A couple of days ago, a man named Naushad alias Sohail was arrested by the police after his video of spitting on Rotis while cooking for a wedding went viral on the internet. Sohail was apparently cooking at a wedding in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut where he was filmed spitting on the Rotis before cooking them in a tandoor.
As soon as the video went viral on the internet, social media users, repulsed by the visuals, called for exemplary action against the man and urged police to probe the matter. Several organisations, including Hindu Jagran Manch, demanded the police to arrest the man for spitting on Rotis while cooking at a wedding. An FIR was filed by the Hindu Jagran Manch against Naushad alias Sohail. In the wake of social media outrage and a formal complaint, the police rounded up the cook.
Hussain Haidry, Deepal Trivedi among others to defend the cook’s misconduct
However, soon after Naushad was arrested by the police, a certain section of social media users took to Twitter to defend the cook’s disgusting actions and allege communal bigotry as a reason for the corrective action taken by the law enforcement officials to apprehend the cook. One such user passionately defending the cook was writer-lyricist Hussain Haidry, who has long been an apologist of perverse Islamists.
In a Twitter post, Haidry came in support of Naushad, exonerating him of any wrongdoing and instead accusing right-wing supporters of indulging in communal hatred for targeting the cook for spitting in tandoori Rotis.
This is the video that had gone viral.
— Hussain Haidry (@hussainhaidry) February 22, 2021
And the RW have been after his life for the last two days, claiming that he was spitting in tandoori rotis. These claims have been made with utmost communal hatred for Muslims by RW trolls.
pic.twitter.com/ognkO4upUi
Another Twitter user Deepal Trivedi, who is an editor, writer and speaker as per her Twitter bio, posted a tweet in defence of Naushad. Trivedi alleged that Naushad is in jail because he was passionately cooking tandoori chapatis at a wedding.
#Naushad in #India is in jail because he was passionately cooking #tandoori chapatis for a wedding according to @hussainhaidry . A #RightWinger group reportedly complained that he was spitting on the food he was cooking. Welcome to #India! https://t.co/1kc4zQk8xT
— Deepal.Trivedi (@DeepalTrevedie) February 23, 2021
Others too joined in to defend Naushad’s actions. Alleging that Naushad is a victim of allegedly pervasive Muslim hatred, one Twitter user launched a racist attack against the Gujarati culture, asserting that hating Muslims and jailing them was normalised in Gujarat and in the entire country following the 2019 elections.
Hating muslim and jailing them had been normalized in guj then after 2019, they have been tryin to normalize across the country. What sad abt guj that land was gandhi’s. The chant – वैष्णव जन तो🙁 as young Indian it breaks my heart.
— उड़ाका दल (@himanitri) February 23, 2021
Yet another Twitter user tried to defend Naushad’s actions by claiming he was informed by his Muslim sister-in-law that the cook was not spitting on the rotis but was blowing away extra flour from them, which he claimed was a standard practice.
My muslim SIL told me that the bawarchi is not spitting on the rotis, he is blowing away the extra flour from the rotis, it’s a standard practice.
— Dil Hai Congressi دل ہے کانگریس (@BeAndItIs2) February 23, 2021
For the usual suspects, the fact that Naushad may have actually been spitting in tandoori Rotis was an inconsequential nugget of information. The fact that his faith was Islam was enough for them to absolve him of any wrongdoing. The likelihood that Naushad might have actually spat in Rotis is insignificant for them. Instead, the usual suspects attempted to understate his misconduct by unjustifiably attributing the controversy to his religion and alleging the accusers of exhibiting communal bigotry.
Past instances when usual suspects defended miscreants simply because they were Muslims
However, this is not the first time that Muslims accused of gross misbehaviour have been given a free pass by the usual suspects. During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, a fruit vendor, ostensibly a Muslim, was seen in a video applying saliva on the fruits he was selling. The video instantly went viral, following which an FIR was registered against the fruit vendor.
At a time when hygiene was paramount as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading inexorably, many individuals peddled the theory that the fruit vendor was targeted just because he adhered to Islam. In doing so, the usual suspects tried to play down the serious offence of the man salivating the fruits while painting those who demanded strict action to be taken against him as intolerant bigots.
Contrastingly, the usual suspects who are quick to dismiss criticism of wrongdoers belonging to the Muslim fold as religiously motivated slammed the Hindu vegetable vendors for overtly manifesting their Hindu identities. After reports of Muslim vegetable vendors and fruit vendors applying saliva on their produce started making the rounds, Hindu vegetable vendors started sporting Bhagwa flags and photos of Hindu Gods on their carts. However, the usual suspects did not extend their support to the Hindu vegetable vendors for exercising their Freedom of Expression. Instead, they blamed the Hindu vegetable vendors for being communally provocative by demonstrating their Hindu identities.
Besides, the usual suspects also defended the Tablighi Jamaat miscreants when several reports claimed that the members of the Islamic seminary were found spitting on the roads of Delhi while they were being shifted to quarantine centres, during their stay at the quarantine centres. There were reports which claimed that many Tablighi Jamaat members also spat on nurses, doctors and ward-boys and some defecated in open. However, all these unpleasant facts were swept under the carpet by left-leaning liberals, who alleged that members of Tablighi Jamaat were targeted because they belonged to the Muslim community.
