'Roti' On The Firing Line
Whoever imagined that the humble ‘roti’ could be seen as an instrument in efforts to divide the voter on communal lines? That the word, roti, was almost universally used in news reports instead of the elegant ‘chapati’ is beside the point. A widely aired TV footage showed a Shiv Sena MP, Ranjan Vichare, egged on by his party colleagues, trying to push a ‘roti’ into the mouth of a fasting Muslim employee at the New Maharashtra Sadan (NMS) near the landmark India Gate in Lutyen’s New Delhi. It led to a nation-wide uproar that was to be expected.