While most Indian celebrities have been criticised for their silence about political issues, Siddharth of Rang De Basanti fame, has regularly expressed his political views on social media. The actor has been tweeting in support of the farmers’ protests and against activists being detained. Consequently, he regularly faces backlash from the right-wing trolls on social media.
After the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi over allegedly creating a ‘toolkit’ shared by Greta Thunberg, Siddharth pointed out on Twitter that toolkits are commonplace for any planned activity. Karuna Gopal, Member of BJP’s National Manifesto Sub-Committee, recently tweeted a picture of Siddharth accompanied with the aforementioned quote and said, “Who is this person? A school dropout maybe...?”
Not someone to take things lying down, Siddharth tweeted reminding Gopal that she had “badgered” him to attend a panel discussion at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in 2009.
Gopal in turn tried to defend herself by saying that Siddharth was a panelist brought in by someone from the school and that her invitees were 2 young leaders.
However, Siddharth replied to her by stating that he could make her email requests public.
Once again, Gopal tried to play it safe by saying that the mails would have probably been sent by her office with her name on it.
Siddharth soon posted a screenshot of a mail from Gopal that clearly requests the actor to come and inaugurate her son’s art exhibition at Marriott in 2013.
The actor also tweeted a video of the speech he delivered at the Indian School of Business in 2009. “In it I speak against poor journalism, public amnesia and incompetent governance. I was young and angry then. I am younger and angrier today,” posted Siddharth.
He also went on to comment on the prevailing atmosphere of curbing free speech. “I wonder why I never got a single complaint or threat then about the tone and nature of my speech? Nobody attacked me for having an opinion... For asking questions. India has changed. It changed in front of our eyes. Question is... what are we going to do about it?” tweeted the actor.
Actor Siddharth definitely had the last word and laugh here.
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