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Journalism of Courage
The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested YouTuber Vikas Fhatak aka ‘Hindustani Bhau’ for his alleged role in provoking students of class X & XII to protest against offline exams.
Hindustani Bhau is the social media handle of Vikas Fhatak, a Khar resident, whose style of sitting in a vehicle and recording abusive videos gained him both popularity and landed him in controversy. Fhatak, who was formerly a crime reporter for a Thane-based local newspaper, has around 3 million followers on social media accounts linked to him and several on other social media platforms like YouTube where he first became infamous.
His account with YouTube has, however, been suspended due to the abusive content he has posted in the past, and last year Instagram too had suspended his account for promoting hate speech and violence. Fhatak had participated in the 2019 season of reality TV show Big Boss. In May 2021, he had been arrested by the Mumbai Police for staging a protest at Shivaji Park, demanding exams be cancelled for students, in violation of Covid guidelines. He had gone to Shivaji Park in an ambulance.
Fhatak said that he started using the format of sitting in his car and shooting videos as he is “shy” to do it in front of others.
How is Vikas Fhatak linked to the current case?
Over the past few days, Fhatak has been posting videos on his social media handles claiming to be fighting for the rights of students. In the previous few videos, he said that if the physical exams were not cancelled he and ‘his students’ would protest outside Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad’s residence and that he was strong enough to face the consequences including going to jail.
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