As former porn-star Mia Khalifa joined the likes of songwriter Rihanna and child-protestor Greta Thunberg to express their ‘solidarity’ with the so-called farmer protestors in India, netizens in the country were in a bit of confusion to grasp who really is Mia Khalifa. Even though some pornographic movie enthusiasts had a fair bit of idea about who she really was, some bonafide men in the real world seemed to have no idea.
Similarly, erudite JNU professor and scientist Anand Ranganathan took to Twitter to say that he was not aware of who Mia Khalifa was. The professor also said that he, in fact, knew child-protestor Greta, however, stated that he had to google to find out who Mia Khalifa was.
As Google threw him some unexpected results, Prof Anand Ranganathan also expressed his fear about Google bombarding him with targeted ads of Mia Khalifa after he sought to gain more knowledge about Mia Khalifa.
Prof Anand Ranganathan’s unfamiliarity with the pornographic world and icons seems to have hurt self-proclaimed ‘Dalit Thinker’, who is not a Dalit himself, and columnist at The Print – Dilip Mandal. The angry Mandal resorted to hurling casteist abuses against Anand Ranganathan for his lack of awareness about Mia Khalifa.
The ‘thinker’ Dilip Mandal, perhaps a Mia Khalifa enthusiast himself, targeted Anand Ranganathan by referring to him as an ‘Upper Caste’ and went on to say the JNU professor may dislike or criticise Mia Khalifa for her stand on the ‘farmer’ protests, however, not knowing her should be considered ‘criminal’ and ‘blasphemous’ in the domain of journalism and mass communication.
The casteist attacks of Mandal, however, did not stop there. Mandal, who has a strange habit of co-relating pretty much every issue with caste, asked whether Prof Ranganathan is so angry because it hurt his caste pride.
It is really perplexing to know about the bizarre abilities of Dilip Mandal to weave a caste narrative if a professor is unaware of someone who was involved in the pornographic industry. One is left wondering how not being a porn enthusiast turns one into a casteist or is evidence of one’s ‘upper caste pride’. One is also perplexed at his angst as he terms ignorance about Mia Khalifa as ‘blasphemous and criminal’.
Rihanna, porn star Mia Khalifa extends support to protesting ‘farmers’
Earlier in the day, Rihanna and former porn-star Mia Khalifa showed their ‘solidarity’ with the Indian farmers. The anti-farm law agitations, which eventually culminated into violence and rioting on India’s 71st Republic Day, have attracted the support of several international influencers.
Singer Rihanna shared an article by CNN titled, “India cuts internet around New Delhi as protesting farmers clash with police” and tweeted, “Why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest”.
Soon, Lebanese-American porn star and ‘webcam model’ Mia Khalifa became the latest entrant to the community of international influencers, hailing the anti-farm law protestors in India.
She tweeted, “What in the human rights violations is going on? They cut the internet around New Delhi?#FarmersProtest” The former internationally-acclaimed pornstar had also shared a picture of anti-farm law protestors, where one of them could be seen holding a placard saying, “Stop Killing farmers.”
MEA issues statement
After several international artists like Rihanna, pornstars like Mia Khalifa and climate activists like Greta Thunberg tweeted in support of the protest by so-called farmers, who had run amok in the capital on 26th January in a planned insurrection, the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a statement. The MEA statement urges people to first research and understand the issue at hand before commenting on the same.
After the celebrities, politicians like pro-Khalistan Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh and US Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris, too, extended their support to the ‘farmer’ protests.
The MEA went on to say that “The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible”.
Past shenanigans of The Print columnist, Dilip Mandal
The Print columnist and self-proclaimed ‘Dalit thinker’, who is not a Dalit himself, is not new to bizarre controversies and injecting the caste angle where there exists none. Earlier, The Print published an article by Dilip Mandal that essentially says that a ‘Muslim’ who criticises Muslims and doesn’t toe the Islamist line is a Murtad, an apostate.
Article in The Print, written by Dilip Mandal, headlined “Hindi news anchors such as Rubika Liyaquat and Sayeed Ansari are like Muslim leaders of BJP” made the following assumptions:
- Those who criticise the shameful conduct of a section of Muslims, like the Tablighi Jamaat during the Coronavirus pandemic, are betraying Islam.
- Those Muslims who criticise fellow Muslims for their shameful conduct and don’t toe the Hinduphobic, Islamist line on issues like the CAA and NRC are doing so under some sort of pressure from the ruling dispensation.
- Those Muslims who do all of the above and then quote the Quran are somehow conflicted about their faith.
- The views aired by Muslim anchors on news channels, that don’t toe the Islamist line are merely a performance that they are bound to give due to the largely “majoritarian media”.
- The casteist author says that Muslim anchors tweak their identity on camera because they are catering to a “Hindu audience” and they might be completely different from their relatives. However, Hindu anchors don’t have that burden and can be “equally communal or secular” in their private lives as well.
We had written a detailed rebuttal to the deranged rant by Dilip Mandal. This is not all, though.
In December 2019, Dilip Mandal was accused by the students of Makhanlal University of creating caste divide and harassing students who belonged to upper caste.
One of the ex-student of the university, Rakesh Tripathi, who is also a BJP leader, while speaking to OpIndia said that it is a shame that teachers like Dilip Mandal are trying to fan caste divide amongst the students studying in a reputed organisation like this one. Extending his support to the protesting students, Tripathi said that they have maligned the reputation of the university.
Interestingly, Dilip Mandal in the same journalist and a columnist associated with Shekhar Gupta’s The Print, who had in 2019, accused Twitter of being Brahmanvadi for not awarding him with a Blue Tick. Dilip Mandal had then urgedpeople to trend ‘Brahmanvadi Twitter’ on the social media platform giving a sneak peek into his casteist mentality.