Unfazed by backlash, actor justifies his stand with map of Delhi, which has 64 places bearing the names of Nehru-Gandhi family members
Mayur Lookhar
He is a fighter, never one to back down. Sticking to his guns, veteran actor Rishi Kapoor continued his attack on the Congress by lighting up the ‘renaming controversy’.
A few days ago, Rishi Kapoor had questioned the Congress tradition of naming prominent places, grounds, airports, stadia and other public places after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family. This triggered a storm on social media and in Indian polity, with supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party backing the actor and supporters of the Congress lashing out at him. Some Congress party workers staged a rally outside Rishi Kapoor's house in Mumbai, condemning the actor and demanding an apology.
THINK. There are 64 prominent places named after them only in New Delhi! Do you need that many to commemorate them? pic.twitter.com/zdmVEAaal7
— Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) May 19, 2016
The brouhaha failed to break Kapoor’s spirit and he continued his attack against the struggling party. Justifying his opinion, the actor backed it up by tweeting a map as evidence, indicating that New Delhi alone had 64 places named after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The actor asked whether one really needed so many places to commemorate the family.
Like his earlier tweets, this one too received a positive response with over 800 retweets and 2,900 likes (at the time of publishing).
Kapoor had commented on the renaming controversy after the Congress slammed the BJP for asking for renaming of Akbar Road in Delhi as Maharana Pratap Road.
While the actor has largely received positive responses, there were some netizens who questioned how different Kapoor is from the Congress when he mooted the idea of naming prominent places, like Film City in Mumbai, after his own father Raj Kapoor and other legends from the Hindi film industry.
Kapoor was trolled for his ‘Baap-ka-maal-samajh-rakhha-tha?’ (did you think it was your father’s property?) tweet. Bollywood bashers were quick to point out that Hindi cinema itself was guilty of the fiefdom mentality, with star children getting more opportunities.
The renaming controversy is unlikely to die anytime soon. So expect more fireworks from Raj Kapoor’s son. No pun intended.
