Safety on roads is Safe Tea at home’; ‘Before wine it’s fine, after wine you have to pay fine’; ‘Dear Drunk Drivers, See you tonight!’ Remember these witty, cheesy, corny, and outright funny one-liners on
Hyderabad Traffic Police FB and Twitter pages, that always managed to crack you up? Well, if you’ve been wondering why you don’t see fun posts like these anymore, you’ve been living under a (social media) rock. the very witty ‘Admin H’, who won much love and ‘likes’ for the official handles of Hyderabad Traffic Police, with his quirky brand of online policegiri, has left the page. Or, to be more precise, he was asked to leave.
It all began on Saturday, when the administrator of the social media pages,
Hari Nath Reddy, a home guard, was asked to step down. And the after-effect was evident — the page suddenly lost its humourous character, making people wonder aloud where
Admin H was. Word spread, tweets and messages poured in, and Hari Nath took to FB and Twitter to reveal that he was indeed Admin H no more, and that he was asked to step down.
“Hey! brothers and sisters, so I have been officially removed out from the HTP page. So I want to let you know about it. After my Girlfriend died in a road accident which I have seen in person and I never wanted to see someone in that position, so I started being funny and witty (sic),” said Hari, in an emotional FB post that’s gone viral.
What happened next was not something even Hari Nath wouldn’t have anticipated. Hyderabadis rallied behind the home guard who had endeared himself to the city folk with his humourous implorations to follow traffic rules, and decided to boycott the page. In a matter of 72 hours, the page’s rating dropped from 4.8 to 3.4. What’s more, an unofficial Hyderabad Traffic Police page cropped up and a hashtag campaign #bringbackadminh was floated. social media users came forward in hordes to slam the authorities for sacking their fave admin. It’s been raining memes, slogans and comments, much to the chagrin of the new admin, who has been busy blocking anyone who’s trolling the page, thus becoming fodder for more memes.
So why was the original Admin H asked to step down? pressure and politics from within the department, alleges Hari Nath. “Six yrs nundi kastapadi last ki friendly ga conversations jarige sthayiki teesukoni vasthe jealous(y) toh remove cheyadam entha varaku correct?” asked Hari nath in another post. (For six years, I struggled to build a rapport and get things to a stage where we could interact in a friendly manner. How right is it to remove me without notice just because somebody is jealous?)
Soon after, there emerged a fan club dedicated to Admin H — ‘Admin H fan club’ — which garnered over 3.5k within hours. Now, this page has become the hub for all of Hari’s supporters who are tagging the official page and senior officials, and demanding that he be brought back!
The unofficial traffic police page is also flooded with multiple memes, videos and pictures of people wearing helmet while cycling, eating etc., to show the influence of Admin H.
“Anna Nee Valle HTP Page like chesa. Nee Inspirational and Sarcastic Posts Valla Helmet pettukoni Bike Drive Cheyadam Start Chesaa...We R all With U Bro... AdminH It’s An Emotion…” (sic) reads the emotional post from a user, Pavankumar Chella.
The emotional outpour of the public notwithstanding, the department seems to be in no mood to give in. “There is a decorum of managing an official handle. One can’t just handle the page like it’s his own private handle and misuse it. This had to stop,” said an official, who did not want to be named. Sources suggest the home guard may face disciplinary action for his social media outburst.
Only time will tell how this saga ends. But with the ‘Admin H army’ growing stronger, it looks like the official social media handles of Hyderabad Traffic Police could use a new strategy.
