Recently, the video of two Kerala medical students—Naveen Razak and Janaki Omkumar—dancing to Boney M’s iconic 'Rasputin' song had gone viral on social media. Their impressive dance moves received an overwhelming response from social media users across the country. However, along with the positive response, also came some venomous comments on social media.
Prominent among these, was that by an advocate named Krishnaraj, whose Facebook post about the dance video has created a stir. The post, written in Malayalam, claims that something is not right about the video of the medicos dancing in the corridor of the Thrissur Medical College. He further ‘warns’ Janaki’s parents and asks them to be careful as Naveen is a Muslim. He also said that if they are carfeul 'they won’t have to be sorry later, as Nimisha’s mother has proven.' Nimisha (Fathima) was one of the women who had converted to Islam and left Kerala between 2016 and 2018 to join the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
As his Facebook post went viral, the advocate has been receiving flak and many are coming out in support of the medical students.
A protest video, release by a group of other medical students features them dancing, to protest the hate campaign. The students, both Hindus and Muslims, revealed their full names in the post and added that their decision is to #resistthehate. In this video, too, the medical students dance in their blue scrubs, like Naveen and Janaki had done in their first video.
Malayalam actors like Shane Nigam had come out and expressed solidarity with Naveen and Janaki.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also expressed his support in a tweet on Saturday. Sharing a media report on the dance video, he said: "These kids deserve applause and encouragement, instead of the Hindutva venom being spewed at them because of their different religions."
He further wrote: "They ooze both talent & comradeship, the best of Young India. And they will make empathetic doctors one day!"
Now, in a show of solidarity with the youngsters, the Students Federation of India (SFI) unit of the Cochin University of Science and Technology has come up with an online dance challenge. The medical students network of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also announced ‘The Rasputin Challenge’, an Instagram-based short dance video competition.
