HYDERABAD: Union sports and youth affairs minister
Vijay Goel has told
Dangal actress Zaira Wasim
that she had wrongly interpreted his twitter post taking her name.
Goel who was rebuffed by the 16-year-old earlier during the day chose to respond to the remarks made by the girl from J&K.
“You have interpreted wrong. I appreciated your work and stated that evil and patriarchal notions must be discouraged. I'm afraid you still haven't understood. But I wish you all the very best and appreciate your work. Hope to meet and interact too,” Vijay Goel said in response on Friday.
It all began when Vijay Goel posted a picture of a painting of a woman in burkha commenting that it told a story similar to that of Zaira Wasim.
Zaira had shot back saying, “Sir, with all respect to you, I feel I must disagree. I request you not to connect me to such a discourteous depiction. Women in hijab are beautiful and free. Moreover, the story depicted through this painting is not even remotely relevant to mine.”
That one thought would be the end of the conversation but Minister Vijay Goel decided to take further saying that she had still not understood.
Vijay Goel has had to face some flak from twitter users for his remarks.
“Under the garb of Islamophobia, Vijay Goel fakes his 'concern' for Zaira Wasim. Kudos to Zaira for putting it straight,” one person said.
Another said, “Mr Goel kindly leave her alone. I think you should be off twitter , it will be better for you and your party.
A comment by another person read: “ Rahul Gandhi must be feeling matured after your baseless post. Stop dragging that girl into controversies. Let her live her life.”
There was also a lot of criticism for Zaira Wasim.
Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
Read Less