Writer Chetan Bhagat was given a taste of his own medicine by an aam aadmi on Sunday when he appeared to mock the decision of writers more talented than him to return their prestigious Sahitya Akademi award.
Bhagat tweeted, “Ok so am I also supposed to return my Sahitya Academy (sic) award? Oh wait. Haven’t got it yet.”
Ok so am I also supposed to return my Sahitya Academy award? Oh wait. Haven't got it yet.
— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 8, 2015
His tweet was perceived to be in poor taste as the writers who returned their prestigious awards were doing so to protest the government’s inaction in catching the culprits behind the murder of eminent scholar MM Kalburgi in August and also on the growing incidents of communalism in the country.
Kalburgi was believed to have fallen victim to right-wing zealots who didn’t like the Kannada scholar’s criticism for idol worshipping.
Bhagat, who has 5.7 million followers, was given a rude shock when a nondescript twitter user @spanikkal tweeted this, “If you get a Sahitya Academy (sic) award, I will return my ration card in protest.”
@chetan_bhagat If you get a Sahitya Academy award I will return my ration card in protest
— Sandeep Panikkal (@spanikkal) October 8, 2015
Within minutes Sandeep’s tweet was getting fervently shared on social media platform. Whilst Bhagat’s tweet was shared only by little over 200 people, Sandeep with mere few hundred followers had his tweet shared for more than 2700 times.
His witty reply exposing Bhagat’s what many said ‘juvenile’ reaction was widely appreciated by Twitteratis!
Please find a snapshot below.
This is not the first time Bhagat has exposed himself for criticism and public ridicule with his ill-timed comments on sensitive issues on social media.
On 16 July last year, while the global media was unanimous in their outrage against the Israeli ‘brutalities’ against innocent Palestinian children, Bhagat had posted yet another insensitive tweet.
He had said, “What’s happening to Gaza isn’t fair but sadly that’s the only way sometimes terrorist organisations and their supporters learn to behave.”
It remains to be seen if Bhagat learns from this episode and avoid any more foot in mouth moments in future. In the meantime, Sandeep, who has gained considerable number of new followers is surely enjoying his new stardom.
This episode led to Chetan Bhagat to trend on twitter.
https://twitter.com/BJPScams/status/652880558498799617
I too want to protest against Modi government by returning Chetan Bhagat's books & getting my money back
— Ra_Bies 2.0 (@Ra_Bies) October 10, 2015
I recommend @spanikkal for 'Troll Ratan' from Troll Akadami, my all time favorite tweet. https://t.co/j4XAfduC9H
— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 (@RoflGandhi_) October 11, 2015
Why does #chetanbhagat even trends? Too much of free social media footage to a good for nothing modern day premchand!
— Saumya Kaushik (@isaumyakaushik) October 11, 2015
https://twitter.com/bigeyedsol/status/653281250413703168