World

Indian Columnist Trolled Over Ex-Pak Envoy’s Claim of Contacting Her for Kashmir Plebiscite Article

New Delhi (Sputnik): Claims by the Former Pakistan High Commissioner to India that he approached popular Indian columnist Shobha De to write an article in support of holding a referendum in Kashmir, has stirred controversy.
Sputnik

Though the reputed novelist and columnist has rubbished the claims saying she never wrote any such thing, a section of netizens remain unforgiving and continue to troll her.

In a video that went viral, 'Pakistan's former envoy to India Abdul Basit revealed that he had convinced columnist De to write an article which advocates for the right of self-determination for Kashmiris.

In an interview given to Pakistani blogger Farhan Virk, Ambassador Basit said finding an Indian journalist in ''mainland India" to write an article in a mainstream newspaper on the "self-determination of Kashmir" was a huge challenge for him.

Shobha De, he claimed, agreed to write the article shortly after Indian security forces had eliminated alleged Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016.

She was ridiculed so severely that she stayed out of public view for two months, he added.

De, however, rubbished the former Pakistan envoy's claims, English business daily The Economic Times reported.

"The only time I met him, or rather he came and imposed himself and intruded into a small group, was in January of this year, at the Jaipur lit fest at a publishing party," the ANI news agency quoted De as saying.

"He came and joined a small group, attempted a conversation, was snubbed and almost as good as asked to leave."

"In those three minutes, yes, he tried to bring in various issues, but the only issue that actually chased him away was China. That was the first and last time I ever encountered this man," she added.

​A section of Indian netizens was highly critical of De, with most saying the noted columnist was finally exposed for her “fake patriotism”.

One netizen preferred to give De the benefit of doubt.

​De described Ambassador Basit's claim as "dangerous, malicious, and unfair to anybody who believes in the truth".

She said she felt "deeply insulted and upset that he (Ambassador Basit) could dare to say something like that about a person who has built her career on credibility and positive good journalism for over 40 years."

Discuss