Was Paresh Rawal forced to delete his tweet on Arundhati Roy?

Actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal has deleted his controversial tweet on author Arundhati Roy. Did Twitter India force him to do so?

By: Somi Das |
May 24, 2017 10:31 am

Actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal has deleted his controversial tweet on author Arundhati Roy a day after he made a controversial remark of treating the ‘God of Small Things’ writer as a human shield in Jammu and Kashmir. Rawal’s tweets were apparently based on a fake story published by some right-wing propaganda website. He seemed to have been moved by a comment attributed to Roy in which she allegedly said: “India can’t defeat Kashmir with 70 lac soldiers.” The screenshots of this article was also circulated on the social media. It was alleged that Roy had made the remark while on a trip to Srinagar. However, a news website quoting Roy clarified that neither the author made any recent trip to Srinagar nor did she give this statement to any publication.

Rawal was referring to the April 9 incident in Jammu and Kashmir where a Kashmiri citizen was used as a human shied by security personnel to deter stone pelters. However, on May 22, when Rawal made this offensive tweet against Roy, many failed to understand what triggered sudden anger. His tweets also attracted widespread criticism.

Such a depressing time to find veteran actor Paresh Rawal join the bigoted rank of Anupam Kher to make such a shallow, misogynistic tweet.

— Jairaj Singh (@JairajSinghR) May 22, 2017

BJP spokie justified Paresh Rawal attack on Arundhati Roy by quoting a fake twitter handle .This is the state of the Indian government

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) May 23, 2017

National executive member of BJP Mahila Morcha tweeted that the actor apparently asked by Twitter to delete the tweet.

This is an absolute shocker! @SirPareshRawal being asked to delete his tweet by @twitter. Whatever happened to freedom of expression? #Shame pic.twitter.com/QMrRnha7Zg

— Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) May 23, 2017

This happened on the same day when Twitter suspended Abhijeet Bhattacharya’s account for his sexist tweets against student activist Shehla Rashid. Bhattacharya was one of the few who had supported Rawal for his suggestion that Roy must tied to an Army jeep as human shield. In fact, he went a step further and suggested she should be shot. Twitter India, however, still hasn’t given any official statement on this.