I’m sorry that I’m late in telling you this, but this is what happens when you don’t know a language. At the outset, I would like to sincerely appreciate Actor Unni Mukundan for speaking on the ‘mandi’ poster controversy. But then, he is known for having a spine, nothing new for him. Still, thanks, Unni.
On this year’s Vishu, April 15, 2026, a restaurant in Kerala’s Cherthala, named Mehr Mandi and Grills, co-owned by Mohammed Shemir, son of a local leader associated with the Indian Union Muslim League, uploaded a poster on its Instagram account showcasing Hindu God Lord Krishna sitting alongside a plate of chicken mandi (dish known for serving grilled chicken with yellow rice). The post went viral and this became the ‘mandi controversy’.
First, answering the question coming into your mind. Yes, this Muslim League has a relation with Jinnah’s All India Muslim League. After partition, its founder Muhammad Ismail was designated by Jinnah himself to start the Indian chapter of the Muslim League. So, Jinnah is still alive.
Now, coming back to the topic. When the poster went viral online and received a backlash from the Hindus. Shemir was fast enough to release an apology video saying that the poster was a result of outsourcing and that it was ‘designer’s mistake’. Come on, Shemir, are you saying that your designer is the one who designs, approves content and posts it, too? That in your organisation, there is no chain of command. Really, do you want us to believe this? That famous dialogue of Aasif Sheikh is coming into my mind: ‘What a joke!’
For the secular Hindus, who will come in defence of Shemir, saying: o, but he has requested for forgiveness. Pal, it would have been great if you had listened to Shemir’s full line, which was this: ‘Forgive us for causing mental difficulties to our brothers and sisters, even though unknowingly’.
O Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are ‘saying’. Shemir has used the word ‘unknowingly’, which is impossible to happen. Because even if we accept that it was the ‘designer’ who is responsible for this disrespectful act, he/she wasn’t blind, that he/she couldn’t see who was being made to sit near that non-veg chicken dish.
And if he/she didn’t have a basic knowledge of the Hindu festivals in the first place and was still given the assignment by Shemir or someone else from his team. Then, it was very well known to the restaurant owners what they were aiming for – insulting the Hindus.
Arshad, one of the co-owners of the restaurant, has been arrested under the charges of deliberate and malicious acts intended to provoke communal disturbance. This offence is non-bailable and imprisonment that one can get under this is for 3 years.
But I don’t think that anything serious will happen with Arshad. After all, in September 2017, Jawed Habib wasn’t even arrested when his salon had run an advertisement in a newspaper depicting Hindu Gods Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartikey getting their hair fixed, applying makeup, and counting money, with Goddess Durga keeping an eye over them in a Jawed Habib salon.
The max in Habib’s case was an apology. In the mandi case, the max will be Arshad’s arrest as Shemir has already asked for an apology to play safe.
There I say: o Hindus, be ready to get insulted again.
I heard many saying if this had happened with the (one who can’t be named), there had been riots, arson and whatnot. I never care to think about others. I only think what’s best for those who can live in a society. So, just like The Dossier’s founder Kaushlesh Rai suggested following the Gandhian approach of non-violence when former CJI BR Gavai insulted Lord Vishnu, I would also suggest that the best way to protest against this mandi thing by Shemir and gang will be to never forget this insult. This is the least that we can offer to Lord Krishna.
If there’s one line that you can keep in your mind for your whole life. Let that line be what Unni said, commenting on the anti-Hindu poster: ‘There is a limit to everything’. With this, I have snatched your excuse for not knowing the language, because however the poster by Mehr Mandi and Grills was in Malayalam, Unni’s words are in English.
