Dear Hema Malini, time to shut up and stop blaming Dausa victim's father

Twitter should ideally have come with a statutory warning: it is injurious to people who mostly have their foot in their mouth. It would have saved a lot of people, especially several Indian politicians, from making a fool of themselves. Hema Malini further proved this point today. Five days after Malini’s Mercedez Benz found itself in a crash with an Alto, killing a two-year-old child travelling in the latter, the actor took to Twitter to put the blame of the accident on the victim’s father. First she said her ‘heart goes out’ to the child, who by the way is dead, because she ‘unnecessarily’ lost her life. Immediately after that she said, “How I wish the girl’s father had followed the traffic rules - thn this accident could have been averted & the lil one’s life safe!”

(Contd) How I wish the girl's father had followed the traffic rules - thn this accident could have been averted & the lil one's life safe!

— Hema Malini (@dreamgirlhema) July 8, 2015

How we wish Hema Malini had followed Twitter rules - think before you tweet. First of all, here’s a fact check: the dead child unfortunately, can’t appreciate the actor’s heart going out to her. Maybe her family could still do with some sympathy. However, the actor rapped that very family and that too publicly for being responsible for the child’s death. What Hema Malini giveth with one hand, she taketh with the other. Hema Malini’s driver has been arrested. The police wouldn’t have arrested a politician’s driver had they not clearly felt there was enough grounds to do so. [caption id=“attachment_2332924” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Hema Malini. Agency.[/caption] It is possible that the victim’s family too had broken traffic rules, but the case is under investigation. The actor could have not witnessed the other party violating traffic rules as she, and her family, have claimed that she was asleep when the accident took place. She is obviously depending on hearsay to pin the blame on the victim’s father. The actor’s fans and well-wishers may argue that she has been facing a lot of criticism about her role in the accident. Maybe then, she has the right to defend herself. Let’s clear that bit up too. The primary allegation against her had been that she should have perhaps been slightly proactive in helping the other family involved in the crash. The victim’s family, obviously in deep grief, have said maybe their child would have lived if she had been taken to the hospital as soon as the actor-politician was. Yes, ‘maybe’ they said, whenever they were questioned by the media. No one, not even the victim’s family, put the blame of the accident on Hema Malini. Hema Malini could have just said the police were investigating and her heart goes out to the family. But she sought to put the entire blame of the accident on the child’s father, as if to absolve herself from any role (however unintentional) in the family’s misfortunes. The actor’s driver has been accused of speeding. Who knows whether Hema Malini had instructed her driver not to speed. She’s not said anything either way. The Times of India quotes the police as saying the following about the accident: “The impact of the over-speeding was such that after colliding with the Alto on the Jaipur-Agra national highway near Dausa, the Mercedes turned in the opposite direction, skidded for almost 50 metres and jumped over the road divider before coming to a halt, police said. Only a small portion of the Alto came in contact with the Mercedes, but the impact was enough to kill the girl and badly injure other passengers of the Alto.” So Hema Malini, whose own car had been speeding, accused the other family of breaking traffic rules. That’s kind of rich. When a section of social media users was slamming her for speeding away to Jaipur in a car to get herself treated, an equal number argued that she was quite grievously hurt herself. They said that it would perhaps have been impossible for her to have registered what was going on around her and helped the family. However, with this one tweet she confirmed the many allegations that her critics have directed at her. What Hema Malini did with one tweet was squander the benefit of doubt many rational people had extended to her. Indeed, if she can squarely blame the dead child’s father for her death without any congnisable proof, she seems not that far removed from a callous VIP who would have walked away leaving a car full of bleeding aam aadmi behind. It was fine as long as she was playing the battered Seeta. Her Geeta avatar on Twitter today, however, has dug her into a hole.