dailyO
Politics

How long can India tolerate your theatrics, Mr Anupam Kher?

Advertisement
Mandeep Singh
Mandeep SinghMar 07, 2016 | 20:44

How long can India tolerate your theatrics, Mr Anupam Kher?

You are at it again, Anupam Kher!

After bringing the house down during your "tolerance" speech in Kolkata, you must be feeling very important and pompous with all the media attention that resulted, with almost all television channels, and social media playing out your bashing of the "champagne-sipping" sahibs and sahibas sitting in air-conditioned bungalows.

I agree, Mr Kher, India is not intolerant. It never was, never will be. But in the present scenario, that's easier said than done.

Advertisement

What has happened in the last two years or so is that there has been complete lawlessness and anarchy on the streets. No one is sure what to say, where and when to say it, and what reaction it will evoke.

After all, one can get bashed up in court, someone can put a price on your head, someone can call you names, and if you speak against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, you will get hounded on social media with the choicest of abuses and invectives.

Yes, this is what our country has come to.

Of course, what happened in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was seditious. Those who shouted the slogans you mentioned in Kolkata should be hauled up and punished. But where are they? Who were they? Where is the evidence that JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and his followers raised those slogans? Why are they in jail? Why are the real culprits not behind bars?

Why do you not talk about the BJP partnering with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir? Why are you silent (as was said at the conclave) about Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal batting for hardened terrorists? And why, pray, have you not opened your mouth at a certain J Jayalalithaa demanding the release of the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi?

Advertisement

You shout, you scream, you shed crocodile tears, tear up a respected judge without going into the context of what he said. Your mind is so "made up" (much like the Delhi Police decided in advance that they have to "get" Kanhaiya) against everyone but the BJP and Modi that you don't look beyond your nose.

Yes, you did say the sadhvis and the yogis should be locked up and admonished. But is that all?

Why haven't we heard anything from you on an innocent man being lynched only on the suspicion of storing beef? And why have you never mentioned anything about gangs of "nationalists" rampaging around churches and terrorising the minorities?

Why have you not dared to question those who openly abused, shamed and threatened your colleagues for decades in your own film industry?

There are scores of other cases you have never talked about just because you haven't wanted to, yet, you call Indians pests and say they are being "flushed out".

And, yes, you also talk about Kashmir and Kashmiris and about "going back home" when you have had nothing at all to do with Kashmir. Who are you trying to fool?

Advertisement

And, do you realise you never said anything at all before May 2014? What were you doing then? You suddenly decided to wake up post-elections and organise marches, take to the streets and set the stage on fire?

And, one more point. Do you know what has happened in the last few months that has never happened earlier?

We can digest the BJP coming to power with a brute majority but what we cannot is that this majority is being used to systematically "cleanse" India of anyone and everyone who has a different point of view.

And, you, Mr Anupam Kher, are among those who will have to answer this great nation one day.

Last updated: March 07, 2016 | 20:44
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy