Abhishek Mishra Cancels Ola Ride With Muslim Driver, Twitter Loses Indianness! Shashi Tharoor Says He should be Ostracized

Mumbai, April 23: Are Indians losing their Indianness? In an act of encouraging religious discrimination and spreading hate against one religion, an Ola passenger cancelled his ride soon after he realised that the driver was a Muslim! Yes, you read it right. A verified Twitter User Abhishek Mishra, who is followed by Indian ministers, sparked a communal conversation on the micro-blogging site saying that he cancelled the trip as soon as he found out that the Ola driver was a Muslim. Mishra took to Twitter and said, “Cancelled @Olacabs Booking because Driver was Muslim. I don't want to give my money to Jihadi People”.

To this, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "I remember an India where people who thought this way would have been ostracized rather than admired & "followed". We need to #BringIndiannessBack".

Mishra had booked the Ola cab from Lucknow's Butter Colony to Polytechnic Bus Stand in the same area.  This act grabbed eyeballs and sparked a war of words on Twitter. While many supported Mishra, there were others who said that it was an act encouraging religious discrimination in the country, asking Ola to block such users.

Mishra’s Twitter Profile is Twitter Verified and is followed by Official Twitter Verified profile. He is also being followed by top brass leaders of the Narendra Modi Cabinet including Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan among others.

Drawing anger on his post, Mishra was flooded with Tweets. He took to Twitter again and said he has a right to choose. "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", he tweeted.

It must be noted that SoftBank-backed cab aggregator Ola earlier this week said that it plans to add 10,000 electric vehicles, a majority being e-rickshaws, to its platform over the next 12 months as part of its 'Mission Electric' programme.  The Bengaluru-based company is aiming to get one million electric vehicles on its platform by 2021 to boost the electric vehicle ecosystem in the country.

We could have ignored this tweet if this was one of a case by the random Twitter user, but, looking at his profile and the immense following, this instance is shocking and alarming!

Update: Ola Cabs replied to Abhishek in a tweet and tutored him on secularism and how they expect their customers to be one. Clearing their stand, the taxi service platform said they do not discriminate their driver or customers on the "basis their caste, religion, gender or creed". Calling for peace, the tweet further read, "We urge all our customers and driver partners to treat each other with respect at all times."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2018 09:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).