Twitter controversy: Ajaz Khan tags Mumbai Police at wrong event

Film actor Ajaz Khan tweeted a picture in which he is seen greeting Mumbai police officials. In his message Khan claimed the picture was taken at an event hosted by the Mumbai Police where he was the chief guest. The tweet also thanked the officials for the flower decoration. The twist in the tale came when the official Twitter handle of Mumbai Police denied having conducted any such event. “We appreciate your gratitude for the efforts of @MumbaiPolice for the wellbeing of the city, but misplaced gratitude barely serves any purpose. Kindly recollect correctly who were you invited by and where, because we were not there,” the Mumbai Police tweet said.

A code of conduct for media

The Confederation of All India Traders has been serially angry. After complaining against a condom manufacturer for advertising its products during Shivratri, the traders' body has taken it upon itself to prevail upon the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to set up a code of conduct for the media. It has alleged that television channels have repeatedly aired imaginary stories about the death of Hindi film actress Sridevi — something that has been a source of “mental torture” for news viewers. It has also researched into the amount of air time dedicated by these channels to the story, to roundly conclude that there has been an “excess of reportage” on the unfortunate event.

One up

Taking on rivals through public hoardings and posters is not unusual in politics. What is unusual is using a rival's poster to drive home one’s own point. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had put up a series of posters and hoardings sometime ago to tom-tom its performance in the three years in office. One of the posters read, “Agar AAP-ki sarkar imandaar ho toh kuchh bhi kar sakti hai" (if your government is honest, it can do a lot). A little bit of creativity from a rival and the poster now reads, “Agar AAP-ki sarkar ho toh kuchh bhi kar sakti hai” (God help if you have a government run by AAP), in an oblique reference to the allegation that Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was assaulted by two AAP MLAs in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.