Calls raised to arrest Abish Mathew over old sexist/classist tweet
Comedian Abish Mathew is paying dearly for a tweet he made nine years ago. In that post, which he considers to be a joke, Mathew had commented on former UP CM Mayawati's looks. The tasteless tweet resurfaced today, and netizens started attacking the comedian, while demanding that he be arrested on the grounds of taking an unnecessary dig at a Dalit woman.
This is what the 2012 tweet says
So what does the tweet say exactly? Posted in February of 2012, Mathew wrote, "Mayawati is so ugly... the only thing can erect are statues (sic)." Not so classy, eh Mathew? While the sexist angle is more apparent here, Twitter users seemed interested in the caste of Mayawati. As the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo is a Dalit, Mathew was thrashed for his views.
Netizens urged Twitter to delete Mathew's account
#Arrest_Abish_Mathew trended throughout the day, garnered over 17,000 tweets
Soon calls to arrest him were raised and at the time of writing, the hashtag #Arrest_Abish_Mathew, had over 17,000 tweets. One Twitter user said, "No more casteist and misogynistic shit in the name of Stand Up comedy shows." "Because of some narrow-minded people like you @abishmathew, caste stigma still exists in India," wrote another, asking the Son of Abish host to apologize.
Many defended the comedian, 'Stop getting offended on everything'
However, several Twitter users came to defend the 34-year-old on the platform. Writing "Stop getting offended on everything," a Twitterati stepped into Mathew's shoes and said, "Yes this tweet was sexist, [Mathew] must have thought 'anyways how many people follows me, who will see this anyways (sic)." "Tweet is on a politician but now these people are taking it on their caste," they added.
Earlier Munmun Dutta was criticized for using a casteist slur
Mathew is yet to issue an apology. Meanwhile, this is not the first time we have seen celebrities earning criticism for problematic conduct. Recently, Munmun Dutta of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah-fame had drawn ire for using a casteist slur in a social media video. While talking about how she wanted to look in her upcoming YouTube videos, Dutta had used the word "bhangi."
