In yet another shocking incident from Mumbai, an Uber driver Aftab allegedly got angry when he saw the Shivaji Mandir, a theatre in Mumbai and started abusing Chhatrapati Shivaji, the warrior king who once fought the Mughals. Twitter user Samiir said that when he was passing by the Shivaji Mandir near Plaza Cinema in Mumbai, the uber driver Aftab started abusing Shivaji Maharaj and said, “Teri maa ka bh*s**”.
I told him to mind his language. He didn’t
Then he started telling me Tum bhi pooja karte ho uski. Band karo. Aap bolo ki aise logonki pooja nahi karenge
I said its my wish. No one forcing u to worship him. Then his tone got more threatening. 2/n pic.twitter.com/mteeH0jnNs
— samy (@samiir) April 16, 2019
Samiir says that Aftab then lost his cool that everywhere there is ‘Shivaji’ (a lot of landmarks in Mumbai are named after Chhatrapati Shivaji including the Mumbai international airport and the Mumbai Central railway station) and that they ‘worship’ him.
Samiir claims that he asked Aftab to mind his language, Aftab got more abusive and his tone got even more threatening.
Then he said he did a favour by picking me despite the traffic. I told him it was his job and he should drop me at my location. He reluctantly did
When i was getting off he grabbed my phone and gave himself a 5 * rating
I realised it, changed rating and gave him one star 4/n— samy (@samiir) April 16, 2019
Samiir says Aftab insisted that no one should worship Shivaji and at one point asked Samiir to get off his Uber in middle of his trip. Aftab, Samiir claims, said that he did a favour to him by picking him up despite the traffic. After reluctantly dropping Samiir to his location, Aftab proceeded to grab Samiir’s phone and give himself a 5 star rating for his ‘service’.
Samiir says that when he reported the matter to Uber, Uber credited the amount he had paid back to his account and said that action has been taken against the driver. Samiir says that it is necessary for even the minorities to be sensitized about the faith of Hindus so that everyone feels safe in the country. Samiir says that while there are media reports where Hindus are shown to be baying for Muslim blood and out to lynch them, experiences of people like Samiir are brushed under the carpet.
Two days back we had reported how a lady with the Twitter handle @sona2905 was subjected to rude and obnoxious behaviour of an Uber driver, Usman, who got aggressive on seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture on her phone cover. He started off with refusing to turn on the air conditioner in the Uber and even told her to ‘ask Modi to send her a cab’.
OpIndia has reached out to Uber for an official statement on the measure it has taken safety of the passengers and the drivers’ alleged behaviour. We shall update the report once we get a response from them.