Gurmehar Kaur placard act row: Javed Akhtar takes back 'harsh' words on Virender Sehwag, appreciates Gautam Gambhir

Mumbai: Javed Akhtar took to Twitter Thursday night to take back his harsh words on former cricketer Virendra Sehwag, who was slammed on Twitter and accused of trolling Gurmehar Kaur for her ‘Pakistan didn’t kill my father, war did’ placard act.

The veteran writer-lyricist, without getting too deep into the issue following the backlash he received for his “If a hardly literate player or a wrestler”, took back his words on the cricketer after the latter clarified his stance on the ‘ I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did’ placard act.

Akhtar tweeted:

Since Sehwag undoubtedly a great player has clarified he was just being facetious n is not anti Gurmehar I take back my rather harsh words. — Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) 2 March 2017

My respect for Gautam Gambhir who with out any fear of trolls n right wing extremists has stood for Gurmehar 's freedom of expression.Bravo

— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) 2 March 2017

However, he went on show solidarity with Gurmehar’s post. He tweeted:

So many war veterans and retired army officers have supported Gurmehar's statement but perhaps they are not "nationalist " enough for some — Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) 2 March 2017

Interestingly, he also raised the issue of intolerance towards BJP leader Shazia Ilmi, who was denied permission to speak on triple talaq during an event.

Its a shame Shazia was stopped n triple talaq was considered a "sensitive" topic . With what face such people ask for tolerance from others — Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) 2 March 2017

For the uninitiated, Akhtar was slammed by Mahavir Phogat and his wrestler daughters Geeta and Babita, besides Yogeshwar Dutt, for referring to them as “ a hardly literate player or wrestler” in one of his tweets.