[Reader-list] SRK BLUNDER

[anupam chakravartty]

Dear all,

Spewing hate for Pakistan is like a traditional household game. So
much of gusto when people suddenly (almost gleefully) type out the
choicest words (that could be only used on a unrepentant neighbour),
so much of fervour in claiming how great is this country being
tolerable to the point that it after 1000 or 800 years, some of the
concerned citizens suddenly realise that their forefathers were weak,
could not withstand an invasion and had to submit to it. Therefore,
now an urgency of defence through a counter narrative in history (see
your forefathers came here, destroyed, demolished what we had … and
now you must pay for this). It is even more thrilling to know that for
the past 60 odd years, we have fought three battles with Pakistan. We
raced for nuclear bombs, we lobbied for Kashmir in UNSC (unmindful of
what a ordinary Kashmiri wants), and we played bus-bus only to be
followed by post cold war skirmish in Kargil. What drama!

Some of us might forget, this actor called Shahrukh Khan also played
the role of Fauji (a common word used for a soldier in both sides of
the border) in TV serial. As a child, I would not understand most of
what has been said but the fact he is good guy (a soldier) slaying
enemies (could be on the other side of border but essentially bad
guys).

Increasingly, the scenes of this drama have become ugly because these
few players toeing the traditional lines of love or hate thy
neighbour. The names keep changing but the line of diplomacy
(oscillating between the positions of extreme love and extreme hate).
Mind you, both the nation states have over a billion people who do not
even know what expression is, who do not even know (if you were to
shuttle between North West Frontier Province and Gadhchiroli) that who
this great man/woman is, who runs the show for them. Statecraft has
not yet reached here, and fortunately nor did historical narratives,
which could overthrow their oral and simplistic traditions of myths.
Therefore, it could be deduced that most of this urgent sense of
defending each other’s nation states is coming from this small urban
(or in process of getting urban) pockets, exposed to tirade of
information through channels of media.

I am also shocked that some of the writers immediately take positions
depending on the flavour of the season and locale. In 1984, it would
have been Sikhs, if a bomb such as the one that tore apart German
Bakery in Pune would have happened in Punjab, and in 1992, if the bomb
was placed in a upmarket Guwahati, it would have been NE rebels, but
now in Pune, so there seems to be more confusion (after all it has
been a seat of media/security establishment coined organisations such
as Abhinav Bharat or Indian Mujaheedin).

What angers me the most is how political goons take advantage of these
situations to woo masses. It becomes easier for the media to trap a
celebrity and make him/her a scapegoat because once expression as a
tool is realised by an individual, everything about it is theatrical,
profound or may be honest too. Bigots of Indian politics (I don’t want
to name them here because their names ring cash registers … sometimes
more than what a Bollywood actor gets as a compensation for
entertaining) immediately know how to stage the attack against such
vulnerability. It is like a character assassination in which media’s
malleable opinion could be turned on his/her favour as these goons and
their agents shuttling between the underbellies of the society and
corridors of power dig out the dirt for you. It would not be
surprising to find that these characters, the so called voice of the
masses blow up, when a confused person suddenly asks about his pin up
hero: “But what has he done?” “Don’t you know, he is an actor, people
worship him, how can he be so irresponsible?” the goon would say.
Describing this goon, a man who I met on a train day before yesterday
said that actually you know what, these goons are jealous of the film
actors. “You see, it is always this film hero who walks with honours.
This small time goon who wanted to be somebody in life, now makes
money but most of it is illegal, carries an unwanted tag of a social
worker, has to engage in sloganeering. He wants a break but is
carrying too much of this illusion called responsibility. Why not
direct it towards the someone who is extremely vulnerable, while I
could think of a next plot”.

Perhaps the only forgotten character in this parable is a lunatic, who
is perched on a tree somewhere in no man’s land between two
international borders. His name is Toba Tek Singh. He deserves his
lunacy, like you deserve your sanity to be on the either side of this
proverbial fence. If you are victimising people who you have idolised
to such an extant that now you cannot even tolerate their own rights
of expression, there is something clearly wrong with you. These actors
have expressed for you over the years fitting into the roles that you
wanted to see in the silver screens. You have perhaps clapped
thousands of times listening to them. This mail would not give him any
endorsement or a film contract. Nor will it add to my curriculum
vitae. Nor am I great fan of Shahrukh Khan’s movies. I just remember
him as the Fauji. Too bad, none of you in this list who crying out
loud about his comments are not yet shaken up by an act of this
political goon who has crippled one of the largest trade centre of the
country just to assert his own territorial supremacy.

-Anupam


On 2/15/10, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Shuddha
>
> What I wish to clarify here is regarding my statement on 'freedom of
> speech'. What I mean is that people are free to hold their views. In that
> regard, Thackeray is free to hold the view that Shahrukh is a 'traitor',
> that shouldn't be an issue here. Where Thackeray does wrong is inciting
> people to commit violence against Shahrukh because he is a traitor. If
> Thackeray feels so, let him go to a court of law and register a case against
> Shahrukh for acting against India. As per the Constitution, if indeed it is
> found to be true, the court will punish Shahrukh accordingly.
>
> Instead, politics today has turned into mobocracy, whereby anybody who has a
> mob behind him/her can do as he/she feels, irrespective of the problems it
> creates for the others. Such politics should be deplored, and anybody
> practicing it should be put behind bars.
>
> Rakesh
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