Abhijeet Bhattacharya on 'love jihad' tweet row: 'I have the freedom to express my views'

Even as a storm has been brewing over his abusive tweets following his terming of Chennai Infosys employee S Swathi’s murder as a case of ’love jihad’, singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya was in a defiant mood. [caption id=“attachment_2871070” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Abhijeet Bhattacharya. AFP[/caption] In an interview with CNN News18, the singer said that whatever he had tweeted was an expression of his freedom to air his views. As to the abusive language used in his tweets, Abhijeet said it was in response to being trolled by others on the micro-blogging platform. “If someone abuses me, will I not respond? I have the freedom to express my views,” Abhijeet was quoted as saying. When he was asked why he had brought in a communal angle to a simple crime, he replied: “This is not a simple crime… Whenever incidents of this nature happen, everyone — politicians and journalists — rushes to find out what the caste, creed etc is of the victim, the perpetrator. I also watch these channels (and that has influenced me).” He also said that he was within his rights to address “all Hindu parents” in his tweet asking for justice for Swati. “I represent my Hindu community and my religion and I am concerned for their welfare. I don’t need anyone’s permission for that,” abhijeet said.