A TikTok video of a dog getting the Jaya Bachchan aarti treatment from Karan Johar's 2001 release 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...' has gone viral on social media.
In the video, a girl is seen holding a puppy in her hand while another girl enters the frame with an aarti ki thali. Lata Mangeshkar's melodious voice plays in the background, singing the iconic title track of the movie "Subh o shyam charno mein diye hum jalaye...dekhe jahan bhi dekhe tujkho hi paaye..", while the dog gets a nayi bahu welcome.
A Twitter user posted the video with a caption, "My new favorite thing is desi families welcoming their new puppies with traditional ceremonies."
While a few Twitter users said the TikTok video was "awww cute" and "sooo lovely", there were some who found it to be promoting Brahminical superiority. The Wire's Audience Editor Naomi Barton was among the latter.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote, "This is, ostensibly harmless and cute but says a lot about how the entire edifice on which Brahmanism is built is a construct, given how this is now a Hindu Upper Caste... Golden Retriever Also it is 2020. Get rescued dog, and don't contribute to awful puppy mills."
Meanwhile, BJP leader Sambit Patra slammed Barton and said he wasn't unaware of the "caste-hierarchy" of dogs.
"Ohh ..I was unaware of the “caste-hierarchy” of Dogs ..good lord I just got up at night this morning to learn from the “leftcyclopaedia” that Golden Retrievers belong to Upper Caste ...," he tweeted.
