A Twitter user cancelled his Ola ride. Not because of poor ratings or long ETA, but because the driver was Muslim. The user tagged and tweeted at the ride-sharing app on Twitter which sent the social media portal in a frenzy.

The man, Abhishek Mishra, a man who claims to be linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has a verified Twitter account. He has around 16K followers and is followed by bigwigs like Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of Culture Mahesh Sharma.
He even justified himself with a message saying that he does not give to his money to “jihadi people”.

Cancelled @Olacabs Booking because Driver was Muslim. I don’t want to give my money to Jihadi People. pic.twitter.com/1IIf4LlTZL

— Abhishek Mishra (@Abhishek_Mshra) April 20, 2018

Instead of a cookie-cutter response we generally see from brands, Ola put out a statement saying that the company is a secular platform and doesn’t discriminate between its customers and driver partners.

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.

— Ola (@Olacabs) April 22, 2018

This post triggered a debate on social media. While few people with same  ideologies praised Abhishek, there were many who slammed him for spreading communal hatred. People even  asked Ola to ban Abhishek and also there were many who urge UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to take action against him.

I Have a problem with Jihadi, but not every Muslims.. I don’t support this. I have friends who are muslims and always celebrated all festival together. I am a vegetarian and that’s why he always used to go vegetarian restaurant with me without questions.

— Ajinkya(Anand-BMJ) (@innocentlyloud) April 20, 2018

Kya ghatiya soch hai aapki
Thuuuu

— P. Gaindaswamy (@GaindaSwamy) April 22, 2018

Soch chhoti nhi honi chaiye.
Aise ladenge yeh terrorists se?
Terrorists ya mullas cab nhi chalate.

Ek baar ko ladki muslim cab cancel krde samajh mein aata hai. Ladko ko kya dikkat hai

— P. Gaindaswamy (@GaindaSwamy) April 22, 2018

So this bigot who cancelled Ola ride coz driver was a Muslim, is a SM consultant at Ministry of Transport, @UPGovt ! And previously was with Ministry of Commerce, GOI ! Do we expect any action by @myogiadityanath ? pic.twitter.com/v38MeCddRd

— कोमल 🙂 🇮🇳 (@Komal_Indian) April 22, 2018

@Olacabs requesting Ola to ban this guy immediately from ur passenger list and black list him 👇or Ola should tell us they encourage this behaviour o discrimination towards their drivers. https://t.co/HyiDSQyI64

— Midhat Kidwai (@midhatkidwai) April 22, 2018

Abhishek further posted a series of tweets justifying his action and said that he is raising his voice in support of Hindu drivers.

I am just raising my voice for Hindu Drivers, those are discriminated on the basis of religion by Customers. Bas style different hai.

— Abhishek Mishra (@Abhishek_Mshra) April 22, 2018

If this views acceptable then why my views are not acceptable ? pic.twitter.com/170MWQuBpn

— Abhishek Mishra (@Abhishek_Mshra) April 22, 2018

The debate against freedom of choice and religious discrimination continues on Twitter.