Meher Qadri
The recent incident involving a prank by a Srinagar-based radio host Rayees Mohiuddin, working for Red FM has come under severe backlash for its humiliating and discriminatory nature against a specially abled person. The video of the prank went viral on the social media sites and has drawn a lot of flak from different sections of the society demanding a legal action against the host and the station.
Few days ago, the RJ who works with Red FM began one of his pranks with a line mocking the nasal tone of a disabled person. “Are you speaking through the pipe?” The RJ kept asking the person persistently in an utterly disrespectful way.
Social Media sites were filled with outrage and condemnation of the said act. Some people spoke of how social media influencers and Radio personalities cash on the latest trends and further their careers at the expense of the common people. A day after the incident Association of Disabled persons filed a petition with the LT Governors office demanding action on the RJ and the Radio station.
The Kashmiriyat spoke to Abdul Rashid Bhat State President of Jammu Kashmir Handicapped Association about the said incident. Mr. Bhat said, “It’s not an isolated incident and should not be seen as such. Our society collectively is unempathetic towards specially-abled people. This RJ is a product of our social system. He has come from among us. His content sells because his brand of humor has found an audience and that audience is all of us. However deplorable we laughed at his mockery of other people, accents, abilities, and culture. He is accountable for his behavior but he is a product of our society’s depravity”.
Talking about the action being taken against such people Mr. Bhat said, “The Disability Act 2016 has still not been implemented by the state administration so people get away with such deplorable behavior. Mr. Rayees Mohuiddin and Red FM should be held liable by the administration and the victim of this humiliation in the garb of a prank call should be compensated. That’s the least the people responsible should do as his humiliation was sold as a commercial product by the brand”.
“The government can only pursue this legally but our society must wake up and eradicate such thinking from amongst us. People should boycott such content providers as well as creators as they both are responsible for encouraging such discrimination. I have personally been through such incidents of humiliation at the hands of society. I saw people staying quiet because of different reasons. This silence is the reason why such social evils find roots in our society,” he added.
The Administration has had no response to the petition filed by the Association of the Disabled Persons till the filling if this report.