‘God bless him’: Shuttler Saina Nehwal reacts to Siddharth’s apology over controversial tweet

Source: ANI |Updated: Jan 12, 2022, 12:56 PM IST

India shuttler Saina Nehwal on Wednesday said that she is happy that actor Siddharth has apologized after making some derogatory comments about her. Actor Siddharth had apologized to Nehwal on Tuesday night, after receiving criticism for his “rude joke” directed towards the badminton player.

“He only said something about me first and then he apologised. I do not even know why it went so viral, I was surprised to see myself trending on Twitter. Happy that Siddharth has apologised, you should not target a woman like that. It is okay, I am not bothered about it, I am happy in my place, God bless him,” Nehwal said after her first-round India Open game.

In his letter of apology posted on Twitter, Siddarth began, “Dear Saina, I want to apologise to you for the rude joke that I wrote as a response to a tweet of yours, a few days ago. I may disagree with you on many things but even my disappointment or anger when I read your tweet, cannot justify my tone and words. I know I have more grace in me than that.”

Further, he apologised for his joke. “As for the joke…If a joke needs to be explained, then it wasn’t a very good joke, to begin with. Sorry about a joke that didn’t land,” he penned.

Dear @NSaina pic.twitter.com/plkqxVKVxY

— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) January 11, 2022

Earlier, a controversy erupted after the actor Siddharth had, in a Twitter post on January 6, retweeted a post by Nehwal in which she had expressed her concern over the security breach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Punjab visit on January 5.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) had also asked Twitter to block the account of actor Siddharth over his “sexist” tweet against ace badminton player Saina Nehwal. Various activists have slammed Siddharth over his comments, calling it “sexist, misogynistic” and demanded that he should apologize to Nehwal.

Following the controversy, Siddharth had also responded on Monday that he did not mean to disrespect anyone and his “subtle cock” tweet contained no kind of insinuation.

“Cock and bull. That’s the reference. Reading otherwise is unfair and leading. Nothing disrespectful was intended, said or insinuated. Period,” he tweeted.