Wheelchair-bound writer assaulted for remaining seated during the national anthem

In a case of taking patriotism to an extreme, a wheelchair-bound writer and disability campaigner was allegedly assaulted at a multiplex in Goa for remaining seated during the national anthem

Salil Chaturvedi. Pic/ANI

In a case of taking patriotism to an extreme, a wheelchair-bound writer and disability campaigner was allegedly assaulted at a multiplex in Goa for remaining seated during the national anthem.

Goa: Wheelchair-bound writer & disability campaigner was allegedly assaulted at a multiplex for remaining seated during the national anthem. pic.twitter.com/m9ccTgZG06

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 21, 2016

The writer Salil Chaturvedi is wheelchair-bound due to a spinal injury, was assaulted while the national anthem was being played before the screening of a film in a multiplex in Panaji.

It so happened that before the movie, when the national anthem was being played, a 'patriotic' husband-and-wife duo standing and singing in the aisle above took offence on his action.

Speaking to a news channel, Chaturvedi said, that he was whacked from behind while the anthem was in progress. He waited for the anthem to get over and then told his attackers to 'relax'.

Chaturvedi who has been wheelchair-bound since 1984, and paralysed from waist below, was extremely shaken and hurt by the incident, but despite that he kept his cool and told his attackers to back off.

He said, "Singing of national anthem should be discouraged in cinema halls. It is not a place to express your love for country. National anthem is something that shouldn't be belittled by playing in a movie theatre. There are many who might drink and come."

"If national anthem has to be played, then theatres should announce to people that there might be some people in hall who can't get up, added.

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