Shobhaa De’s had a way with words on Twitter because completely off the track is also a way, right? Remember the last time she made a highly daft tweet about Indian athletes at the Olympics and faced a fair amount of bashing for it? You might but she doesn’t. And the author is now back with another flak-magnet of a tweet and she has chosen to mess with the Mumbai Police this time round.
The BMC elections were held yesterday and Shobhaa De too went out to vote and tweeted about the same. For some reason, she decided to tweet out the photo of an overweight police officer soon after because the sense to not body-shame does not quite prevail yet. The tweet said ‘Heavy police bandobast today’. You know, just in case there was any doubt about the joke being cracked in bad taste.
Heavy police bandobast in Mumbai today! pic.twitter.com/sY0H3xzXl3
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) February 21, 2017
Some pointed out that the badge on the officer’s uniform seemed like he belonged to the Madhya Pradesh police and not the Mumbai Police. Mumbai Police’s Twitter handle, known for their knack for pun and wit replied back promptly and made it clear that this was plain irresponsible on De’s part.
We love puns too Ms De but this one is totally imisplaced. Uniform/official not ours. We expect better from responsible citizens like you. https://t.co/OcKOoHO5bX
— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) February 21, 2017
Nobody is better at the Twitter game than Mumbai Police and they sure had a massive amount of public support flowing their way.
Super slap to @DeShobhaa by @MumbaiPolice ___ pic.twitter.com/oyZdYLKImk
— Jaini (@manichejain) February 21, 2017
This is NOT @MumbaiPolice PIX
As usual @DeShobhaa bought desi liquor from Kamathipura area
STOP defaming Police@CPMumbaiPolice pic.twitter.com/TNkLPWmJcA
— #GauravPradhan __ (@DrGPradhan) February 21, 2017
.@DeShobhaa if body shaming is worthy of condemnation for women, men deserve the same. Gender equality needs advocates, not your puns__
— IGotThis___ (@jasuja) February 21, 2017
#feminist journalist and eminent lawyer protesting against #bodyshaming @DeShobhaa @IJaising pic.twitter.com/mz3QmIGTU6
— ________ ____ (@engineervakeel) February 21, 2017
@DeShobhaa ohh poor old darling, your wits and morals are really deteriorating with age #bodyshame
— Neha (@creative_hats) February 21, 2017
@DeShobhaa if I zoom in the photo, I can see M.P. police written on his badge.Don’t keep tweeting nonsense. N yes, it amount to body-shaming
— Tark-vachaspati (@crashhgate) February 21, 2017
Twitterati sure brought in everything from body shaming to feminism to basic respect for human beings. Here’s hoping Shobhaa De uses better discretion the next time she tweets unless all she wants to do is be a troll-magnet.
