Munde's death: BJP workers protest against Shobhaa De's disputed tweet

Mumbai: What was supposed to be a simple, harmless book launch event turned into a tense protest as leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, shouted slogans against columnist Shobhaa De over her controversial tweet about Union Minister Gopinath Munde’s death outside the Crossword bookstore at Mumbai’s Kemp’s Corner. [caption id=“attachment_1555257” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Shobhaa De was supposed to attend the launch of renowned journalist Shekhar Gupta’s book ‘Anticipating India: The Best of National Interest’ at the bookstore at 6:30 pm on Tuesday. However, she cancelled her visit due to tension over her tweet about Munde’s death and his family. Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde passed away at 7.20 am on Tuesday. De had tweeted, saying, “Burrey din aa gaye for the family.“As Shekhar Gupta took the platform to talk about his book at Crossword, he started off by saying, “She (De) did not come for obvious reasons. We didn’t want any disturbance in a bookshop.” Soon after, a group of BJP workers gathered outside the store and started shouting angry slogans against De. “Right now is not the time to play politics. If a tragedy like this occurs in a family or in a neighbourhood, we join them in mourning. We don’t use such hurtful words against them,” said Roshni Mishra, a BJYM worker. “She will have to come here and apologise in front of the entire media,” she added, further saying that the workers would protest outside her house if she did not turn up at the book launch. “She will have to apologise in front of the entire nation,” said Uma Gupta, another BJYM worker. She added that if De did not turn up soon, more workers would join the protest. One of the protesters even suggested that a copy of Gupta’s book be burnt outside the bookstore. Though police was present at the site to prevent violence and escalation of the protest, some police officials were seen laughing with the protestors. One of the police officials even shook hands with a protester. As Shobhaa De did not turn up for the event at all, the protesters left the spot. De eventually tweeted out an apology for hurting any sentiments and said she had not intended to offend anyone.

  Some of the protesters tried talking to Gupta at the end of the event but couldn’t succeed. In his book launch, Gupta talked about his experiences as a journalist and the social and political issues in the country.