Mumbai court summons Ram Gopal Varma over controversial tweets on Lord Ganesha in 2014

Ram Gopal Varma has deleted his Twitter account, but the ghost of his tweets past has come back to haunt him.

A metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri, Mumbai has issued summons to the filmmaker to appear before the court in connection with his controversial tweets wherein he questioned the ability of Lord Ganesha to truly remove obstacles from one’s path.

In August 2014, Vivek Shetty, managing director of Indus Communications, had filed a complaint against the filmmaker for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Hindus.  

On 29 August 29 2014, Varma had postd a series of tweets mocking Lord Ganesha. Varma had tweeted, "The guy who couldn't save his own head from being cut, how he will save others heads is my question? But Happy Ganpathi day to morons!" (sic)

He did not stop there. He went on to ask: "Can someone tell me if today is the day Ganesha was originally born or is it the day his dad cut his head off?"

It just wasn’t Lord Ganesha, but Varma had allegedly mocked Lord Shiva too. “Can someone explain how someone can cut off a child's head who was just trying to protect his mother's modesty? Am sure devotees know better. All concerned please understand that my questions and observations on Ganesha are coming from both my innocence and ignorance on the subject matter,” Varma had posted.

The filmmaker had later apologised for his tweets which he then deleted.

What incensed the devotees more is that Varma had posted these tweets during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.

The apology has failed to pacify aggrieved devotees. The filmmaker has been asked to appear in court on 8 August to explain his controversial comments.

Varma is no stranger to creating controversies with his tweets. The filmmaker never hesitated to take cheeky digs at people from the entertainment industry and beyond.