We Indians are a careful bunch. We make sure we pack boxes of medicines, mango pickles and theplas even when travelling to the next town 50 kilometres away. We like to be prepared for any sort of eventuality.
So, it can hardly come as a surprise when someone decides to ask the Indian government if they are prepared for an attack by zombies.
One Ajay Kumar from Mumbai filed an RTI with this urgent query.
"I am concerned about the readiness of our government in the event of invasion by aliens, zombies and extra dimensional beings," he said in his RTI application.
"Can we do it without Will Smith?" Kumar, who is 26 years old, added. He was referring to the Hollywood actor who fights zombies in the film I Am Legend and tackles aliens on earth in the Men in Black film franchise.
Understandably, the copy of the RTI that was with the Home ministry has gone viral.
In its response, the Home ministry has stated that the query refers to a "hypothetical situation" and therefore does not fall under its purview.
The image was posted on the Facebook page of YouRTI.in, a site that allows citizens to submit online RTI requests.
While Twitter has been cracking up on the RTI query, Kumar told HuffPost India that this wasn't meant to be a joke. "It may sound funny, but this was a protest," he said.
"I filed the RTI as an act of political protest against the entire intolerance fiasco," he said. Kumar said that he wanted to waste a public official's time as a form of revenge.
Kumar said that since the government was so concerned about who is an "anti-national" and who isn't, this was his way to ensure that they waste time on his query instead. "They are wasting so much time on silly things. I am sure they would have spent time to look up the word 'extra dimensional' to understand what it means," he said.
"It's shocking that a government that is so focused on national security has absolutely NO PLAN on what do in case of an alien invasion," Kumar added. "Where is our Area 51? Are we all going to solely have to rely on Will Smith and the US in case of an invasion?"
However, Kumar said that it is absolutely "shocking" that the ministry had leaked his RTI requests.
"This goes against the entire spirit of the RTI procedure. This may have been leaked in jest but the leaking of RTI requests could have serious consequences for someone's lives," a concerned Kumar added.
Kumar has been filing RTIs as a form of protest for sometime now. A couple of months ago he had raised queries related to the slogan, 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. Among his queries were the questions -- Is Bharat Mata a protected emblem or ensign in India? What is the difference between Jai Hind and Bharat Mata Ki Jai? Is there any official memorandum or direction by the Government of India to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai?
The Home ministry had responded saying that they have no answer to the query.
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