In what was one of the saddest instances from the riots in Delhi last month, a group of rioters put a saffron flag atop a mosque in Delhi’s Karawal Nagar on February 25, 2020.

As unfortunate as it was, this act led to something rather touching. 

A Hindu man named Ravi Parashar climbed the mosque a few days later and removed the flag with his own hands – video of which soon went viral on the internet.

In an exclusive report done by HuffingPost India, Ravi, who is a wholesale watch supplier in Chandni Chowk and a father of 2, said that he did it because ‘someone had to’.

No one else showed the courage in that moment, so I decided to do it. Someone has to do the right thing. Someone has to take a step for peace and brotherhood. Only then will others follow and hate start to disappear.
BETWA SHARMA/HUFFPOST INDIA

Ravi Parashar’s brother, who lived near the mosque, in a house he had bought from a Muslim – also lost the property to torching by the miscreants.

So when a Muslim cleric asked people to help him remove the flag, Ravi volunteered despite initial hesitation. “We felt the same at that moment,” he said.

Our house was looted and torched. Their mosque was looted and torched. He must have felt as scared and lost as we felt.
HuffPost India

Ravi also helped removing a Hanuman idol that was placed inside the mosque as he realised his Muslim brothers might have some difficulty touching it in tense times like these.

Everyone is thankful to Ravi, especially Tariq, the cleric still remembers how Ravi came forward to help him out. 

It is because of people like Ravi that our faith in humanity is still alive. You can read the report in detail on HuffPost India’s website, here.