Trolling Narendra Modi for extending Ramadan greetings in Urdu smacks of bigotry
New Delhi: Last week Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people on the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Prime Minister first tweeted his greetings in Urdu and later in English. He also posted a sound clip of his last 'Mann ki Baat' programme in which he had extended his greetings in advance.
He said that the holy month stood for the virtues of harmony, kindness and charity, reports the Times of India.
However, the message got lost on many trolls, with many attacking him for tweeting in Urdu.
The Prime Minister of India can tweet in any language and wish members of any community.
Those who take offence at this are being bigoted. Viewing the PM’s tweet with a religious lens is being short-sighted.
In fact, the PM is rightly reaching out to all communities in their own languages.
Urdu is one of the 22 official languages recognised in the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India. To suggest that Urdu is only a language of Muslims is wrong. Urdu is a common language spoken in large swathes of Northern India and not just by Muslims alone.
Even if Urdu was only a language of the Muslims, there is nothing wrong in the PM using it to communicate. We cannot discriminate against any community, religion or language as Indians.
Would all those Hindu poets, lyricists, etc who have mastery over Urdu, cease to be Hindus just because they use the Urdu language?
Trolls would do well to stop decoding everything through the prism of religion.
Every religion teaches tolerance and respect for all. Voters are not going to decide whether to vote for BJP or not based on a tweet by PM in Urdu.