Since the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act, which aims to fast-track providing citizenship to persecuted religious minorities in three neighbouring Islamic countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the Indian ‘liberals’ are out and about fear-mongering and sharing ‘anecdotes’ how Indian Muslims are afraid of being stateless. This, despite the fact that CAA does not affect Indian citizens, irrespective of their religion.
But now with National Population Register, the hysteria has gone through the roof. The ‘cab drivers’ are now changing their names on cab aggregator apps to ‘hide’ their Muslim identity.
My cab driver this morning thanked me for not cancelling the ride the moment I read his (conspicuously Muslim) name. His fellow Muslim drivers have had to start using ambiguous nick names, dressing differently, and have wiped their cars of any religious symbolism.
— namaah (@thehappyn00dle) January 7, 2020
Social media user Namaah, who tweets as @thehappyn00dle, took to Twitter on Tuesday to say how her ‘cab driver’ with a Muslim sounding name thanked her for not cancelling on him despite his ‘Muslim’ name. She added that “His fellow Muslim drivers have had to start using ambiguous nick names, dressing differently, and have wiped their cars of any religious symbolism.”
Imagine being rejected by your own country first, and then not even having the option to fall back on your cultural identity.
This is already true for Muslims, Bahujan, trans people, and enbies. The number of people this could become true for will only go up in the next four yrs— namaah (@thehappyn00dle) January 7, 2020
She further added how this isn’t about religion, “it’s a sneaky, effective way of obliterating any sense of belonging and community among Muslims when they might need them the most.” To further fear-monger, she asks people to imagine being rejected by your own country and then not having option to fall back on our cultural identity. First of all, Islam is a religion, not a culture. Second of all, since CAA does not affect Indian Muslims, how does one get rejected? Further, she adds how this is not just about Muslims but also Bahujan and trans people. This does not make any sense anymore.
Toeing similar line, Huffington Post India journalist Ankur Pathak floated another theory.
Was in an Uber. Muslim driver. From Vrindavan. Studied in a school that was in a temple. We talk as I’m headed to a protest venue. “Sir, main hospital mein nahi, chaar-pai pe paida hua hoon. Maa baap unpad. Kahan se laoon kagaz?” Could sense his anxiety. He kept talking (1)
— Ankur Pathak (@aktalkies) January 8, 2020
On Wednesday, he talked about a Muslim Uber driver from Vrindavan who grew up with Hindus but now that they’ve all grown up, he feels isolated as a Muslim. His ‘cab driver’ shared his anxiety about papers that might be needed for NRC. Instead of explaining his ‘cab driver’ that he need not worry about it since the NRC is not even ready in draft format and hence it is too soon to panic without knowing the whole issue, Pathak chooses to remain silent and let the poor ‘Muslim cab driver’ get more anxious.
He said that he shared a video on his FB about condemning the attack on JNU and his childhood buddy commented, “Goli marni chahiye saalon ko.” I’ve never seen anyone breakdown the way he did, as he narrated that. “Mere bhai hai wo. Saath mein badey hue. Kaisa ban gaya aisa woh?”
— Ankur Pathak (@aktalkies) January 8, 2020
He added some more human angle without getting a little alarmed that if his cab driver is registered with Uber, he would have at least some basic documents, like the driver’s licence or even the PAN. In fact, Uber website has a list of documents needed for drivers and Uber partners that need to be registered. Pathak could have explained that should the NRC come out, since he has so many proofs of identification, his having taken birth on a cot and not a hospital bed should not really be a problem.
This, however, raises a few concerns. If Uber drivers claim they have no proof of identification, isn’t Uber thorough with vetting the driver partners? If not, how safe is it to ride in cabs where drivers have not provided their identification proofs. Moreover, if what Namaah says is true and if cab drivers are indeed changing their names to hide their identity, irrespective of religion, shouldn’t that be a red flag and raise concerns of safety? OpIndia has reached out to Uber for a statement on the same. We shall update our report once we hear back from them.
