BSF jawan receives support from far and wide

While the Border Security Force (BSF) continued to rubbish his claims made on facebook, BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s videos continued to draw strong support from across the country, besides the occasional brickbats. The number of his Facebook friends doubled overnight and the number of his Facebook followers grew to 82,689 at noon on Tuesday.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday said in a tweet that he had taken cognisance of Yadav’s videos and asked the Home Secretary to take appropriate action.

Meanwhile, Yadav shared his phone number on Facebook. His phone was evidently swamped by calls on Tuesday as attempts to reach him failed. His Facebook account, however, remained active. “Don’t worry, the entire country is backing you!” read a comment on his latest post.

Even as his videos showing poor quality food being served to jawans are shared over a million times, Pakistani nationals have also jumped in. A Pakistani national, Daniyal Ahmed posted, “Hope India doesn't put billions of $ in (only) buying weapons (but) also put some (amount) in providing healthy foods to the soldiers; people get better food in Pakistani jails (than what) you get in the name of securing India; I am with you my facebook friend.”

The jawan was also shamed into admitting a mistake by a comment from one Yasmin Arora Munshi, who tagged Yadav to a communal message that he had shared on January 5 on Facebook. Addressing him as Bhai (brother), she posted the following comment, “No matter how much Hindutva religious fundamentalism you nourish, I support you. Yes, I am a Muslim and I felt offended by this post of yours. I am a Hindustani first and last. I’m a Muslim but I’m not a terrorist, Bhai Yadav! Jai Hind!”

The post Yasmin tagged read in translation: “If you’re a Hindu, then say Jai Shree Ram. This is a country of Veer Shivaji. Neither Ali nor Wali, this country belongs to Bajrang Bali. Neither Peers nor Fakirs, this country belongs to Prithviraj (Chouhan) like warriors. Neither Bible nor Quran, this is a country of Geeta and Puraan. Neither Allah nor Kaaba, this is a country of Bhole Baba.”

Yadav was quick to tender an apology. “I am a soldier...country’s true foot-soldier. I don’t harbour any negative thoughts about any religion. If I’ve committed a mistake, I seek apology from all religions. Jai Hind!”

Edited at 3.17 pm to remove video link and at 3.22 pm to correct photo caption

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