New Delhi: In a mild rebuke, decorated Lieutenant General Harcharanjit Singh Panag has just shut up foul-mouthed singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya.
The video of a man tied to the front of an Army jeep and paraded through several villages by the Indian army sparked outrage.
Lieutenant General Panag was among those who slammed the treatment given to Farooq Ahmad Dar, the man who was tied to the Army jeep.
“Image of a ‘stone pelter’ tied in front of a jeep as a ‘human shield’,will 4 ever haunt the Indian Army&the nation! [sic]”, he tweeted.
The Lieutenant General is a former Commanding officer of the Northern Command and Central Command of the Indian Army.
Singer Abhijeet, who was once arrested for abusive tweets, took to Twiter and accused Lieutenant General Panag of being a Pakistani supporter. “U r a Pak supporter, wish you were kicked,beaten & humiliated on the streets of #Kashmir & then wd hv seen ur reaction [sic]”, he tweeted.
Responding to this accusation, Lieutenant General Panag said that even at this age he can give lessons to a terrorist and also to an “upstart”.
TWhile many people criticised the incident on social media platforms, some justified the act using a counter argument that the Army faces violence in Kashmir and that they show restrain. Another viral video that showed CRPF jawans being beaten by Kashmiri youngsters, and the jawans not retaliating despite having guns, was proof enough.
The singer had infamously tweeted in support of Salman Khan during the actor’s hit-and-run case hearing. He had said, “Kutta rd pe soyega kutte ki maut marega, roads garib ke baap ki nahi hai I ws homles an year nvr slept on rd. If dogs sleep on the road, they will die a dog’s death. Roads do not belong to the poor…”
He had also hit a new low with an abusive tweet targetting former AAP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan for being part of a team of lawyers which had moved a late night petition seeking stay on Yakub Menon’s hanging.
In a vitriolic tweet, Abhijeet posted, “Prashant bhushan ko fata hua sasta joota marunga (mine is costly) uski dead body par, Camera ready rakhna.’
Abhijeet received major backlash for his comments against the decorated Lieutenant General.
However, Abhijeet is not the only one to condemn Lieutenant General Panag’s view. Ashoke Pandit, member of the Central Board for Film Certification by Modi government, also said he wished the former former Commanding officer would have been in the place of the soldiers who were ‘kicked, beaten and humiliated’ on the streets of Kashmir.
The similarity between the tweets made by Ashoke Pandit and Abhijeet, in the usage of “soliders who were kicked, beaten and humiliated on the streets of Kashmir and would have seen your reaction” is also being a matter of discussion on Twitter now. People think either one of the two right-wing advocates copied the other’s words, or that there is a dedicated “troll army” that decides how to tackle anything that is being said against some people in power.
You all #presstitutes @dhume types r funded by enemies,#नोटबंदी से इनकी potty-mouth से निकल रही है,
सामने आ bstr.. #केजरीपना निकाल दूँ https://t.co/ter3imUYVu— abhijeet (@abhijeetsinger) April 16, 2017