'Meant illegal Bangladeshis': Paresh Rawal apologises for his 'Cook fish like Bengalis remark' at Gujarat rally
'Meant illegal Bangladeshis': Paresh Rawal apologises for his 'Cook fish like Bengalis remark' at Gujarat rally
New Delhi: Actor-turned-politician Paresh Rawal, who is campaigning in Gujarat for the BJP, has stirred up fresh controversy with his remarks towards Bengalis.
At a rally, he claimed that Gujaratis will put up with inflation but not the “Bangladeshis and Rohingya” living next door. He apologised on Friday after receiving a massive backlash.
On Tuesday, Rawal in Valsad, which voted in the first phase of the Gujarat election on Thursday, said, “Gas cylinders are expensive, but their price will come down. People will get employment too. But what will happen if Rohingya migrants and Bangladeshis start living around you, like in Delhi? What will you do with gas cylinders? Cook fish for the Bengalis?”
He added, “Gujarat people can tolerate inflation but not this … The way they deliver verbal abuses. A person among them needs to wear diapers on his mouth.”
The actor apparently targeted Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
Rawal said, “He would come in a private plane here and then sit in a rickshaw to show off. We have spent a lifetime in acting but even we have not seen such a nautankiwala. And plenty of abuses against Hindus. He had offered Biryani in Shaheen Bagh.”
Many people criticised him by calling it “hate speech” aimed at Bengalis, while several others described it as “xenophobic dog-whistling” against the Bangladeshi and Rohingya.
After huge criticism, Rawal took to Twitter and issued an apology this morning, by saying that he meant “illegal Bangladeshis.”
He tweeted, “Of course the fish is not the issue AS GUJARATIS DO COOK AND EAT FISH. BUT LET ME CLARIFY BY BENGALI I MEANT ILLEGAL BANGLA DESHI N ROHINGYA. BUT STILL IF I HAVE HURT YOUR FEELINGS AND SENTIMENTS I DO APOLOGISE.”
of course the fish is not the issue AS GUJARATIS DO COOK AND EAT FISH . BUT LET ME CLARIFY BY BENGALI I MEANT ILLEGAL BANGLA DESHI N ROHINGYA. BUT STILL IF I HAVE HURT YOUR FEELINGS AND SENTIMENTS I DO APOLOGISE.
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