positive sides of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Kottakkal.

The issue received social media attention on Thursday as Shobha Karandlaje, MP from Karnataka, tweeted the incident with a photo in which Seva Bharati members were seen supplying drinking water to the people.

Karandlaje also wrote that Kerala is taking baby steps to become another Kashmir.

The tweet went viral on social media after she tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda.

According to residents in the colony, the incident that led to the current controversy occurred last Friday. One Muslim family in the colony used to supply three buckets of drinking water each to the remaining 21 families in the colony. For other purposes, the 21 families need to travel to a water source one kilometre away from the colony.

When TNIE visited the colony, members of these families admitted that they had been denied drinking water by the Muslim family.

“We were denied drinking water because our husbands participated in a meeting organised to gather support for the CAA. A woman member of the family that used to supply drinking water told us they had pressure from some people and organisations in the area. Some people told the family that they should not give drinking water to us because CAA is a threat to the people in their community,” said Raji Ajil Kumar, a resident.

The residents also said they are being avoided by others for working for BJP after the Central government enacted CAA.

“People in the area will not even talk to us properly because we are pro-BJP. They will not even give us daily wage jobs they used to give us early,” said Mohanan T K, a BJP member in the colony.

Family denies CAA link

However, members of the Muslim family denied the allegations.

“We did not tell them anything about CAA when we were forced to discontinue supplying drinking water to the colony. They are creating an unnecessary controversy. We collect drinking water from a water source one kilometre away from my home using a pump. There was some technical problems with the pump,” said Sainuddin, the eldest member of the family.

The family also said BJP members in the colony are creating a controversy over a silly issue.

As the issue hogged the limelight, local body authorities stepped in. They visited the colony on Thursday and promised a quick solution to the drinking water problem.

The drinking water crisis is not a new issue in the area. All people in the colony have been depending on the same water source one kilometre away. However, the CAA angle was used to give the problem a different colour.

People in the colony have been maintaining peace and water issue is expected to be resolved by the district administration and local body authorities through talks on Friday.

Complaint against Karandlaje

Subash Chandran, a Supreme Court lawyer, lodged a complaint with Malappuram SP U Abdul Kareem against Karandlaje for spreading a wrong message on social media and trying to destroy religious harmony and peace in the district.

In the complaint, he mentioned the BJP leader from Karnataka through her Facebook post tried to show the Muslim majority Malappuram district in Kerala as an area of extremists.

The BJP supporters widely shared Karandlaje’s Facebook post in North India. He asked the police chief to take strict action against Karandlaje.

How the row broke out

Twenty-one SC families in Kuttipuram panchayat allegedly denied drinking water for attending a BJP-sponsored programme to give greater clarity to CAA,.

Issue became viral after Shobha Karandlaje, BJP MP from Karnataka tweeted about the incident