Sudhir Chaudhary’s jihad rant on Zee News just got hit with eggs, petrol and some beauty
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Sudhir Chaudhary’s jihad rant on Zee News just got hit with eggs, petrol and some beauty

When Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhury broadcast a ‘jihad flow-chart’, little did he realise that it would lead to a fantastic Twitter comeback from Muslims.

Saif Ullah Khan    
Zee News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary | Twitter

Zee News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary | Twitter

If Sudhir Chaudhary peddled 13 kinds of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ jihad on Zee News to demonise the Muslim community, it offered him several more — from ‘husn jihad’ to ‘chai jihad’ and ‘egg jihad’.

In his primetime show Wednesday evening, Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary used a ‘flow-chart’ to describe to his viewers the various kinds of ‘jihad’.

It’s another matter that the ‘flow-chart’ itself was plagiarised from a five-year-old post from a Facebook page, Boycott Hallal In India, which posts conspiracy theories. But who cares for facts when fake news and bigotry can garner rich dividends in TRPs. Certainly not Times Now or Republic TV.

Apart from being called out for his apparent ‘Radio Rwanda levels of dog whistling’, Chaudhary’s show on ‘zameen jihad’ also invited, aptly, calls for his prosecution under Section 153A, for creating enmity between communities.

While the show was apparently about encroachment of government land, the channel joined the dots into a grand Islamic conspiracy to marginalise the majority community — the Hindus.

Also read: Congress-BJP poetry on Aaj Tak and Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhury coins ‘zameen jihad’

Schooled in jihad

It was not long before Sudhir Chaudhury got properly schooled in the different types of ‘jihads’. Thursday saw #HusnJihad trending on Twitter, and quickly scaling to the top of the charts.

The acerbic vitriol from the day before, and the Delhi riots as well as vicious prime time debates, was countered by netizens posting their own pictures, making sure they tagged Chaudhary.

Muslims pushed back with intelligent, funny and smart comebacks. What emerged was a confident community willing to engage but not ready to be used as communal fodder.

Unlike what some — Chaudhary included — would like you to believe, the trend was led by Muslim women, whose freedom and agency within the community has recently been questioned a lot.

Also read: On Delhi riots, TV channels finally reported news. Then the anchors swooped in

Turning the narrative around

Like Chaudhary’s flow chart, #HusnJihad soon made way for #PetrolJihad, #EggJihad, #DubaiJihad, #ChaiJihad and not be left behind, the panacea for all ills — hate, communalism, bigotry and even lumpen journalism — #FoodJihad.

Wit and clean humour emerged as the weapon of choice for Muslims being abused for electoral gains. It was only apt that the community chose to turn the narrative around and own it.

Also read: Sudhir Chaudhary & Deepak Chaurasia visit ‘Dilli Ka Kashmir’ — Shaheen Bagh turns on them

Some valuable takeaways for Chaudhary

When #HusnJihad started trending

The beard, the dreaded moustacheless beard was not to be left behind. Some even doubled the fun for Chaudhary

Perhaps in a veiled dig at Chai Pe Charcha, some shared #ChaiJihad