‘Apologetic’ Ira Trivedi & Centre on same page
New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) One year seems to be a long time to forgive and forget. Yoga host — Ira Trivedi — seems to have been rehabilitated by the Narendra Modi government, a year after national broadcaster Doordarshan took strong note of her vocal opposition to beef ban and her alleged statements that were construed as disparaging for one community.
After last year’s controversy, Trivedi held a webinar on Monday morning at 11 a.m., facilitated by the Ministry of Tourism, notwithstanding social media outrage.
However, that too didn’t go down well, with many trolling the Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel, which prompted ‘Incredible India’ to delete a tweet that read: “Our renowned Yoga Guru Ms Ira Trivedi in this webinar will cover breathing techniques and yoga asanas to strengthen immunity and respiratory strength.”
Meanwhile, an argument is made that the reason the tweet was deleted was because the webinar was full.
It also gave a link to register for the webinar which took place as scheduled. The webinar was hosted by one Rangarajan Parthasarthy, whose social media account says he works with the Union Tourism Ministry.
In fact, that’s not all. She was also named in a Ministry of Culture panel discussion with two Union ministers — Culture Minister Prahlad Patel and Shripad Naik, who heads the AYUSH ministry, on June 20, between 6.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
So, what changed in the last one year?
Government insiders say, her unequivocal apology may have been considered. After her vocal opposition to beef ban, a sensitive issue for many, and past comments where Hinduism was called to be “regressive” by her, she clarified she herself was a vegetarian. The ruling BJP has been championing the cause of a beef ban, for long.
But what may have worked for Trivedi may be her unequivocal apology last year where she tried to undo the damage.
She said, “I also deeply cherish, respect and live by Hindu Dharma, please ignore any screenshots of tweets that may have been taken out of context. I respect all religions and texts, but Hinduism is at the heart of my practice.”
However, even if the current government is seemingly accommodative of her, social media is an unsparing space, that even forced a government handle to delete a tweet promoting her webinar.
She had alleged, “Modern day Hinduism is deeply regressive” in an old tweet that resurfaced last year and has been doing the round online now.
Last year, then Chief Executive of Prasar Bharti, Shashi Shekhar, had to publicly step in following which an internal advisory was believed to be issued to take all her shows off air, from all languages of DD. However, Trivedi insists, she wasn’t taken off air and her shows with DD were on Youtube.
Now, with a year gone by, all that seems to be a matter of the past for both Ira Trivedi and the Modi government. Though Trivedi insists, the two never had a fall out in the first place. In a statement to IANS, she clarified, “There is no problem between me and any government agency. It is a targeted trolling campaign by a few right wing publications and nothing else. In fact any screen shots that may be floating around were withdrawn by me several years ago and I gave a public apology on any statements that may have hurt the sentiments of anyone.”
–IANS
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