Ola dragged into CAA debate: Tweets on nosy driver 'trigger' boycott call

Nearly everyone who has ever travelled on an autorickshaw or taxi in India will vouch that drivers who butt into conversations, without invitation, can be a source of irritation.

But the emotive nature of the debate over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act now means that an management professional's tweets about such a 'nosy' driver has led to boycott calls against a popular ride-hailing service.

In a series of tweets on Friday, management consultant Kanav Sharma described a ride on Ola Cabs on Thursday, apparently in Delhi. Sharma's LinkedIn profile describes him as being a consultant with A.T. Kearney.

Sharma started the Twitter thread by writing the driver of the Ola cab "overheard my phone conversation where I was talking about India’s economic situation". Sharma wrote the driver told him "only 6 years of Modi government, how can you blame economy? It is Congress’s fault of 70 years".

When asked about the wrongs the Congress had done, Sharma writes the driver claimed, "Congress created JNU which is a prostitution hub of Tukde Tukde gang." The Ola driver allegedly even claimed the grandfather of Jawaharlal Nehru was a " Muslim who converted to Hinduism to fool Indian people".

When Sharma retorted that he was concerned about the perilous state of the economy, the driver declared, “you are one of those anti-national people who find everything wrong with the government. You must also be against CAA and NRC".

The driver then asked Sharma about his stance on the persecution of the Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s. When Sharma told the driver he did not want to continue the debate, the man claimed, "I agree, Your forefathers should have migrated to Pakistan. Our country would be cleaner without people of your thoughts."

Sharma wrote the encounter showed the dangers of fake news. He tweeted, "The depth to which BJP’s propaganda and fake news has reached, it is getting really scary."

Sharma then tagged Ola Cabs in a tweet, noting "it would be much better if your drivers would focus on driving than overhearing conversations and taggin people anti-nationals during their driving duties".

In less than 10 minutes, Ola Cabs responded to Sharma's complaint and apologised for the incident. It informed, "We have reported the driver-partner for corrective action..."

But soon, all hell seemingly broke loose on Twitter. By 2.50pm on Friday, #BoycottOla was among the top 10 trends on Twitter in India.

Ankit Jain, a popular rightwing influencer with over 80,000 followers—one of whom is Prime Minister Narendra Modi—asked his followers to share the hashtag. Anurag Dixit, another handle followed by Modi, tweeted, "Can we do a #BoycottOla till the driver is hired back?". However, it is unclear whether Ola Cabs dismissed the driver.

Interestingly, Sharma tweeted to Ola that he did not want the driver to be penalised. He tweeted, "... I have absolutely no intention of your team penalising the driver. Please share this as a constructive feedback with him so that I, as a customer, can expect drivers to respect my personal space during rides...”

Sharma argued his grouse was with the driver was, "it is unprofessional during duty hours to overhear conversations, interfere with them and force your views confrontationally. I booked a cab, not a history and political course."