Paresh Rawal sparks row with Arundhati Roy tweet

Bollywood actor and BJP parliamentarian Paresh Rawal found himself in the middle of a Twitter storm on Monday after he tweeted that Arundhati Roy should be tied to an army jeep, suggesting she be deal with in a manner a stone-pelter was in the Kashmir Valley in April.

“Instead of tying stone pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy! (sic)”, the actor tweeted on Monday. His tweet went viral with over 4,700 retweets.

His comments drew criticsm from Twitterati, some seeing it as an attempt to incite violence. The April incident, in which a Kashmiri man was tied to an army jeep as a human shield sparked outrage in Kashmir. The tweet was condemned by Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who tweeted, “@SirPareshRawal Why not the person who stitched PDP/BJP alliance ?(sic)”.

“With violent views against women like that, I feel sorry for the women in his life,” reacted another user.

While the BJP distanced itself from the incident, Union minister Smriti Irani said, “Nowhere will we, in any way, support any violent message by anybody, against any individual of the country.”

Roy, however, could not be contacted for comment.

After his first tweet, Rawal also agreed with a tweet from another user who suggested that in the absence of Roy, one could use veteran journalist Sagarika Ghose as a ‘human shielf’. “We have a wide variety of choices! (Sic.),” he tweeted. To which, the senior journalist reacted, “Wonderful sir, too good. You really are a model parliamentarian (sic).”

His tweets come in the backdrop of Roy’s recent visit to Srinagar, where she reportedly called “Indian aggression” in Kashmir “shameful”. According to a published report, she said “New Delhi’s oppression cannot subdue Kashmiri struggle”.

The article reported Roy as saying, “India cannot achieve its objective in the occupied Valley even if its army deployment raises from 7 lakh to 70 lakh.” She went on to say, “Kashmiris have remained committed with their anti-India sentiments for many years.”

Reacting to the incident, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “It is precisely the definition of democracy that even when you violently disagree with someone, you will defend to death their right to disagree with you. She is a citizen of this country and for an MP, for the smallest ordinary citizen to express this view, shows the mindset which has been and now that you have raised the question, consistently since 2014 they have an anti-NGOs mindset.”

Arundhati Roy, an award-winning writer, is known for her controversial views on many issues including Kashmir and naxalism. Her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness will be released in June, almost two decades after her first, God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize.