Twitter users asked for Ola to ban him.
Recently, a post by a Twitter user Abhishek Mishra, who claims in his bio to be associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad went viral after he claimed that he had cancelled his Ola cab ride because the driver was Muslim.
The verified Twitter user, who claims to be a “Hindutva Thinker’, and is followed by major establishemnt figures including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Culture Minister Dr Mahesh Sharma, wrote on Twitter: “Cancelled @Olacabs Booking because Driver was Muslim. I don't want to give my money to Jihadi People.” He later defended himself writing that it was ‘freedom to choose’.
He further wrote: “People starts attack on me. Can I have no right to choose? If they can run a campaign against Hanuman ji poster on cab, defamed Hindus and Hindus god in Kathua incident then they must be prepared for reply.”
His tweet was condemned by a host of Twitter users including the likes of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Delhi Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee. Shashi Tharoor wrote: “I remember an India where people who thought this way would have been ostracized rather than admired &"followed". We need to #BringIndiannessBack.”
Many users also asked Twitter to suspend him for the ‘hate speech’, asked Ola to ban him, while others asked him to boycott cars and automobiles since they used petrol/diesel from Saudi Arabia.
An OLA spokesperson told DNA: "The company does not subscribe to the views of individuals who want to create disharmony by using our platform."
They also tweeted: "Ola, like our country, is a secular platform, and we don't discriminate our driver partners or customers basis their caste, religion, gender or creed. We urge all our customers and driver partners to treat each other with respect at all times."
Incidentally, OLA has a precedence of standing up for their drivers’ rights. When one user in 2015, had asked for a Hindu driver, Ola had tweeted back: “Sorry, we do not discriminate against our drivers on the basis of their religion.”
According to his Facebook profile, Abhishek Mishra is an active member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. He claims to be responbile for the VHP IT cell and is now working in Lucknow as a Digital Media Advisor.
He also states that he was awarded the 'I Support Namo' Award for General Election Campaign 2014. His Facebook profile has a picture showing him clasping PM Modi's hand.
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