Twinkle Khanna has finally spoken about her husband Akshay Kumar’s controversial comments regarding stand-up comedian Mallika Dua, making us wish she’d chosen to remain silent. But perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she has gone on to support her husband in the controversy, and clearly missed the point like all the others. Twinkle’s tweet borrows from a lot of conversation that has taken place on Twitter since the controversy started and for her, ‘bajana/ getting bajaoed’ are colloquial phrases. So, there was nothing wrong when Akshay Kumar said ‘Mallika ji aap bell bajao, main aap ko bajata hun’, and it clearly doesn’t matter if Mallika Dua wasn’t okay with it. Thank you, no thank you Ms Khanna but your comments on Mr Kumar and Ms Dua’s controversy, simply reek of privilege and convenience.
Ms Khanna took to Twitter ‘to address the controversy from the sets of The ‘Laughter Challenge’. After a brief and ‘insightful’ explanation about the term ‘bajao/bajana’, she went on to Vinod Dua’s statement because supposedly, that’s the most logical thing to do — justifying one wrong with another and moving on like nothing ever happened. Mallika Dua’s father, Vinod Dua publicly slammed Akshay Kumar for his inappropriate behaviour towards her on the show. So, Ms Khanna was quick to point out a problem with Vinod Dua’s choice of words.
In the end she proudly writes how she has always ‘supported freedom in comedy’ and like all the trolls on the internet, who are pointing fingers at Mallika Dua’s style of comedy, Ms Khanna reminds people how she’supported AIB’s infamous roast’. We hope she understands the concept of a roast–none of the celebrities who featured on the roast were ‘uncomfortable’ with the jokes. Mallika Dua clearly said she was uncomfortable with Akshay Kumar’s comments, so we might as well consider it for once, isn’t it Ms Khanna? Trivialising an issue like sexual harassment and justifying it with every possible illogical argument can never be the answer.
— Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) October 29, 2017
Many people weren’t happy at how she justified a wrong behaviour and expressed their disagreement with Ms Khanna’s disappointing statement :
it could be interpreted either way but an apology wouldn’t cost and would be appropriate!
— Rajini (@rajinitp) October 29, 2017
Sorry @mrsfunnybones but you are wrong there… unfollowing you…
— Agni (@agnihothra) October 29, 2017
Sory,expcted a better respnse frm u.d context in whch Akshay used d wrd “bajata hoon”,clearly reflects a sexist comment.he sud hv apologised
— Gaurav Vats (@gaurav_vats3) October 29, 2017
(Also read: Why Akshay Kumar needs to apologise to Mallika Dua)
But then, a few hours later Ms Khanna posted another tweet with the hashtag Lame Joke:
I couldn’t resist these two and after this I am done 🙂 #LameJokes pic.twitter.com/3mMckTtmDu
— Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) October 29, 2017
(Also read: Not sexism, Internet’s debating over Akshay Kumar’s sense of humour vs Mallika Dua’s)
Even we are done with privileged people with zero sensitivity. We understand that it might be hard for Twinkle Khanna to acknowledge her husband’s inappropriate behaviour, but it would have been better not to underplay an issue like sexual harassment, the way she did. In any case, she has all the rights to express her opinion, we just expected a little thoughtfulness and sensitivity.
