On February 3, comedian Daniel Fernandes published a video, ‘Alive and Vaccinated’, on his YouTube channel, which was a recording of his live show. In the one-hour 39 minutes long video, Fernandes mentioned that during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, he would ask people whom they voted in reply to their DMs for help on Instagram. Without taking any party’s name, he said if they had voted for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he blocked them, and if they hadn’t, he would share their plea on his profile.
A snippet of that particular section was published on Instagram. He said, “If you were on social media, Instagram, for instance, it was very scary. Instagram looked like a hospital ward. Do you remember that? Every Instagram story was a cry for help. “I need an oxygen cylinder!”, “I need an ICU bed”, “I need a ventilator”, And I’m like, “but you voted for chai!” [audience applauded] “Drink it!” And anyone who had any amount of following on social media they were getting a lot of messages in their DMs asking for help. They were saying stuff like, “Hey, I need such and such thing. Can you please share this with your followers?” Can you please amplify my cry for help?” Now, as somebody who has a little bit of a following on social media, I got these messages too.”
“And as I said earlier, in a difficult time, I’m happy to help out if I can make a difference. But I also have an obligation to my own followers. I can’t blindly share anything that comes into my inbox. I have to verify the information, right? So whenever I receive these messages asking for help, saying I need such and such things, I will reply and ask them, “Who did you vote for?” And if they said, “Not chai”, I would share the message. But if they said they voted for chai, I would block them! That seems fair, right?” He added.
Notably, Fernandes is not the only one who has dreamt of BJP leaders or supporters dying of Covid-19. When Home Minister Amit Shah got Covid, there was a wave of hateful comments wishing for his death. The same goes for other BJP supporters. Not only during Covid, but the left-liberal ecosystem also has a habit of wishing for the death of BJP/RSS leaders and supporters. Not to forget, late journalist Vinod Dua’s daughter Mallika Dua once casually wished death for RSS/BJP supporters. On the contrary, when she cried for help on social media, BJP leaders rushed to help her. We covered how left-liberals were refusing to help “Sanghis” during Covid.
Fernandes further said, “I told my friend I did this, and he was like “Bro, this is exactly what the hospitals should’ve done!” He’s like, “Yeah yeah, just think, you have COVID, you go to the hospital, “Yeah, hi, I have Covid. I need an ICU bed.” “Who did you vote for?” “Not chai” “Come, come, come! Right, this way. We have an ICU bed for you. Come, come! There’s air conditioning, there’s Netflix, there’s Wi-Fi. Come come!! Acche din idhar hai!” (Good days are here!) “Next!” “Yeah, I have COVID. I need an ICU bed.” “Who did you vote for?” “Chai” “Aap wahan jaaiye” (Please move over there). “Kyun” (Why?) “Kyunki Hospital wahi banega” (Because that’s where the hospital will be built).”
“Chai” is often used to point towards PM Modi as he used to sell tea when he was a child. “Acche din idhar hai” was to mock “Acche Din Aayenge” slogan used by BJP. “Hospital wahin Banega” was to mock Hindus because of the slogan “Mandir Wahin Banayenge”, which was used as a vow to build Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Whether it is just a joke or not, the lack of empathy and the way Fernandes wished for the death of BJP/RSS supporters is beyond comprehension. Sadly, instead of calling him out, his audience applauded the dark “jokes”. Fernandes has over 76,000 followers on Instagram and over 2,20,000 subscribers on YouTube.
