Actor Ayaz Ahmed shares polarizing posts and Instagram refuses to take them down

Social media platforms have been an open playground for bigots to spread their hate in the garb of ‘free speech’. Backed by the biased policies of such digital platforms, perpetrators of hate and masters of hypocrisy, go scot-free and left behind are gullible innocent minds to be harmed by their hostility.

 In the cover of political discourse, these Images, with ulterior motives, clearly display the Hindu phobia that prevails in a section of individuals. Ayyaz Ahmed, had also appeared in MTV Splitsvilla 6,and played a number of episodic and lead roles in several TV shows including Life OK’s Do Dil Ek Jaan and MTV’s Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan.

In a similar incident on Instagram, a user that goes by the name Ayyaz Ahmed (Instagram handle) had posted images depicting Hinduism in a derogatory manner in a seeming attempt to polarize the elections. Under the garb of political discourse, these images, with ulterior motives, clearly display the Hindu phobia that prevails in a section of Indian society. Ayaz Ahmed, has featured in various popular TV programs. He appeared in MTV’s Splitsvilla 6 and played a number of episodic and lead roles in several TV shows including Life OK’s Do Dil Ek Jaan and MTV’s Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan.

Many users taking note of this grave attempt, had reported the posts to Instagram, however Instagram, with its biased stand, instead of deleting the original, hateful and polarizing post, took action against people criticizing the nature of this post.

 Twitter user Devendra Pai, co-founder of the VESIM lit. fest, taking note of this attempt had tweeted: “Dear @ECISVEEP @SpokespersonECI @MumbaiPolice this man by the name Ayyaz Ahmed has a substantial young following on Instagram and has been trying to polarise people on medium before elections.”

“I was informed about this by a friend of mine. Till that point I didn’t even know he (Ayyaz Ahmed) existed. I would have ignored those posts hadn’t it been the number of his followers 99.6k or something which means a huge number of innocent young people, mostly girls he was trying to influence there,” added Devendra Pai

Further pointing out the inherent hypocrisy and an open intent to polarize the electorates, Devendra Pai further exposed this meek attempt and pointed out the evident Hindu phobia.

Devendra Pai said: “Also one must note that he was trying to set a false narrative, entering a zone of spreading hate and fear and that too with regards to a religion only. Being a celebrity he should have thought of the impact it would have on his followers. Perhaps he did think of that and hence posted it. He was trying to polarise people on religious lines esp. trying to show the Hindus as violent community.”

“One can disagree with the PM  it I don’t think any one has the right to abuse. Abusing and Freedom of Expression are two different ideas. He was abusing the PM. I would not tolerate anyone abusing the PM regardless of whether it is Manmohan Singh or Modi. You may disagree with him but in a democracy abusing him is like abusing the entire country,” he also added.

Ayyaz Ahmed also chose to limit his post to Instagram, where most of the users are young adults, skipping other platforms like twitter and Facebook where such attempts are easily called out by sensible users.

Social media platforms have also been a partner in crime in similar incidents, where open hate and bigotry go unchecked, ultimately to skew the minds of young citizens. Calling out users like Ayyaz Ahmed, surely helps in exposing the hate which lurks behind, in the minds of such individuals, however lack luster efforts by Instagram and other platforms continue to provide cover for similar incidents. Election authorities are yet to take any action on Ayyaz Ahmed for his post.

These elections have been seeing political discourse hitting new lows, courtesy of users like Ayyaz Ahmed, however, sensible users will not let this bigotry go unchecked and will keep exposing similar attempts in the future.