Mumbai: Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam is being trolled on social media ever since he questioned the veracity of surgical strikes by the army in PoK, prompting his wife to appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure safety of her family as she is feeling "very unsafe" in India.
Geeta Nirupam's letter to Modi came on a day when her husband claimed he had received a "threat call" on October 5 from gangster Ravi Pujari asking him to tender a public apology over his remarks on surgical strikes.
Earlier this week, Nirupam had called the surgical assault "fake" but the Congress leadership dissociated itself from his remarks, saying it had full faith in the armed forces.
In her letter, Geeta claimed she was also being abused openly in "most vulgar and demeaning manner possible not only on social media but even via phone calls."
Expressing concern about the security of her family, Geeta has appealed to Prime Minister to "check the vulgar comments of the random social media activists and keep politics aside from the personal and familial life."
Noting that her family has received threats from the underworld, Geeta wrote, "Yes, my husband said something that was clearly political in nature, which could have easily been discussed/ debated intellectually amongst political rivals and even commoners; just like any other Indian."
She said, "He was talking about the nation and politics, not about his personal life and family. So, why is this so-called culture and family oriented nation that otherwise worships 'the Devi' dragging his 80-year-old mother into this political drama and abusing her by using the most vulgar language possible on social media?"
"If a girl is raped or molested, activists organise candle-marches to restore modesty, but not one person is ashamed of using social media to abuse, emotionally torture and verbally 'rape' the women in my family by threatening to burn my husband alive or killing him in broad daylight just because he expressed his opinion."
Referring to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan's statement that his wife Kiran Rao was feeling "unsafe" in India, Geeta said she too was feeling "very unsafe" in her own country.
Terming the social media outrage against her family as "barbarism", Geeta stated that thousands of "abusive and downright vulgar" tweets are being shamelessly re-tweeted on a mass media portal and not one person man or woman - has stood up to say stop."
Through the letter, which she also shared on her Facebook account, Geeta appealed to PM Narendra Modi to "press the stop button on vulgar comments as politics is not a family game."
"I am sadly disappointed and waiting for you to press the stop button and at least make sure that there is some censorship that monitors language on mass media. Politics is not a family game, so, can we stop dragging families into it I want answers to my questions," she said.
