On Thursday morning, a TikTok video of the Telangana Home minister Mahmood Ali’s grandson was being widely shared. That was because Furqan Ahmed had recorded the video seated on the vehicle that is registered in the name of the DGP of Telangana.

The tiktok video is an enactment of a scene where Furqan’s friend is seen lipsyncing to a dialogue where the actor is threatening the IG of police that if he did not mind his tongue, he will slit his throat. Furqan is seen enjoying this act even as a security person standing by the side is unmindful of the indiscretion and looks the other way.

That’s perhaps because Mahmood Ali happens to be the Home minister of Telangana and so technically the boss of the police department. It is embarrassing that the youth chose to enact a scene where they are intimidating a police officer. It could be argued that it was done in jest but it reflects a certain mindset. 

It is not known if the grandson has been reprimanded by the minister or the DGP and whether any action has been taken to ensure the Telangana police does not acquire an image of being servile to the political establishment and their families.

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Why this incident is important is because just two days ago, TikTok videos – some of them fairly fun and creative – from Khammam went viral. They had been shot by employees of the Municipal Corporation of Khammam and showed them lipsyncing to popular Telugu film songs and dialogues. 

The Khammam district collector was not amused when the TikTok videos found their way into Telugu news channels which reported on them. He ordered the KMC to transfer the offending employees, eleven of them, to the sanitary wing. Their wages too were reduced.