Just yesterday, Shobhaa De tweeted that she thinks all that the Indian contingent does at the Olympics is take selfies and waste money and opportunity. Predictably, this did not go down well with people on Twitter and there was a barrage of tweets criticising her for the remark. While a lot of people started making personal attacks on Shobhaa De, the most classy response came from none other than five-time Olympian Abhinav Bindra, who tweeted the following in response to Shobhaa De’s tweet:
@DeShobhaa that’s a tad unfair. You should be proud of your athletes perusing human excellence against the whole world.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) August 9, 2016
Although, like many people on Twitter, we also believe that Shobhaa’s tweet did not really deserve a response from the Beijing Olympics gold medallist, but the manner of his response only makes us respect him even more.
Ace badminton player and London Olympics quarterfinalist Parupalli Kashyap tweeted this:
@anujmagazine @Abhinav_Bindra @amz360 @DeShobhaa True that! Stupidity doesn’t deserve attention or a response!
— Parupalli Kashyap (@parupallik) August 9, 2016
This is what two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jwala Gutta had to say:
@DeShobhaa maybe things will change when the attitude of people like urself change!!!!😐😐 #Proudindian #proudsportsperson
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) August 8, 2016
And actress Gul Panag also tweeted in favour of the athletes:
Lots of lament about medal tally, but no lament about lack of fitness culture (which builds a sporting nation) @Abhinav_Bindra @DeShobhaa
— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) August 9, 2016
Abhinav Bindra unfortunately, lost out in the bronze medal shoot-off in the 10m air rifle event at Rio yesterday and has decided to retire now. He has been a great ambassador for his sport, winning the World Championships, and the Commonwealth and Olympic gold medals for India.
