On October 6, the former Jammu and Kashmir DGP Shesh Paul Vaid stepped up his meme game on Twitter after being targeted by ‘liberals’ and Islamists for uploading a meme on the Nobel Prize, a day after Time Magazine named propaganda website Alt News founder Mohammad Zubair and Pratik Sinha as “shortlisted candidates” for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Shesh Paul Vaid’s response came when self-proclaimed journalist Rohini Singh of leftist propaganda outlet The Wire, who was agitated by his Tweet despite the fact that it did not name anyone, attempted to give him a moral lesson class.
Memes and shocking reactions have flooded social media since a piece written by Sanya Mansoor for TIME Magazine on Wednesday, October 5, named Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the founder of propaganda website Alt News, as shortlisted candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Thursday, without taking any names, the ex-J&K DGP posted a meme about the Noble Prize. He Tweeted a popular meme from the 2007 Bollywood film ‘Welcome,’ starring Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar, with a famous dialogue from the movie itself, “Ab Ghodo ke race mein Gadhe bhi Daudenge,” roughly translated to “now donkeys will also compete in horse races”.
He captioned his Tweet, “Nobel Peace Prize” followed by a grinning face with tightly closed eyes emoji.
This post by Vaid, which clearly mentioned no names, riled up The Wire’s ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh. She descended on his timeline to give him a lecture on morals and principles. “Unfortunate that such a senior IPS officer who has held responsible posts has been reduced to an IT cell troll. Why don’t you try gardening or pottery or basket weaving, sir, if you find it hard to pass time post-retirement. Those are dignified hobbies,” Tweeted the self-proclaimed journalist.
Predictably, not just Rohini Singh, Vaid’s banter meme raised the hackles of the so-called leftists, Islamists and Zubair’s online supporters who too descended on Vaid’s Twitter timeline to deride him with personal attacks.
Vaid, however, refused to get bullied. Instead, he boosted his meme game by posting another meme directed at Rohini Singh, who attempted to teach him a moral lesson post his Tweet on the Nobel prize. Ex-police officer posted another popular meme from the same Bollywood movie ‘Welcome’ with a famous dialogue from the movie, “Arre kaun bhawk raha hai badtameez,” in response to Rohini Singh’s rant.
Vaid thanked Rohini for her suggestions and added that he prefers meming.
Alt News founders being shortlisted for Nobel Peace Prize as per TIME magazine
OpIndia reported how in an article published on Wednesday, October 5, Sanya Mansoor for TIME magazine, listed some of some allegedly “shortlisted candidates” for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022. Alleged fact-checkers from India and founders of propaganda website Alt News are also mentioned by TIME in their list as the “shortlisted candidates” for the peace prize.
Since the only notable accomplishments this year of Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the founder of Alt News, are sending a lynch mob towards Nupur Sharma and anyone supporting her, to the extent of instigating murders across the country, their inclusion left everyone bewildered. Zubair was also arrested for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.
Taking a cue from TIME, Indian leftist outlets like NDTV and The Wire regurgitated that Alt News founders are among the contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. NDTV even went on to confirm that Zubair and Sinha are on the list of 343 candidates in contention for the award this year referencing TIME. The TIME piece itself says that data is taken from Reuters, however, there is no mention of Zubair and Sinha as nominees in Reuters.