Religious discrimination is a curse that has caught our country, and more recently with all the casteism directed issues prevalent being politicised. In an act of encouraging more such casteist attitude, a Twitter user Abhishek Mishra cancelled his OLA cab ride because the driver was a Muslim. Mishra, who calls himself a Hindutva thinker, posted on Twitter about the incident. He informed that he cancelled it on the micro-blogging site. He wrote, “Cancelled @Olacabs Booking because Driver was Muslim. I don't want to give my money to Jihadi People”. It is time OLA responds to this guy and remind him of their non-casteist stand!

If this communal instigation wasn't enough, what is surprising is the kind of support Abhishek got for his act. Soon after Abhishek tweeted there were some people who supported him and called what he did as right. What is more perplexing is that Abhishek's profile is verified and has most of the political leaders in his list of followers, with Twitter Official profile too in the list! He has about 14000 followers on his profile and instigating such communal ideologies is wrong on many levels. It is time for OLA themselves to come out and respond to this user.

Take a look at Abhishek Sharma's tweet about Muslim driver:

A few years back, OLA had a similar case when a user asked for a Hindu cab-driver. That time OLA had replied that they do not discriminate within their drivers based on caste and it won hearts of people on Twitter.

Take a look at OLA's response to a passenger seeking Hindu driver:

Soon after OLA made that tweet, the user tried defending himself in various ways. He then tweeted that he did not intend to hurt anyone. But he sure had by then.

Now Abhishek Mishra too got a lot of hate on social media for making such a statement, calling Muslims as Jihadis. The user also tweeted that he was being attacked for his views and does he have no choice.

Update: Ola replied to Abhishek Mishra about their secular stand and that they expect their driver partners and customers to be the same. Ola Cabs tweeted saying, "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."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 22, 2018 03:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).