Manipur footballer deletes Insta post on Amit Shah, apologise after BJP ire
Tagging the official Twitter handles of Jamshedpur FC, Jamshedpur Police and district administration, the district BJP chief warned that they will not allow Jamshedpur FC to play in Jamshedpur if the player fails to apologise
A 29-year-old national footballer from Manipur found himself in the eye of a storm over his alleged ‘derogatory’ Instagram post over Union home minister Amit Shah’s statement in the Parliament on the ongoing violence in the northeastern state.
Seiminlen Doungel, hailing from Manipur and presently representing Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) Soccer, had allegedly used ‘unparliamentary’ language and a ‘humiliating’ comment on his Instagram page, which drew flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers on Saturday.
The controversy broke after Doungel’s post came to the notice of former Jamshedpur district BJP president Dinesh Kumar who posted on Twitter the screenshots of Doungel’s Instagram story and demanded an immediate apology from the footballer.
Tagging the official Twitter handles of Jamshedpur FC, Jamshedpur Police and district administration, the district BJP chief warned that they will not allow Jamshedpur FC to play in Jamshedpur if the player fails to apologise.
“The young man who posted indecent and indecent instagram story for the Honorable Home Minister AmitShah is a football player. Notice that JamshedpurFC has a player. Jsr_police Take immediate cognizance. If an apology is not made within 24 hours, then Jamshedpur FC will not be allowed to play, there will be a protest,” he wrote on Twitter.
BJP MP from Ranchi Sanjay Seth then quoted Kumar’s tweet and demanded action against Doungel, tagging Jharkhand police, and Khelo India.
“Indecent remarks have been made by a football player against the Honorable Home Minister of the country Shri AmitShah ji. @JharkhandPolice Take cognizance and ensure action,” he wrote.
By evening, Doungel deleted his Instagram story and tendered unconditional apology in a fresh post saying, “As someone from Manipur who has experienced the violence first hand and has been tagged time and again as illegal immigrant - it has been really frustrating and painful and I just want to apologise for my previous story against the home minister of India Shri Amit Shah and anyone who has been hurt.”
“I just hope that life will get back to normalcy soon for all community affected,” his post further read.
“Seiminlen has apologised and deleted his story. Moreover, he made the post in his personal capacity. We have asked him to focus on football and not get into politics,” Mukul Chowdhury, CEO, Jamshedpur FC, told HT over the phone.
Meanwhile, Kumar said that the party will not pursue the matter as he has already apologised and deleted the post.
“We are not pursuing the matter further as Doungel has deleted his post and apologised. We all are concerned about the incidents in Manipur, but that doesn’t allow anyone to make misleading comments, holding the home minister guilty. Besides, he shouldn’t have used abusive words, a national player must respect the linguistic dignity and protocol,” said Kumar.