The last time an indiscreet public remark against the Gandhi family was attributed to Jaya Bachchan and it sparked off an angry retort from Rahul Gandhi, the superstar’s wife hit back with a valid argument: Jaya had demanded, ‘If I’d uttered any such thing at a public rally,why isn’t there any television footage of it?’

Unfortunately, this time when Jaya made her famous ‘HumUP wale hain, Hindi mein hi bolenge.Mumbai wale,hamme maaf karen’ wisecrack at the music release of Goldie Behl’s Drona, the entire TV brigade of Mumbai was present to capture it — and the channels couldn’t get enough of showing it over and over again.

This time the footage is plenty but the interpretation is up to you. The spontaneous reaction of some of those who were present was, ‘Why did Jaya have to unnecessarily taunt Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) with that remark? It was pure political baiting considering the current volatility in the state over non-Marathispeaking ‘outsiders’.’ Ultimately, it came off, to quite a few, as a Samajwadi Party vs MNS battle with political profit being the sole goal.

On the other hand,many more have stood by Jaya’s stand that it was an innocent, off-the-cuff joke that should’ve, at the most, been ignored. But it resulted in the looting and destruction of public places, topped with the cancellation of the premiere of The Last Lear in Mumbai.When Amitabh Bachchan flew from Paris into the chaos on Wednesday and ignored jet lag to meet the press at the Marriott hotel and initiate damage control, Jaya was a stone’s throw from the hotel.

“I have been advised to stay at home and not step out,” Jaya said over the phone.What on earth made her precipitate matters with that unnecessary ‘Hum UP wale’ remark? “It was said in jest; the last thing I had on my mind was to bait anybody,” she protested. “I was actually pulling up the youngsters, Goldie and Abhishek, for speaking in English when I made the remark that it is a Hindi film and so we should be speaking in Hindi.”

But ‘Hum UP wale’? Where did that come from? “Priyanka was talking and she said that like Jaya Aunty, I will also speak in Hindi. That’s when I said, ‘Hum UP wale hain.’ I meant Priyanka also because she is from Bareilly!” Don’t know if that’s, oops, the foot in the mouth again because Ms Chopra herself has never called herself a UPite.

There is also one section that says they have no issues with Jaya if she identifies herself as a UP-ite. But would she dare go to Calcutta, speak in Hindi and declare, ‘Hum Hindi mein hi bolenge’ because ‘Hum UP wale hain’? Interesting point. In Jaya’s favour, I must say that I have personally heard her speak in Hindi in Calcutta but perhaps not rub it in, in jest or otherwise.

In any case,what’s freedom about if you can’t pick a language of your choice? Just as Goldie and Abhishek should have the freedom to speak in English if that’s their most comfortable means of communication!

Passing thought: Is public memory so short that when gangster Abu Salem’s moll Monica Bedi plays the innocent victim, the media actually buys her story without question? Her sob story in the latest Showtime makes her out to be a vestal virgin who had no clue that she was nearly married to the mob. The truth is that the starlet who was recently evicted from Bigg Boss, got a handful of roles in Hindi films (e.g.Rajiv Rai’s Pyaar Ishq Mohabbat) only after her boyfriend made a few polite but firm phone calls to the concerned producers. The bigger truth is that, far from being the naïve babe who wanted to break away from the big bad boy once his underworld identity was revealed to her, Monica Bedi was introduced to the film industry long before Abu Salem came into her life — her mentor then was a smallbuilt, puny producer called Mukesh Duggal. It was a well-circulated rumour that Duggal was a front for the Dgang, a fact that was proved beyond doubt when the man was gunned down and killed in cold blood in one of those gangland wars. After Duggal died, Monica moved on to Abu Salem — hardly what anybody would call the tale of an innocent victim.