On 29 January, Saina Nehwal and her sister Chandranshu Nehwal announced that they had joined the BJP, apparently following in the lead of the inspiring work done by PM Narendra Modi. While many fans of the badminton star rejoiced, some shared their displeasure.
Among the latter — according to many—was one of Saina’s contemporaries, the outspoken badminton player, Jwala Gutta. In a tweet on the day Saina made her announcement, Jwala wrote, “Pehli baar Suna hai...bewajah khelna shuru kiya aur ab bewajah party join kiya... ?? ??”.
Soon, a whole bunch of troll army jumped in to slam her, but Jwala held her own, giving some tongue-in-cheek replies to many.
A couple of hours later that day, in a congratulatory tweet to Saina, Jwala also wrote, “@NSaina congratulations on joining the party...I hope and wish that u do something big for women and women sports in our country...YES it’s difficult but am sure u can bring a lot of CHANGE!! Good luck ??.”
While many thought the second tweet was in response to the troll army’s incessant outpouring, many others are now wondering if Jwala’s initial tweet was meant for Saina in the first place.
Cricket historian Abhishek Mukherjee, was one of the tweeples who pointed this out in his reply to Jwala’s tweet, saying, “The best thing about this tweet is that #JwalaGutta did not mention anyone and bhakts have suddenly found out someone to defend.”
Funnily, though, Jwala’s congratulatory tweet also found trolls who claimed they could read between its lines. Makes one think, yeah?
