Happy to break silence, not feeling intimidated: Shobhaa De

Mumbai Shobhaa De Shiv Sena_0.jpg

Kolkata: Celebrated author and columnist Shobhaa De on Thursday said after the large scale protests by political parties against her latest tweet, she was happy to break her silence and was not feeling intimidated.
"This (her tweet) is something which has to be strenuously defended and am happy to break the silence and I am not feeling intimidated. I am also happy about the public support which I have received (for the tweet) and the Mumbai police has been very proactive in this regard", De told reporters here on the sidelines of a FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) event here.
On Wednesday, De had tweeted that Mumbai be separated from Maharashtra. This came on close heels of the proposed creation of Telengana state carved out of Andhra Pradesh. It had led to protests by political parties, including the Shiv Sena.
Later in the night she had clarified that her tweet was purely satirical and 'much misconstrued'. "I suggest the political parties should concentrate on the potholes of Mumbai. Mumbai is a city of potholes. This is not only for the Mumbaikars but also for those who visit the city," she said.
Asked to comment whether the move to create the Telangana state was a case of political opportunism, De said, "It is not that, but definitely the timing is suspect".
"It is worrisome that India will see very ugly elections. There is an attempt all over the country to kill and suppress the voice of dissent. We must resist that. All politicians should be watched and monitored by all and sundry and one should speak up fearlessly," she said.
To a query, she said divisive attempts by interest groups as seen in the demand for a number of states would make the country weak. "However, all demands for separate states should not be put in the same bracket".

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/246977" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-29a35e25134319cec6276c235ebc3fb6" value="form-29a35e25134319cec6276c235ebc3fb6" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="84554915" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.