Babita Phogat hits out at critics over her 'religiously-charged' tweets (Video)
Friday, 17 April 2020 (21:57 IST)
New Delhi: Wrestler-turned-politician Babita Phogat has hit out at critics, who slammed her over her controversial tweet against the 'Tablighi Jamaat', which held a religious congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month, setting off the country's biggest cluster of Novel Coronavirus cases.
Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter on Wednesday, the CWG Gold Medallist had claimed that Tablighi Jamaat is the biggest problem in the country, which has even surpassed the Novel Coronavirus crisis, looming large in the country.
A section of the social media slammed Babita and asked Twitter to suspend her account for the controversial post. "#SupendBabitaPhogat' has been among the top trends in India on the social media platform.
Reacting to the criticism, the Wrestler, in a video posted on Friday, said, ''Few days ago I had tweeted something, after that many people are sending me wrong messages on Facebook messenger, on WhatsApp and Twitter messenger, abusing me. Some people are even threatening via calls.
''I want to say one thing to those people that keep in your mind that I am no Zaira Wasim who will get afraid by your threats and sit back at home. I am not afraid of your threats.
''I am Babita Phogat. I will always fight for my country and continue to speak like this. I have not written anything wrong in my tweets. I hold my tweet correct. Because I have only written about those people who have spread Novel Coronavirus,'' she said in a series of tweets.
She further said that if the Tablighi Jamaat had not spread the virus, the lockdown would have been lifted by now and India would have beaten the virus.
Her elder sister and Wrestler Geeta Phogat also took to the social media to defend Babita, saying that they will continue to speak up by being fearless.
The Tablighi Jamaat came under the scanner of investigative agencies, after it was found that hundreds of members of this group attended a religious congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin in March, despite apprehensions about massive public gatherings, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hundreds of those, who attended this congregation, later tested positive for the infection.More than 20,000 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country, after the Centre and the state governments conducted a massive operation to trace them.(UNI)
