Poet and activist Bappadittya Sarkar recently faced an Uber driver who, after hearing him on the phone discussing the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, took him to the police station, and asked the cops to take the former in.
Soon after the incident came to light, social media users began to commend the cabbie. Soon, #ProudofUberRohit was trending on Twitter.
Not everyone agreed, but as one social media user put it, "Uber India should be giving a "special recognition award to Rohit for displaying courage to take a terrorist to police stn".
Now, it would seem, that although that request might have fallen on deaf years when it came to the company in question, someone was definitely listening.
On Saturday, Mumbai BJP President, MP Lodha felicitated the Uber driver for his actions. In a photo shared by ANI, the driver in question can be seen holding a sign that has 'alert citizen award' stencilled on it.
Following the felicitation, Twitter had a field day with the posted photo.
As one user wrote, "If you honour a guy, make some effort, spend a 100 bucks on colour printing. Kam az kam calligraphy samajhiye".
Another called the certificate in question 'clip art on a piece of cardboard'.
Take a look at some of the reactions:
The incident was first shared on Twitter by Kavita Krishnan, who quoted Sarkar. He had taken a cab from Mumbai's Juhu and was travelling towards Kurla at night. Sarkar narrates how, 10-20 minutes in, the driver under the pretext of going to the ATM, came back with two policemen.
According to Sarkar's screenshots, the driver asked the police to take Sarkar into custody as "he was saying he was a Communist and was talking about burning the country".
"Sir aap isko andar lo, ye desh jalane ki baat kar raha hai, bol raha hai main communist hoon, hum Mumbai mein Shaheen Bagh banadenge, mere paas poori recording hai," the cabbie told the police.
Sarkar denied making the 'hum desh jala denge' comment and even asked the police to listen to the aforementioned recording to ascertain this.
"Sir aapko kis baat ka bura laga, ye batao, aap police station kyu le aaye ho mujhe itni si baat De?" Sarkar asked the driver.
In response, he was told, "tum desh barbaad kardoge aur hum dekhtey rahenge? Main kahin aur le jaa sakta tha tujhe, shukr mana police station laaya hun."
"Police recorded statements of both but found nothing suspicious so let both go," Mumbai Police later told ANI.
According to the statement tweeted by Krishnan, the police advised Sarkar not to carry the dafli or wear a red scarf, "as the atmosphere is not good and anything can happen".
