Writer Shobhaa De lands in hot water over insensitive tweet about overweight cop on poll duty with retired and serving officers backing Mumbai police; unapologetic De responds with new tweet
Cops lash out at 'unapologetic' Shobhaa De for trolling Mumbai police
KP Raghuvanshi and Shobhaa De
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Shobhaa Dé should have known she was up against competition when locking horns with the Mumbai police on Twitter, notorious for displaying quick wittedness on social media. After doing a competent job of ensuring smooth policing on voting day, they met unpleasantness when De posted a nasty tweet.
The tweet carried the photo of an overweight cop, with the caption: Heavy police bandobast in Mumbai today. It received immediate response, not just from her followers but the Mumbai police’s official handle too. Their social media cell shot back with: We love puns too Ms De but this one is totally misplaced. Uniform/official not ours. We expect better from responsible citizens like you."
The tweet was liked and retweeted over 9,000 times each. "Truly cool and professional response to a 60-year-old juvenile graceless woman," tweeted @NitinK-apoor2020.
It was later revealed that the said picture was old, and had been doing the rounds of social media. More importantly, it was not an officer of the Mumbai police.
Miffed officers reacted against this slight, squarely slamming the writer for bring insensitive towards a police force that works hard.
"It is not a question of whether the cop in the picture is from the city or state police. Making fun of any cop in this manner is unacceptable.
We don’t know if he has a medical issue, for instance," a senior IPS officer requesting anonymity said.
"On Tuesday, more than 95 per cent of the Mumbai police force, along with some reserved forces, worked between 24 and 72 hours non-stop to ensure that voting went off peacefully. We were happy until this tweet ruined things," he added.
Another IPS officer said, "Several members of the city police slept on train platforms and at police stations the previous night so that they could report on voting day on time. Some of them may have had to skip meals through the day. And just as we were congratulating each other about a job well done, I heard for this tweet. This is unfairness towards those who work day and night for citizens’ security."
Police personnel deputed at Sion. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Even retired officers chimed in to chide De. YC Pawar, retired IPS officer, said, "People who don’t understand policing shouldn’t comment on the police. Shobha De has an opinion on everything. She must remember that she lives a peaceful life [in the city] thanks to cops."
Retired senior IPS officer and former ATS chief, KP Raghuvanshi, told mid-day, "What can we say about Shobhaa De? This sort of sarcasm is expected only from intelligent people."
In response, De tweeted, "Mumbai/Maharashtra Police, pranaam. No offence intended. M.P. police, consult a dietician, if it’s an asli, undoctored image doing the rounds."
Mumbai/Maharashtra Police, pranaam. No offence intended. M.P. police, consult a dietician,if it's an asli ,undoctored image doing the rounds
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) February 22, 2017
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