Bengali film actress Saayoni Ghosh has once again come under fire after one of her tweets, dating back to 2015 featuring a woman putting condom on a Shivling, re-surfaced on social media.
While the actress had quickly got away with an online apology then for the post, which tends to malign the Hindu culture, social media users on Saturday were ready to warn her of legal action for not being truly apologetic of her actions.
Allegations of 'Hinduphobic' content
On February 18, 2015, on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri that year, the actress had tweeted a picture wherein a female character was seen putting a condom over the sacred Hindu symbol of a Shivling.
She captioned the image, "Gods cudnt have been more useful." The actress had then got away with her tweet, claiming it to be an act of hacking.
She was quick to label her own tweet as 'obnoxious', and said, "Dear all, a post from 2015 has been brought to my notice which is extremely obnoxious.. for all your information, I have joined Twitter on 2010 and after a brief use I lost interest in carrying forward. However, the account remained."
Display of hacked materials
Ghosh also claimed that her PR agent Bhaska Roy had informed her that her account has been hacked. She had reportedly alleged that the account couldn't be retrieved until 2017.
"After a while, my pr Bhaska Roy intimated me that my account has been hacked and we need to retrieve it immediately. For various reasons, we could only do that after 2017 and I got back in touch with the Twitter world with a bang," the actress said.
Backing her statement, the actress also stated that most of her earlier post got deleted due to the hacking, except for a few unnecessary ones. "I would take strict measure to ommit content which hurt religious sentiment of people beyond repair," she reiterated.
The actress urged users to share the links of the derogatory posts with her so that she could remove it from her Twitter timeline immediately. "I hope not to be misquoted or misunderstood. My religion means a lot to me so does our unity in trying times," she said further.
Fact Checking the 'Hacking theory'
However, netizens refused to approve of her 'hacking theory'. A screenshot of her social media posts below that particular one shows her sharing selfies with her friend and uploading pictures of her vanity van. If her account had been hacked, why would a hacker post images of the actress along with her friends?
Ghosh had also claimed that her account could not be retrieved until 2017. However, a user, identified as (@kannadaveera), had shared screenshots of her tweets, dating back to September and October 2016. In her tweets, the actress was seen promoting her film 'Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana' ahead of its release on October 7, 2016.
In addition, she had also shared visuals of her character from the movie, just a day before the release of the film. Such content surely can't be posted by a hacker. Why would a hacker promote her film using her Twitter account, if he/she wanted to malign Ghosh's image?
Threats of legal action
Former Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy tweeted, "Ms. Saayoni Ghosh,You have put a condom on a Shivlinga which we Hindus, including me, hold as holiest of holies!"
He added that it constitutes a cognizable, non-bailable offence under Indian Penal Code Section 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class). Tathagata Roy cautioned, "Now be prepared for the consequences."
Another user wrote in Bengali, "Shame on your filthy mindset. Kolkata police, take appropriate action against her for distorting the image of Hindu Gods. We will not tolerate any insult to Hinduism anymore." Slamming her for her double standards on 'Eid' and 'Maha Shivaratri', another user asked whether it is not "hypocrisy".
