On June 8, actress Kangana Ranaut posted an Instagram story criticising Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker for “bullying” and “mocking” a young Indian named Vashudev. Vashudev had posted a video calling for a boycott of the airlines after the Gulf nation slammed India for the controversial remarks and tweet on Prophet Muhammad by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and the party’s Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal respectively.
Following the furore caused by the remarks and the tweet, which was deleted, in the Gulf and several other Islamic countries, the BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal. The Indian Embassy in Qatar issued a perfunctory statement stating that these were only “fringe elements” and that their words did not represent the government’s views. The BJP also issued a press release distancing itself from the remarks but without naming either.
Vashudev waded into the controversy by tweeting a video that asked Indians to boycott Qatar Airways to teach that nation a lesson—in his words, to respond to their “brick’ with a “rock”. Soon the hashtag “BycottQatarAirways” (sic) was trending in India, with around 1,70,000 users having tweeted or retweeted it.
Shortly after this, a video spoof showing Al Baker “requesting Vashudev to take this call for boycott back” in an interview with an Al Jazeera journalist went viral. The
— source newsclick.in | Aditya Sarin | 17 Jun 2022