While Mathura witnessed one of its darkest days as 24 people, including the city SP and an SHO, died in a massive clash between cops and encroachers, BJP MP Hemal Malini, who represents the constituency in the Lok Sabha, tweeted about her upcoming movie. This resulted in Twitterati slamming her for her apparent insensitivity
Hema first tweeted some pictures from the sets of her upcoming movie "Ek Thi Rani" with the caption: "Hoping for an early release of this film." However, Hema was quick to realise the apparent blunder and soon deleted the initial tweets.
Then the actress-turned-politician posted tweets expressing condolence for the victims of the Mathura violence. She subsequently came up with a statement on her tweets about movie in the wake of Mathura violence, saying she was not aware of the incident.
"I am an artist I was shooting and was not aware about it. Akhilesh Yadav should take care of law and order, [sic]" India Today's official Twitter handle quoted Hema as saying. The BJP MP's lack of knowledge of the incident led to much criticism of her. Twitterati slammed her for her statement as well. Check out Hema's tweets expressing grief at the incident and some tweets that criticised her:
While many have slammed the BJP MP for posting shoot pictures when Mathura was burning, many others on Twitter suggested it is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who should be held responsible for the incident and not Hema.
The massive clash between the police and encroachers on government land in Mathura led to 24 casualties, including SP Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Kumar. Eleven of the protestors died in a fire they had ignited, according to a report in the Hindu.
The report also said 124 people have been arrested while 47 locally-made pistols, six rifles and 178 live cartridges were recovered from the spot. The incident happened when the police went to evacuate alleged illegal occupants from Jawahar Bagh on Thursday, apparently ignorant of the fact that they were armed.
Akhilesh Yadav has ordered an investigation by the divisional commissioner of Mathura into the incident.
