The controversy dates back to January 26, when members of the Bajrang Dal and other right-wing groups staged a protest outside Baba Garments, a shop owned by a Muslim trader. The protesters objected to the shop\u2019s name, claiming that the word \u2018Baba\u2019 is locally associated with the Siddhabali Baba temple and should not be used by a Muslim.<\/p>\n
Tensions escalated on January 31 when the group returned and gathered outside both the garment shop and Kumar\u2019s gym. While police intervened and prevented physical violence, the incident had lasting social repercussions. Kumar said he has since been subjected to taunts, with some referring to him as \u201cMohammad Deepak\u201d because of his inclusive stance.<\/p>\n
The economic impact has been severe. Kumar said the gym\u2019s monthly rent and electricity charges amount to Rs 40,000, while his home loan instalment is Rs 16,000. \u201cIt has become extremely difficult to manage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The financial strain has forced his 70-year-old mother to set up a roadside tea stall to support the family.<\/p>\n
While Kumar has been widely praised on social media for standing up against communal intimidation, he said the ground reality in Kotdwar is starkly different. His decision to defend a neighbour has left him socially isolated and struggling to sustain his livelihood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The controversy dates back to January 26, when members of the Bajrang Dal and other right-wing groups staged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97,215222,215223],"class_list":["post-461506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-kotdwar","tag-mohammad-deepak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}