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Journalism of Courage
A Gujarati man claimed he and his friends were denied entry to a Garba event in Atlanta, USA as they didn’t look “Hindu” and their last names sounded foreign. Appalled by the incident, Dr Karan Jani, an astrophysicist, took to Twitter to share his story.
He alleged that Garba organisers at Shakti Mandir in Atlanta said, “You don’t look Hindu and the last name in your IDs don’t sound Hindu [sic]”.
“My Konkani friend who came to Garba for 1st time *due to the enthusiasm of us Gujaratis* was pulled out of line & was told: ‘We don’t come to your events, you are not allowed to ours’,” Jani added.
When his friend clarified and said, “My last name is Murdeshwar. I’m Kannada-Marathi!”, the organiser allegedly retorted, “What is Kannada? You are Ismaili”.
Expressing his disappointment and shock by the discrimination, he further said, “Our IDs had Indian Emblem. Yes, emblem with “Satyamev Jayate” right? Apparently, it didn’t have our religion. Our caste.”
Sharing further details about the incident he claimed, “They ganged up and told us to leave. While we saw other non-Indians being entered (which they of course should!)”
The incident has created a furore online and many expressed shock at such discriminatory behaviour. However, a few others defended the organisers saying that they had the right to reserve entry as they specifically said it was a “Hindu Religious Event”. Few even tagged PMO and Sushma Swaraj to look into the matter.
Here’s what others had to say:
https://twitter.com/Avnskarthik/status/1051702361356423173
https://twitter.com/niviTweets_/status/1051673784875450369
https://twitter.com/RahulKudva/status/1051326718823292928
https://twitter.com/andzalak/status/1050990779852705792
https://twitter.com/brokesilver/status/1051136353981718529
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