trolls

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena

Narendra Modi

MNS party workers

apologise

In a scenario where political battles are being fought on social media by, a critic of Raj Thackeray was treated to the ignominy of doing 50 sit-ups and tendering a public apology which was taken viral online by workers of(MNS)Rohit Borade, a government servant, had reacted to a cartoon by Raj Thackeray showing Prime Ministerinterviewing himself, which was posted on the MNS president’s official web page. Borade had first remarked that Thackeray was criticising the prime minister without logic and just of heck of it.He followed this up with a comment thatwould still support Thackeray, even if he made a mistake. He went on to add that Raj Thackeray has become a laughing stock and his party will never win elections.Clearly incensed by these provocative observations, MNS worker took to attacking Borade on the web page and a heated argument broke out. Not satisfied with this, the Thackeray’s supporters in the city then tracked down Borate and accosted him.They made himfor the comment, taped it on video and also made him do 50 sit-ups. The video showing Borade being questioned by four MNS workers have since been posted on various social media platforms.Justifying their act, Ashish Sable, district president of MNS said, “His comments were derogatory in nature and so we had asked him to remove them but he refused to do that and instead kept using objectionable language. So we decided to track him down. But after reaching there we realised that he is an only child of his parents and also poor. So instead of beating him we punished him by making him do sit-ups.”While Borade has not lodged any complaint on the issue, he said that the apology was tendered under duress and he did not mean it. Speaking to Mirror, he explained, “Since they outnumbered me hugely and were threatening to break my leg, I had to capitulate and apologise. I did not mean it. I was just commenting on what I felt was not right, but they used bad language and threatened me on social media too. When I refused to heed to their demands, they chose to overwhelm me with their physical presence and do the sit-ups. My apology was not meant and I will never do so. Is this what they mean by freedom of speech?”