Elderly Bus Driver Harassed by Men Who Can’t Identify Pak Flag
The bus driver was chased down and abused. Only no one seemed to care the flag wasn’t Pakistani at all.
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“A bus full of Muslims from West Bengal (Didi’s Raj) reached Punjab (Capt Amarinder’s Raj) with a Pakistan flag hoisted on the bus. Just listen what the Punjab police did when they saw the Pakistan flag”.
A video has gone viral on social media in the last few days with the aforementioned message. In this video, an elderly person is being abused. According to those who are abusing him, it is because he has hoisted a Pakistani flag on a bus.
Twitter account @ExSecular was among those who shared this video. This user is followed on Twitter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The video is 1 minute, 35 seconds long. A green-colored flag can be seen hoisted on a bus. The elderly person seen in the video is greeted with filthy abuse and asked to take down the flag, which he then does.
The elderly man is then asked to step on the flag and chant "Pakistan murdabad". The bus seen in the video has the vehicle registration number of West Bengal.
This video has been shared in large numbers by Facebook users. They have uploaded it on their individual profiles which suggests that the video has been circulating on WhatsApp and has subsequently found its way to Facebook. It has also been shared on Facebook groups and by many users on Twitter.
Not the Flag of Pakistan
If one looks closely at the flag that was hoisted on the bus, and compares it with the flag of Pakistan, it is clear that the two are different. The flag hoisted on the bus for which the elderly man was abused, is not the flag of Pakistan. We have juxtaposed the two flags below for comparison.
Where Is the Video From?
A video was uploaded on YouTube on 20 March 2018 in which this same bus has been shown being chased by some men in a car. The men in the car had shot this video, which was subsequently uploaded.
This video is then followed by the video that is now viral on social media. The video of the chase has been posted below. It is from Haryana and not from Punjab as claimed. Lallantop had published an article on 21 March 2018 about the truth of this video.
Earlier as well, such instances have been reported wherein Pakistani flags were allegedly raised. For example, on the eve of Karnataka election when it was alleged that the Pakistani flag was waved at a rally by the Congress party, or the allegation that the flag of Pakistan was raised at a rally in the aftermath of the Bhima-Koregaon incident in January. In each of these instances, it was found that the flags raised were not Pakistani flags.
In recent times, it has been observed that nationalism is being used as a key political tool to polarise citizens. The confusion due to the similarities between the Pakistani flag and the banner used by Muslims in the subcontinent has been used to the hilt by anti-social elements, and has been instrumental in creating a climate of intimidation, such as this incident of an elderly man being abused, bullied and threatened, the video of which has been online for over two months.
(This article was first published on Alt News and has been republished with permission)
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