Shaina NC and Suhel Seth get into Twitter battle over English

One of the downsides of social media is that however big a celebrity you are, or how many ever many millions of followers you have, there will always be some degree of negative feedback or even abuse from some sections, as people on social media are

Shaina NC

One of the downsides of social media is that however big a celebrity you are, or how many ever many millions of followers you have, there will always be some degree of negative feedback or even abuse from some sections, as people on social media are just waiting for that one slip-up, that one mistake or error, so they can pounce to point it out. And BJP politician Shaina NC was at the receiving end of some degree of this phenomenon recently.

Suhel Seth

However, this time it wasn't an unknown 'follower,' but none other than Suhel Seth, who seized the opportunity to score brownie points; the result, an on-going exchange between the familiar Prime Time TV soundbyters that touched upon subjects as wide ranging as the use of the English language, to feminism and sexism.

It all started with a seemingly innocent tweet by Shaina to wish Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goel on his birthday, "The Energy Man of India has lighted 1000s of villages out of darkness since Independence".

Suhel, who is a known debater and proud of his Calcutta-polished language skills, couldn't help himself and corrected the term used from 'lighted' to 'lit'.

Shaina, an alumnus of Mumbai's Cathedral and John Connon School responded with a lesson in grammar, "lighted and lit both are fine; each work as the past tense and past participle of the verb light," she retorted; but Suhel would not leave it at that: "Which book? Wren and Martin? Lighted maybe correct grammar but it's incorrect usage but then you as BJP spokesman know better!"

But the tweet didn't go down well with Shaina, who objected to the 'man' in 'spokesman'. And so on it went on and on, with many pointing out that Shaina's usage was indeed correct.

A bit like those Prime TV debates no?

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