‘Tie Arundhati Roy to army jeep’: Actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal’s tweet sparks row on social media

Veteran Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Paresh Rawal on Sunday said writer and activist Arundhati Roy should be tied to an Army jeep instead of stone pelters in Kashmir. He was referring to an incident last month when videos of a man tied to an Army jeep had kicked up a controversy and triggered an investigation after attracting widespread criticism.

“Instead of tying stone pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy!” Rawal said on Twitter. His statement was criticised by several Twitter users including journalist Sagarika Ghose. Rawal then endorsed a tweet that seemed to suggest that Ghose should also be tied to Army jeeps.

“We have a wide variety of choices,” the BJP MP said. Replying sarcastically to Rawal’s tweet, Ghose wrote: “Wonderful sir, too good. You really are a model parliamentarian.”

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh reacted to the actor’s tweet and said, “Why not the person who stitched PDP/BJP alliance?” However, Kerala Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was doubtful whether the Twitter account from which the tweet was made really belonged to Rawal or not.

“Not sure it’s really him,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter. “I met him one day in Parliament after this account had issued a really offensive tweet about me and he was oblivious!” he said.

The incident that Rawat referred to in his tweet had taken place on April 9, when the Indian Army tied a man to a jeep and took him around a locality in Kashmir as a “human shield” against stone-pelters. As the Army jeep patrolled the streets of Kashmir, a note pinned on the man, Farooq Dar’s, chest allegedly warned people that this “would be the fate of stone pelters”. The video went viral on social media and invited widespread condemnation.

On April 13, the Jammu and Kashmir police filed an FIR at the Beerwa police station in Budgam district, where the video was believed to have been shot.