Letter to Sonu Nigam: Does Abhijeet’s language fit in Indian culture?
Dear Sonu Nigam,
Kutta rd pe soyega kutte ki maut marega, roads garib ke baap ki nahi hai I ws homles an year nvr slept on rd.
(Roads are meant for cars and dogs not for people sleeping on them... @BeingSalmanKhan is not at fault at all.)
Come out fraternity, support @BeingSalmanKhan boldly not hypocritically... Roads footpath r not meant 4 sleeping, not driver's or alcohol's fault.
बेशर्म बुढ़िया... U not proud of Indians? Wats your breed? U sk pakis - tweet addressing journalist Swati Chaturvedi.
Adami hun adami se pyar karta hun - tweet for Karan Johar.
Another #lovejihad mehbooba #karanjohar is in depression #paklover fawad khan ditched bechari mrs @karanjohar khan.
There is a rumour that she took money in advance and didn’t satisfy the client - tweet for JNU student Shehla Rashid.
Please respect her even if she is she ugly or pichalli - for Priti Sharma Menon, AAP spokesperson.
These are some tweets by "celebrity" singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya which have now landed him in trouble. The first three tweets were tweeted by Abhijeet when Salman Khan was convicted by a Mumbai session’s court in the hit-and-run case and the remaining tweets were hurled on various occasions, as mentioned.
The last tweet mentioned here was the one for which Abhijeet was finally booked for outrage of modesty and had to take bail. The Mumbai Police filed a chargesheet against him for the same.
Suddenly, now you are debating freedom of expression, saying that Abhijeet has the right to his opinion? Certainly, he has the right to his opinion and to express it too, but you, who have always spoken about Indian culture, can you tell us in which culture Abhijeet’s language fits in?
This sudden urge to pick up fights, with everyone using abusive language is something which many of us can't understand... we know him for his melodious songs in the 1990s and after that we have heard of him as a regular on TV debates for opposing the presence of Pakistani singers in Bollywood.
This must be after 2007 or so, as he repeatedly started talking against Pakistani singers. Yet, it was fine as he has the right to his opinion. But then, have you read the tweets which I mentioned above for Karan Johar? Now, please let your 7 million followers know if you share the same thoughts about Karan Johar... it was clear that Abhijeet was talking about Karan’s possible sexuality (which of course Karan has not made public yet).
Don’t you think it is outrageous to use that kind of language on a public or social platform? You have also said in your 12 tweets that if Abhijeet’s account is suspended, then 90 per cent of other accounts should be suspended as well.
You know, there's a famous dialogue in the cult Bollywood film Deewar to justify an act - “jao pehle jakar us adami se sign lekar aao jisne mere hath pe ye likh diya tha" - actually you can’t point fingers at others. You can see that your friend was warned before and yet nothing made him think of India's culture before writing what he wrote for Shehla Rashid - now you have to understand he must have called many who do not agree with him as "anti-national", which you have also hinted at in your series of tweets even if you have no right to decide who is and who is not anti-national. This new trend was started three years ago, and suddenly many in your fraternity have started putting labels on those who do not agree with their "ideology".
Though the world never got a glimpse of all these people’s ideological positions before 2014, yet it's okay - your fraternity has this habit of going with the flow. But then, just read what Abhijeet has written about a young woman... now again can you please tell your 7 million followers if you endorse what he has written about her or any woman for that matter.
Would you use this kind of language? Yes, you are right that Twitter has pushed us in this anonymous world where you do not know the real identity of those who are trolling you or abusing you. So doesn't it become the responsibility of those who call themselves "celebrities" to "behave" themselves, at least while using language?
Just look at Abhijeet's tweets about those who sleep on the footpaths in Mumbai. You last year released a video, The Roadside Ustad - I am sure if given a chance Abhijeet would address you by the same words with which he was addressing those who have no choice but to sleep on footpaths. Do such tweets or language deserve to be supported?
I understand you are new to this game of "ideology" fight on Twitter, but then please understand the rules of the social networking site which have been explained under the abuse policy.
They say that any behaviour on Twitter which has violent threats, hateful conduct, impersonation or harassment can be called abusive. Being an artist I am sure you never thought of getting down to this behaviour. But then rather than supporting abusive behaviour, please be the other brother in Deewar and ask Abhijeet, “bhai, tum sign karte ho ya nahin"?
I am sure you will be back on Twitter soon... if you like this letter please retweet it.