Mumbai: As Sania Mirza received praise today for becoming the World Number 1 in women's doubles tennis, author Shobhaa De used her congratulatory tweet to take a dig at the Shiv Sena.
"Sania Mirza: Global Superstar. India's pride. People's darling. Hope she can still vote !" Ms De tweeted.
Her comment was seen to refer to the massive uproar over Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut saying voting rights to Muslims should be scrapped.
Mr Raut had said in a column on Sunday in his party's mouthpiece Saamana "Till Muslims are used as vote-banks, they have no future. This is why Bal Thackeray had demanded that Muslims' voting rights be taken away. This was right. The day voting rights of Muslims are taken away, the facade of people who claim to be 'secular' will be exposed."
Reacting to the Sena leader's comments, Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi, said, "It is disgusting to hear such remarks... We are living in a democratic country, not in any Talibani state."
Shobhaa De has been targeted by the Sena for her recent tweets against a Maharashtra government order to screen Marathi films in multiplexes.
On Thursday, a group of Sena activists marched to her home in Mumbai and shouted slogans accusing her of insulting Maharashtra.