Salman Khan is a lucky man. No one still cares about footpath dwellers

By the time this blog gets uploaded, #SalmanVerdict would have trended in many parts of the continent. The high court’s interim stay would have been analysed by experts. Outrageous bites of film personalities would have resulted in rightful outrage and the one man who died in the accident would remain unsung in his death as he was in his life. The family, friends and admirers of Salman Khan deserve the sympathies coming their way, even if Khan has been proclaimed guilty. Their grief is understandable.

Salman Khan is a lucky man. He has the love and prayers of millions of admirers – with some of them ferociously defending him on the mainstream media, social media and the court room. There is no denying that he has earned this support.

This morning I unsuccessfully attempted to float the name of the victim of this much talked about hit-and-run case on social media.

The media cannot be blamed for not highlighting the plight of the family of Nurullah Mehboob Sharif. In media as in the market, demand creates supply. Who would be interested in knowing about Nurullah and why? He was born somewhere and he died on a footpath of Mumbai. He failed in his efforts to overcome the disadvantages he was born with. His only newsworthiness was that he died under a big car of a big man and it made big news. He and his family should be content with these crumbs of attention being thrown in his direction, if not unconditionally grateful.

The verdict and the ensuing bloodbath on media/social media brings out the blinding class division that our state, civil society and media successfully tries to black out. That a large section of India lives in the comfortable soundproofing of a bubble in which it is completely insulated from the sounds, smells, sights and sighs of a larger section of India is a well-known fact. But the soundproofing is not two-way. The sounds and hisses of the rich and mighty do reach those outside this bubble. The reactions of the wretched of the footpath may not be felt immediately as platforms of visibility are not available to this class. We should be worried about these invisible and inaudible reactions.

Tweets by Abhijeet and Farah Khan Ali reflect the growing impatience of the rich for those outside the bubble. They should be complimented for their honesty. When the State unabashedly bats for the rich and mighty, why should we begrudge such honest expression of disgust towards the footpath dwellers? Cars these days are big. And they appear bigger when big people drive those cars – bigger than the roads meant for them. The rich now understandably want to claim footpaths too. The thick skinned so magnanimously offered by Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Farha Ali Khan that footpaths are not meant for sleeping was superbly countered, albeit as a dialogue in a movie by Subhash Kapoor – Jolly LLB by Arshad Warsi, “Footpaths are also not meant for driving around!”