Not just Anushka: Farhan Akhtar too mixed up APJ Abdul Kalam's name on Twitter, but no one cared

On 27 July, Anushka Sharma, following the demise of former president APJ Abdul Kalam, had tweeted out her respects for the Bharat Ratna . However, she referred the ‘Missile Man’ of India as ‘APJ Kalam Azad’, confusing him with the freedom fighter Maulana Azad, and paid for it. Anushka was the butt of all jokes on Twitter the following day.

As it turns out, Anushka Sharma has company.

Everyone’s favourite, director, actor, writer and singer Farhan Akhtar committed the same gaffe. Apparently, when the news broke Farhan Akhtar tweeted out, “Deeply saddened to hear about the demise of one of the most inspirational Indians of r (sic) time, former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad. RIP.”

He has since corrected the faux pas.

Deeply saddened to hear about the demise of one of the most inspirational Indians of our time, former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. RIP.

— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) July 27, 2015

However, Akhtar did not face much flak for his goof up and it seems Anushka bore the brunt of a grieving twitteratti.

Farhan seems to have escaped scrutiny (except from KRK. According to Newton’s fourth law of motion, no one can escape scrutiny from KRK. JK. Maybe not.) and unfairly so, considering how the Anushka tweet created a hullabaloo. The enraged reaction to Anushka’s tweet smells of sexism, which should not come as a surprise considering number of Twitter outburst and abuse against women in recent times.

If one thing that is learnt from Farhan and Anushka’s gaffe is that one must think before they tweet.