The duo was subjected to communal hatred after the video went viral but other students came in support of them and posted another video with a message of "unity in diversity".
Two students of Thrissur Medical College, Naveen K Razak and Janaki M Omkumar took a dance challenge and posted their Reels video on Instagram handle on March 23. The duo can be seen dancing to Boney M's cult song Rasputin in a 30-second video clip. The video soon got viral on social media and they received a lot of appreciation and support from viewers. However, the video also received some hate comments which drew attention to their religion.
Naveen K Razak responded to the hate comments by releasing another video along with other students of Thrissur Medical College who are part of a dance group named "Vikings." The new video showcases more dancers dancing to the same song with same moves but with a new message of 'unity in diversity.' It was posted on a social media post and was captioned: "If you've decided to hate, we've decided to resist."
Recently, several student bodies have started launching online dance video challenges. Indian Medical Association (IMA) is one such students' body that launched #RasputinChallenge while Student Federation of India (SFI) wing of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) launched #StepAgainstCommunalism.
Vishnu Gopan, the state convenor of IMA's Medical Students Network (MSN) told NDTV they were concerned about two statements that widely circulated on social media. "One, that doctors shouldn't dance. And second is about communal hatred, a deeper concern. We strongly condemn both these statements and have started a #RasputinChallenge," said Vishnu Gopan.
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