A video of over a dozen Delhi Police personnel being deployed to cut a cake and sing the birthday song for boxer and Rajya Sabha MP Mary Kom has gone viral on social media, evoking angry reactions from Twitterati, who questioned the cops’ priority amidst COVID-19 pandemic. In the video, over a dozen personnel from the Delhi Police can be seen bringing a special cake to celebrate Mary Kom’s youngest son.
The cops deployed on the birthday duty for a celebrity’s son also filmed the cake cutting ceremony and diligently sang the birthday song. They appeared to be filled with a sense of pride in serving the country’s privileged class even amidst a global pandemic. The video emerged amidst visuals of unspeakable misery faced by poor children of migrant workers, who are being forced to walk hundreds of kilometers to return to their native places in different parts of the country.
Mary Kom thanked the Delhi Police for this gesture as she tweeted, “Thank you @DCPNewDelhi for making this birthday so special for my younger son Prince Kom. You all are real frontline warriors, i salute you all for your dedication and commitment.”
Thank you @DCPNewDelhi for making this birthday so special for my younger son Prince Kom.
You all are real frontline warriors, i salute you all for your dedication and commitment.@CPDelhi @DelhiPolice @LtGovDelhi @pragya_92 pic.twitter.com/5LOcEN3CH8
— Mary Kom OLY (@MangteC) May 14, 2020
The official Twitter handle of DCP New Delhi replied, “New Delhi district police wishes Prince a very happy birthday …wishing him to grow up to be a wonderful human being ..may he bring pride and glory to the country like his mother.”
New Delhi district police wishes Prince a very happy birthday …wishing him to grow up to be a wonderful human being ..may he bring pride and glory to the country like his mother? https://t.co/f4ejWu5zx3
— DCP New Delhi (@DCPNewDelhi) May 14, 2020
However, the video evoked angry reactions from Twitterati with some even deciding to file RTI requests to find out if the Delhi Police had also visited houses of poor children in the national capital to wish them on their birthdays during the nationwide lockdown.
I’m filing an RTI for a list of houses that have been visited by Delhi Police over the past 2 months with a cake as part of this new tamasha.
Let’s see how many poor children got one. https://t.co/pDJ5RJsc3n
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) May 15, 2020
Doesn’t Mary Kom have enough money to buy cake to celebrate son’s birthday? https://t.co/8N0hRnkyYr
— Subrata Roy (@subrata_tamal) May 15, 2020
?Police today got a cake for Mary Kom’s son & sang a birthday song as well. Cute
?In the same India, a poor exhausted kid fell asleep on a suitcase which his mother kept dragging in the scorching heat
?I have put both videos in two windows side-by-side. COMPARE & #KeepAsking pic.twitter.com/gls0QIl9bN
— Saahil Murli Menghani (@saahilmenghani) May 14, 2020
Wishing the best to Mary Kom’s son and to her family. Lovely to see cops celebrating. But I am sure all of us can imagine how the cops would interact with the exhausted kid’s family.
How do we live with such brutal and obscene inequality? Why do we accept it so uncritically? https://t.co/tiZqsnn5aG— Amitabh Behar (@AmitabhBehar) May 15, 2020
Don’t want to spoil anybody’s party, and Happy Birthday everybody’s child, but Delhi Police is overdoing its birthday visits to random upper crust homes, and now even MP & boxing star Mary Kom. The police HS much else, more important to do than play-act for social media.
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) May 15, 2020
Mary Kom has indeed earned fame for India by winning medals both in the Olympics and other international competitions. But many believe that she ought to have rejected the offer made by the Delhi Police.