Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit’s bid to troll ‘Shikara’ writer Rahul Pandita backfired on Thursday. Netizens lashed out at the director for posting a picture of Pandita ‘with most wanted Naxalites’.
In the picture, Ashoke Pandit claimed that Pandita, who is also the author of ‘Hello Bastar: The Untold Story of India’s Maoist Movement’, is posing alongside ‘most wanted Naxalites’.
Writer of #Shikara with the most wanted #Naxalites. #NaxalPandita. pic.twitter.com/qlSh0za0s6
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) February 12, 2020
Twitterati soon lashed out at Ashoke Pandit. A Twitter user wrote, “Perhaps a little more google search would also reveal he is the author of Hello Bastar & one of the few journalists whose has produced some of the finest work on the Maoist insurgency. This obsession with Rahul is a becoming a little embarrassing now! Another user wrote, “Dumbest tweet even by the standards of Twitter.”
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
Perhaps a little more google search would also reveal he is the author of Hello Bastar & one of the few journalists whose has produced some of the finest work on the Maoist insurgency. This obsession with Rahul is a becoming a little embarrassing now! https://t.co/xKAxFVxwnW
— Anubha Bhonsle (@anubhabhonsle) February 13, 2020
Sir you have taken leave of your senses. Stop being an ego driven asshole. Your accomplishments aren’t a patch on Rahul’s. His work is way beyond your intellectual ken. Chhod deejiye. https://t.co/sStYLcGfkW
— Nikhil Mehra (@TweetinderKaul) February 12, 2020
Dumbest tweet even by the standards of Twitter. https://t.co/T5kjV9V1Ce
— Manu Joseph (@manujosephsan) February 13, 2020
Nope, that’s the author of ‘Hello Bastar’ @rahulpandita. I remember the big crowd at his book launch, that channels always wanted him on discussions about Maoists, because he was one of the few journalists in the country who had knowledge about the movement. https://t.co/EDJjQLhXVu
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) February 13, 2020
Shut up you clown. Such slandering of @rahulpandita is unacceptable. Go get some mental help. Support to you Rahul https://t.co/2McLIVMhX1
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) February 12, 2020
Hate of sanghis isnot restricted to muslims only but is spread to the very fact that anyone who comes against their hate mongered propaganda will be termed as anti to any community even to his own one. In the present scenrio @rahulpandita is the victim, once again a kashmiri… https://t.co/6VuPlBFYJP
— Jeelani Karim جیلانی کریم (@jeelanikarim) February 13, 2020
How dumb can this chap be
Claiming @rahulpandita as naxal , just because he doesn’t have same hatred against a community as he does. https://t.co/UafU2fVV0I— Aditya Kulkarni (@adikulks) February 12, 2020
You couldnt write to save your life sir….you have 160k followers and you chose to tweet this?… Read @rahulpandita works like hello bastar and OMHBC, maybe you will understand how well researched and first hand experiences his books are!! Pipe down sir… https://t.co/xqsMPfksrX
— Aditya Gooner (@Aditya_Gooner) February 12, 2020
Pictures from 2010-2011
“Hello Bastar: The Untold Story of India’s Maoist Movement ” https://t.co/eIpsG17mC1— Hukum (@hukum2082) February 12, 2020
Please ignore him @rahulpandita. He needs help. I have read ‘Hello Bastar’ & I am certain there is any other thinker, writer and/or journalist who has unpacked naxalism like they way you have. https://t.co/Dis9WcE59s
— Chandan Chatterjee (@chatterjeeworld) February 13, 2020
Peak Sanghi intellectualism https://t.co/VoVTVnMMOh
— Daniel Alexander FC (@MulundSoman) February 13, 2020
Earlier, ‘Shikara’ filmmaker-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra lashed out at people criticising his film . He said that those who accused him of commercialising the plight of Kashmiri Pandits in the film were donkeys.
His response was possibly to a woman who alleged that Chopra commercialised the entire issue of Kashmiri Pandit exodus of the 1990s and did not portray the actual suffering of the community including the genocide, mass rapes and mass murders committed by Islamic radical groups in his film.
The hashtag #BoycottShikara also started trending on Twitter, and people accussed Chopra of going soft on the subject rather than give an unflinching account of the horrific atrocities that Kashmiri Pandits suffered.