Calling someone a ‘chinki’ or a ‘nigga’ comes so naturally to us that we forget that these are not jokes, these are racially abusive terms that can severely affect one’s confidence. Neither do we think twice about the repercussions nor do we consider the age of the person we are targeting. In a rather sick and shocking incident, an elderly man was subjected to this racial abuse at the Delhi metro, because he had a beard and no moustache and ‘looked like a Muslim’.

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This sordid incident was brought to light by Kavita Krishnan, Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, on her Facebook post. A senior citizen was looking for a seat and requested two young men, who had occupied the seats reserved for the senior citizens, to give the seat to him. Instead of obliging him, those two men allegedly said “these seats are for Hindustanis and not Pakistanis” and humiliated him and even asked him to go to Pakistan.

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First of all, if the seat is reserved for the elderly people, you can’t refuse them and secondly, you just can’t assume a guy to be a Muslim by the way he looks. This entire ordeal was witnessed by a fellow traveler, Comrade Santosh Roy, who even intervened and asked those men to apologise to the man. But, being the emotion-driven generation we are, those men instead held Roy by his collar and also allegedly told him to “Go to Pakistan” along with the elderly man.  

The tension was pacified only after the guards came and took those men away. A complaint was later filed against them at the Pandara Road police station but even there they reportedly kept threatening the man and saying, ‘Hamare log aa rahe hain’ (Our supporters will come). 

In our growing years, our parents, grandparents, teachers and every other wise person; taught us that we should always respect people, shouldn’t demean them and never ridicule or judge anyone for the way they look. Back then we nodded and agreed to everything they said, but do we really pay any heed to their wise advice today? Can spreading such racial hatred against Muslims or any other religion for that matter, be justified in any manner?