Reading in the metro, especially if you manage to find yourself a seat, is such a pleasure. But, thanks to the volatile environment we are currently living in, a person (of an unknown gender) had the most unpleasant experience ever. Why? Because he/she was allegedly ‘caught’ reading a booklet of the recently concluded Jashn-e-Rekhta festival which happened to be in Urdu.
Here’s the tweet doing the rounds:
Guys this happened to a really close friend today in Delhi and I’m getting a little worried now pic.twitter.com/AH5NSPIVTu
— Semiya (@sowmyarao_) February 22, 2016
As you can clearly read, the person in question was reading a booklet in Urdu. What’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing!
But the tweets that followed were “quite an insight into organised trollery”:
@sowmyarao_ @mihirssharma well if she/ he looked like a Jihadi then probably deserved a good thrashing.
— Uzi (@LutyensChurail) February 22, 2016
@NotShraddha Shradha how about the petty politics these Muslim sympathizers like Kejriwal play? Why blame Modi? Ashamed of you
— M M (@armyenthusiast) February 22, 2016
.@sowmyarao_ @LazyFatYeti Sending them to Pakistan would be quite easy and cheap. Metro to JNU campus wouldn’t cost more than 20 bucks. 😂
— Sir Alec Corbyn (@paynchOm) February 23, 2016
@sowmyarao_ @mihirssharma Muslims should introspect why this is happening throughout the world
— Alok (@alok3847) February 22, 2016
@DGIT666 @alok3847 @sowmyarao_ exactly my point. These Muslims love playing the minority card dont they? Enuff of this sickular drama
— M M (@armyenthusiast) February 22, 2016
@sowmyarao_ @thaver_mohamed starting of Hindu nation.
— Dharam Mali (@dharam9hindu) February 23, 2016
Thankfully, there were others who showed us that there is still hope left for this world:
@sowmyarao_ @DilliKiRanaiyan urdu such a lovely language, beyond the understanding of these brainless idiots. Maybe that’s the reason
— M Mitra (@MMitra4) February 23, 2016
@sowmyarao_ 2 or 20 or 20000 people dont represent India. Have faith , be positive. may be ignore as one of incident.
— Praveen Kumar Gupta (@praveensharan1) February 23, 2016
This tweet sums up the debate:
Is faiz anti national now? manto also?
— Semiya (@sowmyarao_) February 22, 2016
For the uninitiated:
- Urdu happens to be one of the eighteen national languages of the Union of India. Hindi is one of them and NOT the only one.
- It is NOT a crime to read in the metro. Shoving your bag in people’s faces is.
- Having an opinion is NOT a crime. Forcing others to accept it is.
- Reading is a good thing. Everyone should try it out.
- Thinking is an excellent thing. People should be careful when doing that.
Intolerance is a heavily loaded word. Recently, it has been thrown around quite a bit with every other pot calling the kettle black. It is the trend to notice the speck in your brother’s eye while completely ignoring the plank in yours. In the midst of this volatile environment, what we need is anything but partisan politics.
