After harassing animals and intervening in cultural practices under the garb of animal rights and veganism, PETA has now stooped to a new low by resorting to online harassment of those who question their double standards and dubiousness.
PETA India on July 15 had put out a tweet with a picture of cow with the caption “This Rakshabandhan, protect cows too”. With Rakshabandhan having nothing to do with cows, PETA India’s tweet was called out for once again intervening in Hindu festivals.
Congress leader and Member of Parliament Abishek Singhvi said that cow is considered a motherly figure in India and not ‘sisterly’ (Rakshabandhan is a festival celebrated by Hindus in which sisters tie Rakhi/thread to their brothers as a symbolic expression of love and for protecting them).
BJP MP Baijayant Panda too called out PETA’s absurd tweet.
Earlier, the deplorable NGO known for interfering in Hindu cultural practices under the garb of animal rights, tried to do the same with Bakra Eid but backtracked after facing opposition from Muslim clerics. They had put a hoarding of a goat that said “I am a life, I am not meat” urging people to change their view on animals and go vegan which was removed after Islamic clerics objected to it.
In light of this and in response to PETA India’s tweet about Rakshabandhan, author and activist Shefali Vaidya tweeted on July 16 calling out the double standards of PETA.
Replying to this tweet, PETA mocked at her eating habits by digging out an old tweet of Shefali Vaidya put in March, 2020 in which she had said that being a Konkani, she eats fish and chicken.
Unlike beef and pork that are religiously sensitive to the respective religions, fish and chicken form a part of the staple diet of non-vegetarian people cutting across different communities.
Shefali went on to stand her ground and asked PETA India to prove that they had run campaigns on Muslim festivals like Eid. PETA India replied that they had run a campaign on Eid.
However, as mentioned earlier, they were taken to task by Muslims when they put out a hoarding in Qaiserbagh, Uttar Pradesh urging people to give up meat but it brought it down facing pressure from Islamic clerics.
Later, she was repeatedly trolled and harassed by PETA India and other self-proclaimed libertarians. Mohammad Zubair of AltNews took this chance to pounce on Shefali by taking out an old facebook post of Shefali where she had mentioned that she had tried traditional non-vegetarian cuisine of Odisha.
In another post, PETA India taunted her and her children for playing cricket with a supposedly leather ball.
Meanwhile, the hashtage #SnakeLivesMatter started trending on Twitter to troll Shefali Vaidya.
PETA India, unbecoming of an organization, breached norms of public decency by tagging Shefali in a tweet that said “Dear Shefali, just letting you know we help snakes too.. They are not belts, bags, and shoes. They are living beings, just like you”.
Following this, she was hounded by abusive trolls, mostly found to be Congress supporters or Muslims.
However, the online stir exposed PETA India’s brazen hypocrisy. PETA India’s “animal activists” were attacked by Muslims when they tried to run campaign on Eid promoting veganism.
https://twitter.com/ARanganathan72/status/1284563272692187136
From then on, they had then treaded soft or backtracked when they tried to run campaigns on Muslim festivals.
PETA, an international NGO has gone out and about abusing and trolling a woman on Twitter for calling out its hypocrisy and for intervening in cultural practices.
Peta India’s campaigns are led by Sachin Bangera, Director of Celebrity and Public Relations of PETA India.
In other news, PETA India was once again made to run helter-skelter by people of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu as Lakshmi the elephant who was illegally abducted by PETA returned to her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple on Saturday. They were also shown the finger by Tamil Nadu people when they tried to ban Jallikattu.
