BS Bassi tweets into ridicule on Twitter

Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi on Saturday found himself in a spot as he hit out at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and a senior journalist, based on a tweet put out by a “parody account”, inviting ridicule from netizens.

Irked by the tweet that ridiculed him, Mr Bassi termed Mr Kejriwal and journalist Ravish Kumar as “self-styled appraisers” overlooking the fact that the latter had left social media last year itself due to the menace of online abuse.

When contacted, Mr Kumar said he was not perturbed but surely “surprised” that the person behind the parody handle managed to bluff the top cop.

“He (Bassi) should have been careful. But it’s fine, I had a good laugh over it. We journalists are anyway receiving flak left right and centre. When I was active on Twitter I had repeatedly warned people about this impersonation,” he said.

Mr Bassi’s bluster came in response to a tweet that questioned his “commitment” towards the khaki and wondered whether his loyalty was for the uniform or “knickers”, a veiled reference to RSS.

“When Bassi says that his commitment is towards the khaki, then it’s not clear whether he is referring to the uniform or knicker,” the tweet in Hindi read which was retweeted by Kejriwal.

The Commissioner responded, “@ ArvindKejriwal & @ravishndtv Committed to CONSTITUTION, NATION & TRUTH. SelfStyled Appraisers may better introspect.”

Sources in the Delhi police team that handles social media admitted that they later found out that the tweet was indeed from a parody account although they refused to elaborate further.

Last Sunday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had sparked a row saying that the event organised at JNU to protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had the backing of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed.

Even though the home ministry clarified that Mr Singh’s statement was based on inputs from different agencies, it was reportedly made in the wake of the posts on the fake Saeed Twitter account.