Shobhaa De finally speaks up on controversial Rio selfie tweet; regrets ‘insulting’ comment

Though, there had been many demands for her to withdraw her comment and/or apologise, De had steadfastedly avoided apologising for her comment that even drew protests from ace sportspersons such as cricketer Virender Sehwag and Olympics gold-winner Abhinav Bindra. In fact, she further went on to aggravate Twitterati and even non-Netizens with follow-up tweets such as: “Official apathy main reason why we fare so poorly during every Olympics, not just Rio. Difficult for athletes to ‘compete’ with this hurdle” and then “PV SINDHU Silver Princess ?”

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But – two Olympics 2016 medals down – De has finally broken her silence on her tweets and on being trolled for them. During a discussion on NDTV, De said, “There was absolutely no malice intended. It was said out of a sense of panic. At that point it really did look like we were going to come back khaali haath…Having been an athlete myself, it was said out of sentiment of deep frustration. I’m a sentimental person. When I tweet, I don’t calculate…Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. This time obviously it backfired.”

Also read: Shobhaa De’s ‘silver princess’ tweet on PV Sindhu gets tweeple a-trolling again

She smilingly acknowledged that she has been punished for it, shamed and trolled for it. “What more is required? Some sort of public penance?” De asked.

De went on to say that she was delighted that things had turned around, and to be proved wrong. She went on to clarify that her reference to Team India wasn’t only the athletes, but also the ‘babus, officialdom’, who have also been under the fire from other quarters for their (mis)behaviour at the Olympics this year.