Actor Randeep Hooda has admitted that he should have been careful with his tweet related to Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur.
“It wasn’t gender specific. I was and I am against politicisation of personal opinions. There was an axe to grind and considering the environment in the country vis-a-vis women, in hindsight, I do believe I should have been more careful,” he told PTI News.
The Lady Sri Ram College student, daughter of army martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, made a video last year in which she spoke about her father, violence, war and other things. Recently, she was part of a viral social media campaign against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s student wing. Her campaign got her caught up in a Twitter feud with cricketer Virendra Sehwag who made fun of her with a picture. Randeep Hooda joined in and called her a ‘political pawn’.
“As an actor I have faced this (trolling) before and will have it in future but as a young person to face this would be very traumatic and she shouldn’t have gone through this,” added the actor.
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The actor was speaking at the launch of second season of MTV Big F, a show which he will be hosting. He also spoke of cyber bullying and how stars get trolled every time they express their opinions. “When I spoke for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, I got trolled. It seems we are not having a conversation. We tend to be abusive. We are trolling people. It is absolutely wrong. You can have a point of view and you can disagree. Whether it is a man or a woman, it is wrong to troll and if it is a woman it is a crime,” he said, insisting that social media should become more safe for women since they are constantly threatened online.
Soon after Hooda trolled the 20-year-old student online, he posted an apology a week ago to clarify his stance saying that he wasn’t being insensitive to the daughter of a soldier, who gave his life for the country.
Here’s the Facebook post:
Don’t hang me over a laugh! Viru cracked a joke and I admit I laughed. Damn!! He is so witty and this is one of the…
Posted by Randeep Hooda on Monday, February 27, 2017