Standup comic Vir Das is upset. Because people are making jokes on him. And this is not a joke. On Wednesday, Das took a Eurostar, a high international train, from Brussels to London and shared an image on Twitter.
Taking the Eurostar from Brussels to London. No Heathrow lines, no baggage claim delays, no 90 minute cab ride from Heathrow. Easy passport control. Centre of London in 2hrs, business class cheaper and yet bigger than most airline seats.
This worked out ? pic.twitter.com/YuBdjwkO3A
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) December 4, 2019
His tweet hailing public transport like high-speed international train generated curiosity. Twitterati dug out his old tweets where he had opposed felling of trees for the construction of metro car shed in Aarey in Mumbai.
Wow. I thought all govt branches had pretty strict daytime hours. Unless they’re cutting tree branches, that happens sneakily at night. #AareyForest
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) October 6, 2019
Late….but common sense often is. Let’s hope it prevails. https://t.co/dNqAieLfO0
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) October 7, 2019
Netizens called him a hypocrite for having different standards for infrastructure projects.
Aarey activist in the streets
HSR supporter in the sheets https://t.co/IDIxQDjFRq— P. K. ?? (@Pallavisms) December 4, 2019
Is this complete hub two feet above ground so that no trees were needed to be cut to build it. https://t.co/Fu4nTfymbM
— Yogini (@yoginisd) December 5, 2019
When this nincompoop comes back, he will in all likelihood oppose the bullet train, diss the metro to save Aarey tree patch, crack an unfunny joke on Prime Minister and lastly cry victim of trolling by an anon sanghi troll allegedly from BJP IT Cell. Yaaawn! https://t.co/r52Nc9ruYG
— Chopdasaab (@Chopdasaab) December 4, 2019
And as some netizens correctly predicted, he has blamed the omnipresent ‘IT cell’ for normal people pointing out his hypocrisy.
Now being trolled by the IT cell for taking a train in London. Always fun.
If my train journey is on their agenda, you know things are pretty bad ?
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) December 5, 2019
Leftist organisations, politicians and virtue signalling activists had gone berserk after the authorities cut trees at the proposed site of the Aarey Colony for the Mumbai Metro car shed project in October this year. The vain protests and virtue signalling by people who never pause to think about the environment before using gas-guzzling SUVs, air conditioning and other personal luxuries have been called out on Twitter.
The new Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena-NCP and Congress alliance government which came to power in Maharashtra has halted the metro car shed project in Aarey.
Irony just protested against an infrastructure project, got it binned and laughed at its own joke.