Shobhaa De should have known better. The newspaper columnist, one-time bestselling author and socialite has put her foot in her mouth on social media in the past but things hit a new low on Tuesday when she made a fat joke about a policeman. De put out what she must have thought was a light-hearted tweet about an obese Mumbai police personnel on municipal election duty.
Heavy police bandobast in Mumbai today! pic.twitter.com/sY0H3xzXl3
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) February 21, 2017
But Mumbai police didn't see much humour in the tweet and promptly hit back.
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
It turned out that the object of De's mirth was Daulatram Jogawat, an inspector posted in Madhya Pradesh's Neemuch town. His response is a lesson in humility. "Nobody loves to be overweight. If madam knows about some weight-loss treatment, then help me lose weight... It is not good to mock someone without having any detail about the person," the inspector told News 18.
Also Read:After Twitter Backlash Over Her Fat-Shaming Tweet, Shobhaa De Now Has New Advice For The Police
"It is due to my illness that I am so fat, and not due to overeating. I had gall bladder operation in 1993 and I developed insulin imbalance which resulted in my obesity", Jogawat toldHT. Clearly unhappy by her statement the cop added, "If madam wants, she can pay for my treatment. Who doesn't want to be thin?"
It is perhaps time for De, and many others among us, to realise that in 2017 puns about fat people are passé.
Facing a Twitter backlash, De tried a peace offering of sorts, saying she did not mean any harm. In a not so apologetic tweet, she advised Madhya Pradesh police to get a dietitian.
She wrote: "Mumbai/Maharashtra Police, pranaam. No offence intended. M.P. police, consult a dietician,if it's an asli ,undoctored image doing the rounds"
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