New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) Cricketer-turned-politician and the BJP’s East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir on Monday condemned the attack on a Muslim man in Haryana’s Gurugram and demanded exemplary action against the culprits.
“In Gurugram Muslim man told to remove skull cap, chant Jai Shri Ram. It is deplorable. Exemplary action needed by Gurugram authorities. We are a secular nation where where Javed Akhtar writes ‘o palan hare, nirgun aur nyare’ and Rakeysh On Mehra gave us the song ‘arziyaan’ in Delhi 6,” Gambhir said in a tweet.
His remarks came after a video went viral in which a Muslim man was purportedly seen in Gurugram being asked to remove his skull cap and to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram:.
The Gurugram Police has registered a case. The police has also taken the CCTV footage to identify the culprits.
No one has been arrested yet.
Gambhir gets trolled on his comment
However, many social media users advised Gambhir not be selective in highlighting the case.
“Write a tweet on Mathura’s Yadav, who was killed by people for asking the payment of lassi, which was used to break the Roja (sic). OR just keep quiet…Don’t get affected by virus which only focusses on selective incident,” tweeted Chowkidar Kishore Bhartwal. (Chowkidar was the title used by many BJP supporters in the run up to the Lok Sabha campaign).
Ankit Jain, who claimed to be a BJP supporter also asked Gambhir to speak on every incident, including against Hindus or else shut up. “Either speak on every incident or stay quiet,” he told Gambhir in a tweet.
Following a spate of message questioning Gambhir’s “secularism”, the cricketer-turned-politician clarified that this thoughts on secularism emanated from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra “Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”.
“I am not limiting myself to the Gurugram incident alone, any opression based on caste/religion is deplorable. Tolerance and inclusive(ness) is what idea of India is based on,” he tweeted.
Gambhir had condemned the attack on the Muslim man in the Haryana city and demanded exemplary action against the culprits.
“In Gurugram Muslim man told to remove skullcap, chant Jai Shri Ram… It is deplorable. Exemplary action needed by Gurugram authorities…” Gambhir earlier tweeted.
The Gurugram Police has registered a case. The police has also taken the CCTV footage to identify the culprits. No one has been arrested yet.