Renowned novelist Shobhaa De takes a dig at Indian athletes 1

Having the support of countrymen may just be an athlete’s secret weapon to succeed on the highest stage and it is just disappointing and disheartening to see a renowned personality like Shobhaa De taking a dig at those athletes.

The popular novelist and columnist questioned the determination and focus of the athletes who are representing India  at the Rio Olympics. So far, the Indian athletes have failed to bag even one medal. Barring exceptional performances by gymnast Dipa Karmakar to reach the final round and Abhinav Bhagwat missing bronze narrowly, things have been disappointing so far for the nation. However, that is absolutely not a reason to point fingers towards the athletes, who work day in day out to qualify for the biggest sporting extravaganza of the world. And in a country like India where athletes face problems at every step, their journey should be highly praised.

But Shobhaa De baffled everyone when she took to Twitter to take a dig at those athletes. The 68-year old post on Twitter read: “Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.”


In reply to Sobhaa De’s tweet India’s most renowned Olympian, who won Gold in Beijing and finish at fourth position in Rio, tweeted…

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

As expected the tweet did not go down too well with the fans, and they lashed out heavily at her.

Here are some of the tweets:

https://twitter.com/VishakhaJ18/status/762662224829771778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/SmokingSkills_/status/762660459451445249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/Prachiekins/status/762669456761892865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw