Mumbai: A Twitter battle has been raging all through Tuesday between actress Richa Chadha and filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, who is also the president of the Indian Film and Television Directors Association.
It all started when filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri claimed that dummy students are being sent to Jamia Millia Islamia University to join the ongoing protests against CAA. “3000 students. 30,000 protestors. Who supplied 27,000 dummy students?” wrote Agnihotri.
To this, Ashoke Pandit added: “#ISupportDelhiPolice… @anuragkashyap72 @MaheshNBhatt @anubhavsinha @RajkummarRao @humasqureshi #SwaraBhasker @BajpayeeManoj @RichaChadha & many more like these friends of ours have supplied dummies.”
This did not go down well with Richa Chadha, who took to slamming Pandit with her tweets, and a public mudslinging followed.
The actress replied: “Sir you’re such a strange man! When u ran into me at a party and I promised ki aapki bakwas ko pyaar se counter karungi, u laughed! Now u levelling allegations? And then u invited me to your daughters wedding? I mean r u ok? Why do you behave like this online! Someone paying u?”
Ashoke Pandit replied saying: “I am absolutely fine Richa ji. If U hv a right 2 your opinion so do I. That doesn’t mean I disrespect U. By d way, It’s the communists & #UrbanNaxals who got paid to break the country & not us. It’s the echo system of this Cabal we are fighting.”
This added more fuel to the fire. Richa retorted: “Difference of opinion is welcome? Sir wanna do a thread on you. May I? Because of all the old charity work u do for the elderly, I assumed u still have some humanity left. Then I met the virtual version of u. You are always inciting abuse against people who disagree with you.”
Taking a dig at Pandit, the actress further wrote: “In fact, I am gonna encourage people to manufacture labels customised for u. TWEEPS, plz help him out, he’s LOOKING FOR AN IDENTITY. (no abuse). Like #NakliNationalist etc. Sir, hope u don’t mind? I assure u, my followers will be more decent than yours.”
Pandit reacted to this tweet saying: “You have yourself defined the meaning of #UrbanNaxal by this stupid act of yours. We don’t abuse. Urban Naxals stoop low when they fear of getting exposed. I have the guts to take such antinational’s head-on both peaceful means.”
Richa then tweeted sharing a WhatsApp screenshot with a wedding e-card that shows Ashoke Pandit had invited her to his daughter’s wedding a few days ago.
The actress slammed the filmmaker with her tweet where she wrote: “Twitter, please help relieve Mr. Pandit of his amnesia. Clearly remember him being less than gentlemanly with several people, especially women. Sir, see now you’re calling me stupid. I simple disagreed with you. And why do u invite stupid, urban naxals to your daughter’s wedding?”
The filmmaker replied saying he has committed a mistake by inviting the actress on his daughter’s wedding and he will not repeat the mistake again. He tweeted: “Twitter, Please help relieve Richa Chaddha of her amnesia. See how she has invited people on her twitter handle to abuse me. I simply disagreed with her. Invite kar ke galti to Zaroor kar di. Repeat nahi Karoonga.”
Richa replied: “Mat kariyega.. ‘Kyunki main nahi aaungi Simran!’ Actually, maine jawab tak nahi diya tha. Also, I haven’t invited abuse, specifically asked people not to abuse you. Was raised better than that. When the dust settles, AND IT WILL, I hope you find another way to be relevant.”
Expressing support for Richa Chadha, a user tweeted: “Thank you, @RichaChadha for calling out Ashok’s bigotry and targeted harassment. Sorry he keeps subjecting you all to his vile conduct. More power to you and your voice! Always here in solidarity.”
Meanwhile, Richa has retweeted a tweet by Sonakshi Sinha who has shared a copy of Preamble to The Constitution of India. Sonakshi wrote in her tweet: “This is what we were, what we are and what we MUST remain! #neverforget.”
The Dabangg girl’s tweet comes at a time when several Bollywood celebs are voicing their protest against police violence on the students of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University.
