Telangana’s senior BJP leader G Narayan Reddy has registered a police complaint against film producer and director Ram Gopal Varma for his derogatory tweet on NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. Following the complaint and the outrage by netizens, Varma furnished a tame apology from his Twitter handle.
On 22nd June 2022, Ram Gopal Varma tweeted, “If DRAUPADI is the PRESIDENT who are the PANDAVAS? And more importantly, who are the KAURAVAS?” It is notable that Pandavas and Kauravas were from the royal family of Hastinapur as described in Mahabharata and Draupadi was married to the Pandavas.
G Narayan Reddy, a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Telangana, filed a complaint with the Abid Road Police Station alleging that the director had tweeted a disparaging comment about Draupadi Murmu. Reddy said in his complaint that Varma’s remarks on Twitter were extremely insulting and degrading for an experienced female politician and former governor of Jharkhand. Along with the police complaint, the BJP politician provided the tweet as proof. He insisted that the SC/ST Act should be invoked by the police and that the director should get harsh punishment. The police stated that the required action will be done once a legal opinion was available.
Bollywood actor Gulshan Devaiah joined Varma and contributed to the derogatory remarks against Draupadi Murmu by wondering who is Duryodhana in this story. It is notable that Duryodhana, in Mahabharata, ordered his brother Duhshasana to disrobe Draupadi.
Ram Gopal Varma later furnished a lame apology on his Twitter handle. He wrote, “This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way. Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favorite character but since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone.”
BJP MLA from Goshamahal T Raja Singh said that Ram Gopal Varma tweets in a drunken condition. He said that Ram Gopal Varma always tries to be in the news by making such controversial statements.
