On November 17, Hindi news channel News18 India removed a debate on the issue of spitting on foods and arrests that were made in connection to such cases from its all social media handles and YouTube channel. The channel has not issued any statement why the videos and posts were removed. News18 anchor Aman Chopra, who moderated the debate, also removed the clip of the debate from his Twitter account.
Bizarre claims were made during debate
During the debate telecast on November 16, the panellists Maulana Alimuddin Asadi and Masood Hashmi had made some bizarre claims. While pointing towards a particular clip shown during the debate, Asadi had claimed that people of the Muslim community (in this case Bohra community) respect their elders and gurus so much that they happily eat the leftover food by them. In the video, some young men were seen licking the utensils to allegedly clean the leftover food. He also alleged that in the video of a fruit seller linking the fruit that had gone viral a few years back, the fruit seller was not spitting or licking but cleaning the fruit.
*खाने में थूकना हमारी मजहबी आस्था है, इसको थूकना नहीं कह सकते ।"* – मौलाना अलीमुद्दीन असादी #ThookJihad pic.twitter.com/kB7Ez4nSsd
— Lokendra kapil (@LokendraKapil) November 17, 2021
On the other hand, political analyst Masood Hashmi alleged that only Muslims are being targeted and arrested under PM Modi and CM Yogi governments. When Chopra named all the arrested nine people of a particular community in nine months for allegedly spitting on food items and asked if Hashmi found anything common among them, he said they had nothing in common.
Hashmi also alleged that Mosaad, CIA, and RSS are responsible for the unrest in Muslim nations like Iran and Syria. He also claimed if Indian Muslims were not peaceful, India would not have existed the way it exists. Irked by questions raised on Islam, he said, “Those who watch Mahabharat and Ramayana are questioning Islam. Those who have Gods with countless weapons in their hands are questioning Islam. Look at yourself first, then question us.”
