© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
There are many Good Samaritans in the country earning praise online for their actions, whether it’s calling out someone littering, urinating in public, or throwing garbage on the streets. A recent incident from Punjab, however, has gone viral for reasons that many netizens feel are “not appropriate.”
In the video, a man records two individuals on a street spitting gutka. He stops his car, steps out, confronts them, and points the camera at them saying, “These are the guys, they were spitting roadside.” What happens next sparked widespread debate: he slaps both men, makes them apologise on camera while holding their ears, and even forces them to do sit-ups, all while filming the entire encounter.
The clip was shared on Instagram and quickly went viral. indianexpress.com could not independently verify when the incident took place.
The video has triggered the Internet and netizens, in the comments, shared their disappointment with the actions of the man in question. “Solving problem with another problem ( lack of civic sense in both act),” wrote a user.
Another user wrote, “Correcting people is fine, but using violence only on the poor shows bias. Would they have done the same if it were someone wealthy?”
A third person questioned, “Maar kaise sakte ho? Ye haq kisne dia tumko? Gareeb tha to sun lia ameer rehta to tum side se nikal jate ! Toh ye sab drame mat kro.” (How could you slaps them? Who gave you that right? They tolerated because they are poor. Had they been rich, you’d have ignored. Don’t do such drama.)
A fourth individual commented, “This is so wrong, you could have just asked them to clean it off and to say sorry in front of the camera. Hitting someone out of the blue is never a solution for any issue. I feel bad for those guys now, even when they are in the wrong.”
A fifth person wrote, “I get the point but wouldn’ve respected him more if he had shown his masculinity on a stronger personality.”
