Rasia Nayeem Hashmi
New Delhi: After Hijab and Halal, a fierce debate has been set off on social media after a video of an incensed TV reporter arguing with a store manager over “Urdu” writing on a Haldiram’s snack packet surfaced on social media.
In the video which went viral, the reporter is seen thrusting a mic and ranting about “Urdu writing”. She claims that the outlet has attempted to hide something by writing the instructions in Urdu.
The outlet manager retorts saying, the description is written in Hindi and English as well, why the reporter was bent on reading only the description in Urdu.
The outlet manager who tells Sudarshan TV reporter, “You can do whatever ma’am, Haldiram’s will not entertain such tantrums” receives a huge applause by the twitter users.
A twitter user Alishan Jafri writes: “Amazing restraint by the Haldiram staff. BTW, Sudarshan’s ‘sherni’ should know that it’s Arabic and not Urdu. Haldiram exports to muliple Muslim majority countries who buy Indian products without discrimination.”
Another user Manisha Pande tweets: “Hats off to #Haldirams store manager! Not easy dealing with professional hecklers at Sudarshan News”
The episode drew widespread condemnation on social media. Some clarified that the writing on the packet is in Arabic and is there because it is exported to the Middle East.
As some bigots also called for boycotting Haldiram’s, several twitter users supplied examples of everything from Indian Railways signages to currency notes using Urdu text.
One Ajay Kamath writes: “It’s Haldiram’s turn now. Tomorrow it might be time to arrest Bollywood song writers for using Urdu words.”
