Salil Chaturvedi, writer, poet and disability activist, who suffers from a spinal injury and uses a wheelchair, was viciously attacked for not standing up when the national anthem was played at a multiplex in the city of Panaji in Goa.
A man and woman, a couple, who were belting away behind him, lashed out at Chaturvedi when he did not rise to his feet. While the man hit him, the woman shouted, "why can't he get up?"
Chaturvedi then responded to the couple: "why don't you just relax? Why do you have to get into people's faces? You don't know the story here. You will never know."
Columnist Vivek Menezes wrote about this deeply disturbing incident in his post on the spread of nationalistic jingoism, published in The Times of India on Tuesday. He described Chaturvedi as "one of the gentlest souls you could ever encounter."
While the man and woman left the hall after realising their error, the ghastly episode has left Chaturvedi with no appetite for going to the movies.
"I can't go," the poet said. "I'm afraid someone will hit me even harder, and worsen my spinal injury. I just don't understand why it seems impossible for so many people to express patriotism in a non-aggressive manner."
"I now believe that even if I could stand up during the national anthem, I would rather not, simply because I am being forced to do so. My father is an Air Force veteran. I represented the nation in wheelchair tennis at the Australian Open. Look at my life choices. Who are you to judge how much I love India?" he said.
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