Not A Proud Indian? Or is it about publicity? Shobhaa De takes a dig at the Indian Olympic contingent

She is known for her frank opinions and forthright views. But this time around, Shobhaa De seems to have gone a tad bit too far, with this tweet about the Indian contingent at the Olympics:

Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 8, 2016

Sure enough, her comment kicked off a twitter storm, with many prominent sportspersons and other well known personalities putting their views across. The 2008 Olympic Gold Medallist Abhinav Bindhra, who missed out on a medal this year, was one of the first ones to react:

that's a tad unfair. You should be proud of your athletes perusing human excellence against the whole world.

— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) August 9, 2016

To which De had this fiery reply:

Only hope? Dependable Abhinav Bindra. Aim for gold, champion!

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 8, 2016

Badminton player and Olympian Jwala Gutta also took to defending her fellow athletes:

maybe things will change when the attitude of people like urself change!!!!😐😐 #Proudindian #proudsportsperson

— Gutta Jwala 💙 (@Guttajwala) August 8, 2016

Tennis player Somdev Devvaman also came out in support of the athletes:

a little harsh to belittle the hard work put in by our athletes ...don't you think ?

— Somdev Devvarman (@SomdevD) August 8, 2016

Actress Gul Panag took on De as well, stating this:

And do so despite of and in spite of there being no infra & institutional support, and no sporting culture @DeShobhaa

— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) August 9, 2016

One of the most apt replies to her tweet came from Suhel Seth:

Every Indian athlete who is at Rio needs to be lauded and respected for even making that journey! Winning is important but not critical.

— SUHEL SETH (@Suhelseth) August 8, 2016

Suhel’s opinion were supported and shared by famous comedian Papa CJ

It's a shame some people don't share ur point of view. Tweets like Shobhaa De's are deeply disrespectful. pic.twitter.com/FXPCBHPss3

— Papa CJ: Comedian • Executive Coach • Author (@PapaCJ) August 8, 2016

This is not the first time that Shobhaa De has made critical and controversial comments about many current issues. Sample this one about Smriti Irani's  'I wear handloom' social media campaign:

If Smriti Irani succeeds in reviving our rich handloom traditions and gets women back into sarees, we'll forgive her all her past faux pas.

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 3, 2016

Ouch!

Also, this one about when BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government’s decided to make it compulsory to screen Marathi films in multiplexes at prime time:

I love Marathi movies. Let me decide when and where to watch them, Devendra Fadnavis. This is nothing but Dadagiri.

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) April 7, 2015

Sure we are all disappointed about India's performance at the Olympics. But expressing such an opinion is a tad harsh, ain't it?

What do you think? Do share your views in the comments section below

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