Cricketer, advertisement, web series target of hate-mongers

Cricketer, advertisement, web series target of hate-mongers

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Cricketer, advertisement, web series target of hate-mongers

By Atul Chandra

Just a few days ago hate-mongers raised a storm on Twitter over an advertisement which, they claimed, violated the spirit of a Hindu festival. The company was forced to drop the advertisement. Another set of Hindu bigots has now targeted India’s ace pace bowler Mohammad Shami, branding him “a Pakistani” and asking him how much money he had taken from Pakistan for losing the opening match in the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Sunday.

They may have been upset at India’s embarrassing 10-wicket defeat to their arch rivals but to put the entire blame for the loss on one bowler was mean and mischievous. The bunch of nincompoops did not ask any question of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who bowled below par and Jasprit Bumrah who also went wicket-less and conceded almost as many runs as Shami. The fact that they did not ask them about helping Pakistan win shows that they chose to target Shami because of his religion. They also should have taken note of the sensational failure of our famous batting line-up, barring Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant.

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Isn’t it time for the BJP to tell its foot soldiers to keep sports out of their communal agenda? It was an exciting game of cricket played in true sportsman spirit and was meant to be enjoyed. The trolls must remember that India is not invincible.

What is of concern is that these trolls don’t stop at anything. In Bhopal, members of Bajrang Dal attacked the set where a sequel to Prakash Jha’s “Ashram-3” web series was being shot. The assailants said that the series was an assault on Hinduism and they wouldn’t allow its screening until its name was changed. Will a name change hide the notorious goings on in some of the ashrams like those of Asaram Bapu and Ram Rahim?

Every such act alienates a sizeable chunk of the minority population and may not be good for the nation. Sadly, the powers-that-be expect Bangladesh to act against the mob that vandalized Hindu temples but won’t act against the hoodlums here.

In fact, harmonious coexistence between Hindus and Muslims is being made difficult by the day. Whether love jihad or an advertisement, it is looked at with the narrowness of a mind the only objective of which is to deepen the divide. In a recent bout of Hinduism, the right wingers kicked up a row over a Fabindia advertisement with the tagline “Jashn-e-Riwaaz”. The objection was to the use of the Urdu term which simply means “celebration of rituals”. Tejasvi Surya, the BJP MP from Karnataka tweeted, “Diwali is not Jashn-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting Hindu models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out.” Does Surya mean that all Hindu women wear a sari on a festival?

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The BJP MP from Karnataka, Ananthkumar Hegde, finds a tyre ad featuring actor Aamir Khan against bursting of crackers on the streets as anti-Hindu. Even devout Hindus point out that there were no firecrackers to greet Lord Ram on his return to Ayodhya.

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