In what was one of the saddest instances from the riots in Delhi last month, a group of rioters put a saffron flag atop a mosque in Delhi’s Karawal Nagar on February 25, 2020.
As unfortunate as it was, this act led to something rather touching.
A Hindu man named Ravi Parashar climbed the mosque a few days later and removed the flag with his own hands – video of which soon went viral on the internet.
A young Hindu man removes the Hindu Nationalist flag from the top of a Delhi mosque.
— Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) March 2, 2020
A beautiful gesture! #India pic.twitter.com/LychR2F8Vf
In an exclusive report done by HuffingPost India, Ravi, who is a wholesale watch supplier in Chandni Chowk and a father of 2, said that he did it because ‘someone had to’.
No one else showed the courage in that moment, so I decided to do it. Someone has to do the right thing. Someone has to take a step for peace and brotherhood. Only then will others follow and hate start to disappear.
![](https://wp.scoopwhoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/5e6615d72f1b745e07bed942_bbb12506-9142-4b5d-b5ec-9969f75af6a2.jpg)
Ravi Parashar’s brother, who lived near the mosque, in a house he had bought from a Muslim – also lost the property to torching by the miscreants.
So when a Muslim cleric asked people to help him remove the flag, Ravi volunteered despite initial hesitation. “We felt the same at that moment,” he said.
Our house was looted and torched. Their mosque was looted and torched. He must have felt as scared and lost as we felt.
![](https://wp.scoopwhoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/5e6615d72f1b745e07bed942_c15f1f9f-85ee-41dc-8481-22caf8897c2b.jpg)
Ravi also helped removing a Hanuman idol that was placed inside the mosque as he realised his Muslim brothers might have some difficulty touching it in tense times like these.
Everyone is thankful to Ravi, especially Tariq, the cleric still remembers how Ravi came forward to help him out.
Everywhere there are good and bad people..
— Mussharat Naaz (@MussharatN) March 2, 2020
Coming from a particular religion doesn’t make them any different..
It’s just the changing time where bad people are becoming more powerful.. Using others who are weak!
Fact: 1% of population on earth rules over the rest 99%
Huge respect for this guy from the bottom of my heart . We may call it , a great victory for love and peace over hatred..
— Md Ziaullah Ansari (@MdZiaullahAnsa2) March 2, 2020
Proud of that dude man never harm any places of worship whether it’s masjid or mandir😊
— Anas_0802 (@0802Anas) March 3, 2020