After Richa Chaddha’s now deleted tweet, “Galwan says hi” in response to the Indian Army Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi’s remark about the army always being ready to take back territories in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) prompted boycott calls for Fukrey 3 and the actress to issue an apology tweet, the film world was divided with many actors criticizing her while others supported Richa Chadha.
Richa’s comments provoked the ire of many actors such as Akshay Kumar, Kay Kay Menon, and Anupam Kher who also expressed unanimous support for the armed forces. Earlier, Akshay had taken to Twitter to share a screenshot of Richa’s comment, tweeting, “”Hurts to see this. Nothing ever should make us ungrateful towards our armed forces. Woh hain toh aaj hum hain (They are there so we exist).”
In response to people’s outrage, Richa tweeted an apology and reiterated her respect for the armed forces and highlighting her own personal connection with the army, tweeting, “ My Mamaji was a paratrooper. It’s in my blood. A whole family is affected when a son is martyred or even injured while saving the nation which is made up of people like us and I personally know how it feels. It is an emotive issue for me.”
However she also responded further, driving home her point by sharing PM Modi’s earlier message to Imran Khan in 2019 in which PM Modi had called for the people of the Indian subcontinent to work together “for a democratic, peaceful, progressive and prosperous region, in an atmosphere free of terror and violence.” Apart from sharing this, she tweeted “exactly” with a shrug emoji. She had also tagged her lawyer Saveena Bedi, who defended her client, by pointing out Mr Modi’s words to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recent G20 summit in Bali that the 21st century was not about wars but settling disputes to dialogue. Saveen also tweeted that “The tweet was not a comment on fitness/valor. Our army is always ready for sacrifice. Making up such news and then highlighting Pakistani reaction can amount to warmongering”.
Actor Prakash Raj supports Richa
Meanwhile, coming out in support of Richa, actor Prakash Raj criticized Akshay Kumar for his tweets. He wrote, “Didn’t expect this from you @akshaykumar… having said that @RichaChadha is more relevant to our country than you sir…” He also explicitly supported Richa Chadda, “Yes we stand with you @RichaChadha… we understand what you meant.”
