Uber drivers are passe — liberals now get their inputs about the pulse of India from Airport security personnel.
Navjot Gulati, who appears to have been have been involved in movies named Jai Mummy Di (2020), Happily Ever After (2020) and Best Girlfriend (2014) as a writer and director, today sent out an interesting tweet. “The security officer at the airport refused to check me. I asked why. He said ‘Sir aap log pehle hi sabke liya itna karte ho aur ab iss desh ko bachane ke liye lad rahe hon. Aap logo pe shaq karne ka dil nahin karta’ (Sir you people already do so much for others, and now you’re fighting to save the country. Don’t feel like doubting your intentions),” he tweeted. “I insisted he do his job. He did it, with a smile, #farmerprotest,” he continued.
Navjot Gulati appeared to be hinting that such was the popularity of the farmer protests in Delhi, that airport security personnel were refusing to check Sikhs before they board their planes. Not only that, security personnel were claiming that a protest about MSP — which only 6 percent of Indian farmers avail of — is a fight for the “existence of the country”.
Now anyone who’s taken a flight knows that this is hardly the typical conversation one has with security personnel, who’re usually harried and business-like when they frisk passengers. Even as his tweet began going viral, some Twitter users began questioning the veracity of Navjot Gulati’s story. “Hello CISF, Airports Authority of India, can a security officer say this? This requires serious investigation,” wrote Twitter user BefittingFacts, while tagging the concerned authorities.
Things only got more serious from there. Twitter user @Being_Humor tagged Union Minister of Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, asking him to investigate.
Incredibly, Puri responded a while later, saying “I would also like to know.”
Sadly, Navjot Gulati appeared unwilling to share his heartwarming tale of farmer solidarity with the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, and immediately deleted his tweet. As of writing, his Twitter account is also protected.
But Gulati’s fanciful tale had netizens in splits, and soon resulted in a series of similarly outlandish claims. “Nupur refused to take salary for December. I asked why. She said “Sir, aap pehle hi puri team ke liya itna karte ho aur ab iss desh ko bachane ke liye lad rahe ho. Aap se paise lene ka dil hi nahi karta.” I insisted she must never change her mind. She smiled, and then she cried,” wrote Opindia CEO Rahul Roushan.
Twitter user The Skin Doctor also chimed in. “A patient at my clinic refused to give consultation fee. I asked why. He said ‘Sir aap pehle hi kisi ke liye kuch nahi karte aur ab desh ko bachane ke liye ladd bhi nahi rahe. Aapko paise dene ka dil hi nahi karta’. I insisted that he give but he punched me in the eye and left,” he wrote.
Anand Ranganathan too claimed to have had a similar experience. “Saravana bhavan guy refused to take money from me. I asked why. He said: “Saar, aap log pehle hi humare liya itna karte ho aur ab iss desh ko bachane ke liye lad rahe ho. Aap logo se paise lene ka dil hi nahi karta.” I insisted he do his job. He took the money with a heavy heart,” he wrote.
Now it’s hard to understand why some people repeatedly make up these stories to further their political agendas. What’s even harder to understand is why others eat up their stories and amplify them: it’s the internet, and as other commentators showed, it’s very possible to come with any any sort of story that one wants, and share it with millions of people. And what’s perhaps most distressing is that the man who came up with the latest airport tale is a professional writer and director — with creative talent like this, it’s unlikely that Bollywood’s pedestrian masala fare is going to improve in the years to come.
