Paresh Rawal faces flak over tweet on Arundhati Roy

Veteran actor and parliamentarian Paresh Rawal has attracted a lot of flak on Twitter for saying the army should “tie” author Arundhati Roy to an army jeep instead of tying a “stone pelter”. “Instead of tying a stone pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy,” Rawal tweeted on Sunday night.

Twitter users termed Rawal’s tweet as “offensive” and “incited violence”. Hitting out at the actor-BJP MP, Congress General Secretary Digivijaya Singh said: “Why not (tie) the person who stitched the PDP-BJP alliance?”

Last month, a video was doing the rounds, which showed a man being tied to the front of an Indian Army vehicle, being paraded in a village in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, as a warning to stone-pelters. Opposition leader, Omar Abdullah tweeted the video then, requesting for urgent inquiry and follow-up.

“Btw (By the way) I don’t agree with a lot that Arundhati says or does. But disagree more with violence. Your physical threats lose you all moral debates,” wrote author and comedian Sorabh Pant.

Rawal is a Member of Parliament from Ahmedabad East constituency.

Another Twitter user, Ziya Us Salam said Rawal’s comment about a woman were shameful.

“@SirPareshRawal Your acting was often commendable but your prejudiced mindset is condemnable. Telling the army to hide behind a brave woman is shameful,” he tweeted.

IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, tweeted in support of Arundhati: “If Arundhati has to be tied on the army jeep, I would love to be tied in front of her, as I agree with most things she has said on Kashmir.”