The vigilant, devoted and often overenthusiastic Facebook warriors of the BJP are in news again but this time in a different role. Following the controversial transfer of regional passport officer Vikas Mishra over an alleged refusal to hand over passport to an inter faith couple, a large section of disgruntled followers in a completely surprising move, brought down the page ratings of Sushma Swaraj’s Facebook handle to a lowly 1.4 /5 as of now, compiled from over 33000 reviews on her Facebook page.
The reason is quite simple. Recently, a woman named Tanvi Seth alleged that a passport officer by the name of Vikas Mishra refused to hand over her passport over the alleged discrepancies in her name on the marriage certificate and the documents required for the passport.
She also complained that the officer insulted her and her husband, Muhammad Anas Siddiqui, and allegedly asked him to convert(or reconvert) for receiving the passport. The media, that constantly looks for such spicy scoops, gave the case a deliberate communal twist. MEA investigated the case and without any delay, transferred the officer with a pending internal enquiry and also handed the passport over to the aggrieved woman. So sweet, right? Certainly not.
As we open the case, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. It turned out soon that Tanvi Seth was denied a passport not on the grounds that her husband was a Muslim, but because her name as per the required documents, and the name in the Nikaahnama [marriage certificate] was completely different. She applied for a passport in the name of her former name ‘Tanvi Seth’, while her actual name as of now is ‘Shadia Anas Siddiqui’. Worse, the new passport was handed over without any police verification, and was delivered directly to her hands instead of being sent by post, as is the official norms.
It didn’t take any rocket science to discover that Vikas Mishra was falsely accused of foul play by Mrs. Shadia Siddiqui, and instead of looking deep into the matter, as is the norm, Sushma Swaraj (or the MEA) took a rather strange decision by transferring the officer for merely playing by the rulebook.
Sushma Swaraj, who is otherwise known for her benevolent gestures towards stranded Indians, from rescuing abducted activists like Judith D’Souza to providing relief to needy people like Mashal Maheshwari and millions of Hindu refugees from PoK and Pakistan, and even supporting sportspersons in distress, she has provided more than a helping hand to the aggrieved Indians abroad. Needless to say, her current decision didn’t go down well with a huge chunk of the BJP supporters, including even those people who are loyal followers of her good deeds.
Initially, some supporters cried foul, accusing Sushma Swaraj of catering to the very vice of minority appeasement. However, some others thought the better of it. Having learnt from the bitter experience of Karnataka elections, some of the disgruntled followers took an innovative step, and instead downgraded the Facebook page of Sushma Swaraj, bringing it down from a normal score of 4.4/5 to a shocking 1.4/5 as of now. Following is a depiction of the massive outrage against the knee jerk reaction:-
BJP does not have the advantage of ‘brainless’ following, most of its followers are educated middle class Hindus. And any act of minority appeasement is bound to rub them in the wrong way. It’s tad unfair for Sushma Swaraj to be treated this way but then public ire doesn’t care for niceties.