Helen Nelson aka Oviya, who has acted in Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu movies — Kalavani, Puthiya Mukham, Marina, Moodar Koodam and Yaamirukka Bayamey — has gotten herself in trouble with a tweet.
The actress, who gained a massive fan following post her participation in Bigg Boss Tamil, had tweeted with the hashtag #GoBackModi, opposing the Prime Minister’s visit to Tamil Nadu. Modi had visited Tamil Nadu on Sunday to launch several developmental programmes. Many had opposed his visit, using #GoBackModi on Twitter as well as on Facebook. Oviya’s tweet has garnered more than 20K retweets and 59.3K likes.
Following Oviya's tweet, a BJP based advocate has filed a case against her with the cyber crime cell, demanding action against her. The petition was submitted to the Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell, CB-CID by Alexis Sudhakar, a member of BJP’s legal wing, seeking inquiry against the tweet. He demanded that the police check if the actor’s intention behind the tweet was to incite public disorder ahead of PM Modi’s visit to the Tamil Nadu and take action against her under section 69A of IT Act alongside 124A, 153A, and 294 of the Indian Penal Code. He claimed that the actress’ tweet would affect the peace and harmony and that she had defamed the PM who had visited the state.
In his complaint, Alexis stated, “Following her tweets, a large number of people in Tamil Nadu including some petty political parties indulged in activities that led to a distortion of public peace and order in and around Chennai and me along with my friends and relations were victimised. It is pertinent to note that even during the last visit of Prime Minister such similar illegal activities distorting public order by incitement via social media and the same has repeated distressfully. Hence these continuous criminal activities deserve a serious deep investigation as to unearth the real motive and culprits behind actress Oviya, as there remains a reasonable suspicion that the criminal activities against the sovereignty of India are backed up by notorious criminals.” The Prime Minister’s visit to Chennai was expected to be significant since Tamil Nadu will go to polls in a few months.
This is not the first time that the PM has set a hashtag trending in Tamil Nadu. #GoBackModi was the top trend on Twitter when he visited Mahabalipuram near Chennai in Tamil Nadu to inaugurate a defence exhibition in 2018. Last year, the same hashtag was back when the Prime Minister travelled to the state for an informal meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Also seen was #GoBackSadistModi.
Meanwhile, in Kerala #PoMoneModi was a trend on social media in 2016 when Modi compared Kerala to Somalia during an election rally in the State. He said that infant mortality among the state’s scheduled tribes was worse than Somalia’s. The hashtag remerged when the PM visited Kochi on Sunday to inaugurate a petrochemical project. #PoMoneModi and #GoBackModi have been the top trending hashtags on Twitter since Saturday.
Former BJP President Amit Shah, who was on a visit to Kerala in 2017, amid protests against the Centre’s order on cattle sale and slaughter was not spared by Malayali trollers either.
While BJP party workers welcomed their leader with pomp, Malayalis took to Twitter to celebrate his arrival with hashtag #AlavalathiShaji, which is inspired by an old film dialogue as said by Jayan.
