Corona gets communal in UP: Man sneezes outside former minister’s house, says, no worries, he is not Muslim!

The ‘religion’ of Coronavirus of India has already been decided, now its trends are beginning to be found on the streets.

The latest example of how deeply the communal colour of the virus has seeped into society was witnessed on the streets of Meerut on Friday.

A person was passing by the house of Kuldeep Ujjwal, who was a minister in the Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh. This man was sneezing constantly. Kuldeep and his wife who is a professor by profession could not bear it. Considering it his social responsibility, the former minister advised the labourer to keep his mouth covered. To this, the constantly sneezing person replied, "I am a laborer. I am going to work and I am a Hindu, not a Muslim". Kuldeep and his wife Anshu were shocked to hear this. Later they made the person cover his mouth with a piece of cloth and then sent him out of their residential colony.

According to Kuldeep Ujjwal, who himself is a professor of political science and a resident of Shastri Nagar, Meerut, the incident took place at around 9 am on Friday, 17 April 17 when he was standing on the porch of his house. His wife Anshu was also there with him. Kuldeep says "Even after so many hours, this is the only thing being discussed in my house. My wife is constantly repeating out of shock-’what has happened to us? Disease doesn’t see anybody’s religion. What kind of poison has been injected in people’s minds! Where is this country going? There should be an immediate ban on the hate spouting TV channels. This ignorance is not one community specific. Such ignorant people from all the sections should be strongly opposed and criticised”.

Although this is not the first incident. In a shocking development, the entry of Muslim vegetable sellers and street vendors has been banned in Hindu majority areas. There have been incidents of assault at many places. Aadhaar cards are being checked before anyone enters the street. Muslim tenants from Hindu-dominated areas are being asked to vacate the houses. Vegetable and fruit vendors have installed saffron flags on their carts to enter Hindu-majority areas. Most of these incidents in western Uttar Pradesh are taking place in and around Meerut which is close to Delhi. But the situation is more or less the same everywhere.

Kuldeep Ujjwal says that the same is happening in his vicinity. Now, if you ask a vegetable seller the price of a vegetable, he first takes out his Aadhaar card from his pocket to show his religion!

Kuldeep says "There is strong resistance to injustice in the culture and family that I come from. My family cannot tolerate any kind of hatred on the basis of religion. I am proud that my wife felt it more deeply than me and responded accordingly She immediately snubbed that man and told him to be ashamed of himself for linking an epidemic to religion."

Anshu is shocked and has not bee able to take this incident out of her system. She has been a professor in English. “ I have taught thousands of students, never even thought of racial or religious discrimination with anyone. Our country is well known for unity in diversity. I am very sad to say that we have put our this great identity at stake.”

According to Kuldeep, the government has done this polarisation to hide its failures. wants to make a clear escape by imposing all its failures and mistakes on one particular community. But such incidents are increasingly putting the identity and the very existence of our country at risk.

Ashish Tomar of Baghpat also has a similar experience to tell. He saw a vegetable seller in his area who was not wearing a mask, nor was he using sanitiser. “when I requested him to take all these precautions, he replied, ‘Sir, I am a Hindu, not a Muslim.’ ”

Young Ashish was shocked and then he felt angry. “But then I felt pity on him because his mind, his thinking have been virtually hacked. And I felt sad. This certainly is not a good foreboding for the country

Young Ashish says that once I got angry. But then I got pity on it because its mind has been hacked. This is certainly not a good sign for our country.