Guwahati: Ace athlete Hima Das bagged five gold medals in less than a month, bringing laurel to her country and native state Assam. Social media platforms were flooded with congratulatory messages for the sprinter, but one of them caught the eyes of Twitterati, and for good reason.
A couple of days after the star sprinter bagged her fifth gold medal in 400 m at the Nove Mesto nad Metuji Grand Prix in the Czech Republic on July 20, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan posted a congratulatory message with a graphic that compared her to India’s ambitious moon mission.
Along with the graphic, Bachchan tweeted: “Hima Das .. the pride of India .. to the Moon and beyond .. indeed but we need to add another Moon for she has done 5 now .. AMAZING !!”
T 3233 – Hima Das .. the pride of India .. to the Moon and beyond .. indeed but we need to add another Moon for she has done 5 now .. AMAZING !! pic.twitter.com/bE18xU0PSx
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) July 21, 2019
However, in doing so, Bachchan, it seems, ended up using a touched-up version of a graphic that was posted by Assam Police earlier on July 20.
Congrats @HimaDas8 on your Fourth Gold.
Your success makes us feel over the Moon, literally!
May the fifth, sixth, seventh …. follow and may your winning streak shine brighter than the Moon & Stars!
Mon to etia #MoonJai pic.twitter.com/vV9NswmIA0
— Assam Police (@assampolice) July 20, 2019
Twitterati pointed it out the uncanny resemblance between the two posts. A user, Progressive Assam, wrote, “Interesting to see that @srbachchan ‘borrowed’ the @assampolice creative congratulating @HimaDas8 and used it for his own congratulatory message for her. Don’t you think he should have given credit where it belonged? #JustAsking”
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Cyber citizens cashed in on the opportunity to take a dig at Bachchan’s social media team. Asking him to give attribution to Assam Police, few users posted memes using his iconic one-liners from his superhit movies, while others speculated the fate of his social media team. Here are a few:
Can’t be the work of. @SrBachchan , Does his social media team not know that – pic.twitter.com/uyP5CXdy2n
— Nogan Hogan (@HoganNogan) July 22, 2019
Respected sir, your tweet on #HimaDas was classy but it would have been classier if you would given due credit to @assampolice for their effort too. Just sharing the original tweet from them. Pls judge for yourself. Ageee @juniorbachchan ? pic.twitter.com/HVFrwbmFAt
— Raj (@Raj_Dutta) July 23, 2019
This is hilarious. Team handlin SM fr .@SrBachchan shd hv known better. While heart is at the right spot but it somehow not Ok to borrow someone’s idea & not giving them due credit.
.@_AdilHussain .@UtpalBorpujari .@WasbirH .@paponmusic .@rimadasFilm .@JITU__BORA .@BhagawatiKr
— Miss Lutyens (@Ms_Lutyens) July 22, 2019