Harish Puri, an army veteran, was trolled on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday for appealing to "Hindu Punekars" to "get out and vote" after spotting "15-20 Muslims" in the voting queue.
Puri wrote, "Like a true fauji, I reached the polling booth at 7:00 sharp... Thought I'd be the first to vote, but there were already about 15-20 people in the queue, almost all Muslims... Got to hand it to these guys - their single-minded focus..! So all Hindu Puneites - GET OUT AND VOTE (sic)." The army veteran posted a picture, showing his inked finger.
Meanwhile, the post invited flak from all quarters.
Lyricist and comedian Varun Grover commented, "Bharat Mata ko sharam aati hogi aise hate-filled divisive fauji dekh kar."
"On odd days: Why do Muslims not embrace India and participate in its democracy as educated and responsible citizens. On even days: WhY dO thEse MuSlimS vOte In LargE nUmbers (sic)," wrote journalist Fatima Khan.
After the trolling, Puri deleted his post.
Later, in another post, the army veteran wrote, "There are no vote banks nowadays, no ideological clusters.. Voters today can only be split into two groups: - Pro Modi - they will vote for BJP/NDA no matter who the local candidate is - Anti Modi - who vote for whoever they think can defeat the BJP, no matter which party..(sic)."
