Following social media backlash over the invitation extended to author Devdutt Pattnaik to speak at the government-organised National Youth Festival, the event where he was scheduled to attend had gone missing and unavailable. The official link to his session now says, “Due to technical difficulties we are unable to connect. Stay tuned as we will be back shortly.”
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, had invited author Devdutt Pattnaik as a speaker for a two-day event National Youth Festival that was inaugurated today. Pattnaik was scheduled to speak on the first day of the event. Besides Devdutt, there were several other eminent personalities, including actor Randeep Hooda, PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, author Harsh Madhusudan and several others who were invited to the festival.
The official website of the National Youth Festival had listed virtual conference rooms, which are named after different rivers in the country, namely Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, and Krishna.
Devdutt Pattnaik was supposed to speak in the time slot of 12-1 pm at the Narmada virtual conference room and his topic was ‘Indigenous and Ancient Wisdom’. Pattnaik was to discuss leadership lessons from Shrimad Bhagwad Gita.
However, on clicking on Narmada virtual auditorium, one is led to another page that says the festival is facing technical difficulties and is therefore unavailable. It further says that the page will be restored shortly.
“Due to technical difficulties we are unable to connect. Stay tuned as we will be back shortly,” read the live streaming page.
Kanchan Gupta, the Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, issued a tweet acknowledging the technical difficulties facing the website for Devdutt Pattnaik’s session.
“Due to unforeseen technical issues, Devdutt Patnaik’s session at #NationalYouthDay festival could not be broadcast. Delegates and those watching are requested to tune into other ongoing sessions,” he tweeted.
Due to unforeseen technical issues, Devdutt Patnaik’s session at #NationalYouthDay festival could not be broadcast. Delegates and those watching are requested to tune into other ongoing sessions. pic.twitter.com/brOsxmeZ26
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) January 12, 2022
Netizens highlight abusive tweets by Devdutt Pattnaik after he is invited by Govt to speak at Youth Festival
The technical snag faced by an event where Devdutt Pattnaik was scheduled to speak comes hot on the heels of social media outrage triggered by the Government of India’s invitation to the author to speak at the Youth festival. A raft of social media users then took to Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to share screenshots of abusive, vile tweets that were posted by Devdutt in past.
Netizens demanded his removal from the panel owning to his routinely abusive and obnoxious behaviour displayed on social media. Netizens tagged Anurag Thakur, Union Minister, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, demanding him to take cognisance of the outrage and asking him how a person like Devdutt, who hurls sexist, misogynist and sexual abuses frequently on social media, could be invited to address the youth of the country in the festival.
Author and columnist Shefali Vaidya tagged Minister Thakur and said, “The problem with Devdutt Pattnaik is not just that he is a mediocre person who completely distorts our scriptures without even basic knowledge of Sanskrit. He is absolute filth who loves abusing people’s mothers. To hail this man as a ‘great mind’ is truly sickening!”
Radharamn Das, Vice President and Spokesperson ISCKON Kolkata, said, “How can Department of Sports MYAS [and] Anurag Thakur invite this abusive mental person to inspire youths at ‘National Youth Festival’ event? If these kinds of people are inspiring our youths, then only Bhagawan can save this country & civilization. Very shameful.”
Many others joined the chorus, demanding the central government restore the credibility of the National Youth Festival by dropping Devdutt Pattnaik from the list of speakers invited to speak at the two-day event.
