Dear Anupam Kher and Other Internet Trolls,
The last two days were made up of one jaw-dropping moment after another. First Aamir came out with his statement in the news on his wife’s fears and his own views about the growing intolerance in the country. My first thought was, “yeh toh gaya” (he’s a goner). Needless to say, you trolls had a field day, abusing him, hinting that he should go live in IS-occupied territories or in Pakistan. Somebody even hinted that he is the real villain from Sarfarosh.
Then poor Snapdeal was also dragged into the whole mess because some months ago, they hired Aamir as their brand ambassador. So the trolls bullied Snapdeal by uninstalling apps and reducing their rating overnight. And today the latest is that somebody has actually filed a complaint against Aamir Khan in a police station in Delhi for making that statement. I wish somebody would do the same for the likes of Sadhvi Prachi.
Two years ago, perhaps, Aamir would not have been attacked on the basis of his religion, merely because he voiced his opinion.
Two years ago, this actor, you, me, all of us were in complete accord and cohesively vocal about the corruption of the previous government. In the past, we never hesitated to voice our views even if they differed from everybody else’s and the best part was, people were ok with it too. ‘You didn’t like what the government did? That’s fine, that’s your view point.’ We haven’t hesitated to stick it to the numerous leaders who preceded the current crop. We proudly wore our democracy on our sleeve then.
Today, anybody who questions the current leadership is immediately branded traitor and asked to go to Pakistan. Anybody whose viewpoint doesn’t match the majority mob (yes and a mob it is) is the target of so much hate, that it’s unnerving. So it’s not just Aamir and his wife who are worried about what’s happening to this country, there’s a whole bunch of other people who are too, except their voices are drowned by the mob, or they have been scared off by the mob.
We proudly wear on our ‘tolerance’ on our sleeve. “Did we not worship the Bollywood Khans? Is that not a symbol of our tolerance?” we ask when outsiders question the religious differences in the country. But if any of these Khans speak out something that we don’t like, suddenly they are attacked on the basis of religion, as both SRK and now Aamir have found out, to their cost.
We have attacked anybody who calls us intolerant. We have attacked Obama for warning the current regime against polarisation activities. We have jeered at financial institutions that gave our country a poor economic rating because of the increasing levels of intolerance and social instability in the country. We are really like ostriches, burying our heads in sand and resolutely refusing to see the chilling truth, refusing to see our world change around us. And the worst part is we justify it by proudly attributing it to a false and misplaced sense of national and cultural pride.
Mr.Anupam Kher, you have been dissing Kiran Rao’s fears in public and pointing it out to Aamir in your tweets that this is not the way, that one must spread hope, not fear and have hinted that the right course would be to be a part of the change instead of running away.
Yes, that seems like the logical thing to say, except as fellow actors you could have been less public about it, thus not fanning the flames further. You could have stopped for a minute to think about where the fears are coming from. As a Hindu woman wedded to a Muslim, Kiran Rao’s fears for her child and her family are every bit legitimate.
Yes, moving to another country may seem like cowardice, but anybody’s first concern is and always should be their own family, don’t you think?
Besides, how will he change it? Any step he takes, he will be called out and abused because of his religion. Look what’s happening to him just because he dared to say that we are growing intolerant.
His wife isn’t alone in thinking that way. When it comes to it, even I don’t want to raise a child in a country with an education system where syllabuses in textbooks have been changed overnight to reflect the ideology of the biggest bully in the background today. So what option does that leave many of us with? Those of us who can afford to, will want to leave.
Because we can take on individuals, we can take on the government too, but taking on an invisible mob that’s everywhere around us is like battling a many-headed monster. We can cut off one head, but it’ll keep coming at us anyway. And let’s face it, this is some crazy mob rule, where the very essence of our political system seems to have gone for a toss. I hated the Congress rule and I am no fan of the present regime either, but that’s just political. The even bigger issue here is the fact that the very fabric of our society seems to have changed suddenly and taken on nightmarish significance.
It’s like somebody manufactured an army of religiously polarised zombies overnight. This is not about blaming the government, but somebody is to blame and the government doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Worst, even the people want to pretend it doesn’t exist. Because it’s easy to point fingers at the government when it comes to corruption, and just as difficult to point fingers at ourselves when it comes to dealing with intolerance.
Before you lash out any further at Aamir, remember Dadri. Remember what happened to a man whose only crime in the eyes of the mob was that he did not belong to the same religion as them. Are we intolerant? Hell, yes!
I could rant more, but I am busy fending off the trolls who have labelled me ‘presstitute’ for writing this piece.
Sincerely,
Sane Citizen in a Growingly Insane Country
