Actress Payal Rohatgi triggers row with tweet, then apologises

Mumbai: After kicking up a controversy by posting a tweet on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s ‘caste’, actor Payal Rohatgi Monday apologised, but not before she drew a flak on social media and from political parties.

“Chhatrapati shivaji maharaja was born in shudra varna in family of farmers and by sacred thread ceremony and remarriage to his spouse made a kshtriaya so that he could be coronated King. So people from one Varna could go to another Varna if they acquired that skill. No casteism (sic)?” the actor said in a tweet on Sunday.

After she faced an intense backlash, she uploaded a video Monday with an apology.

“My simple question has been misconstrued into a ‘hate speech. Even I, obviously, worship such a legendary Hindu King. I was reading something and came across an information which I put out. But social media is full of nameless trolls,” she said.

“I apologise with folded hands to all those who thought I was speaking ill about the maharaj...It’s clear that Idon’t have the right to even ask a question as it’ll be taken in the wrong sense (sic),” she said.

Maharashtra Congress spokes-person Sachin Sawant alleged the BJP had paid Rohatgi to carry out character defamation of the opposition.