In the time of a pandemic, the economy may grind to a halt, outdoor life may seize to exist, but the spillage of communal venom on social media need not necessarily stop.
With work from home doesn’t deter the communal minded social media trolls. One such job of a national-divider came in the form of a person who asked Masala Monk, an Indian food manufacturing company that specializes in rare spices and pickles. Masala Monk works with many communities to get their products and send them online. The company founder Shashank Aggarwal is also a food and travel blogger.
The troll asked the Masala Monk fonder to declare that they do not employ Muslims and that nobody has spat on the products they sell.
Since the Tablighi jamaat incident, many unverified videos are being circulated relating Muslims to being spitting on food, licking food, and being overall “unhygienic”.
What started as coronavirus scare soon turned into a media fest of Muslim hatemongering. Unverified videos that do not link either to corona or Muslims were linked to Muslims and many twitter trends were started claiming that Muslims are spreading coronavirus by spitting, licking things that others use. This conspiracy theory has been debunked many times by several fake news busting websites, but still many channels and media houses ran story after story on these topics, keeping Tablighi Muslims in news for days.
As we all know social media is full of such bigots and his comment would have been lost in the sea of hatred that is piled on social media every day. A person called Rajeev Sethi makes an anti-muslim comment on the Facebook page of masala Monk.
Little did the bigot who posted the question on Masala Monk’s Facebook page know that he would be at the receiving end of the sarcastic wrath of the company’s founder, Shashank Aggarwal.
The original question and Aggarwal’s reply which was posted on Masala Monk’s Facebook on Wednesday has been shared by more than 2000 people so far.
Replying to the request, Aggarwal wrote,
Dear Mr Sethi,
As the founder of MasalaMonk.com, I can assure you that we keep certain quality standards. Unlike you, it seems. But that’s another story, and let me not digress.
At MM, we ensure that our saliva is ISO9002 certified, and all our designated spitters have a PhD in Dynamic Oral Propulsion. When they expel the mucus from the submandibular glands, the expulsion follows the best practices enshrined in the Ahmedabad Convention. So, while you seem to understand that our products worth salivating at, we want to set your mind at rest regarding the quality of spittle.
Furthermore we wish to inform you that we have no Muslims working with us. In fact nobody works at MasalaMonk.com; every single person here enjoys himself and herself so much, and are so passionate about what they do, they think it’s a hobby.
Ask Akbar, Rafi, Ayesha, Firdose, Malik, Tabassum…They love putting together the produce so beloved of our customers, who, unlike you, haven’t ever wondered who packed their boxes.But I understand. While being brought up, you’ve obviously not had the benefit of being exposed to good taste. Like they say, we are what we eat, and this is entirely not your fault. I suggest you order all the goodies we have in our catalogue, and very soon your disposition and character will change and you will happily embrace the differences that make India one.Till then…
Khuda Hafiz?♂️
Shashank Aggarwal
www.MasalaMonk.com
