Poet Kumar Vishwas ignited controversy with an indirect jab at actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha and his daughter, actress Sonakshi Sinha, subtly alluding to her interfaith marriage at a public gathering.
“Teach your children the Ramayana, or someone else might take away the ‘Lakshmi’ of your house, even if the house is named ‘Ramayana’,” Vishwas said at a poetry event in Uttar Pradesh.
Shatrughan Sinha’s residence in Mumbai is called ‘Ramayana,’ and Sonakshi Sinha just wed her longtime partner and actor, Zaheer Iqbal, implying that Viswas was referencing their union.
Vishwas’s remarks ignited a heated discussion on the internet. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate criticized the poet for making “lewd” and “cheap” remarks to gain applause, questioning, “Isn’t it a girl’s right to marry whomever she chooses?”
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She mentioned that if Vishwas had examined the Ramayana, he “would have certainly grasped love.”
Another Congress member, Surendra Rajput, also criticized the statements, labeling them as “cheap remarks” and asserting that even “Lord Rama will not pardon them.”
“Kumar Vishwas, you too have a daughter. Remember, with all the meanness and shamelessness with which you have tried to tarnish Shatrughan Sinha Sir and his daughter Sonakshi Sinha, all the mud will fall on your face one day,” he tweeted.
Many others online joined the debate, with numerous individuals criticizing the poet for his remarks.
Vishwas has yet to address the controversy.
