“Brave” bollywood Director Anurag Kashyap has been in the news recently for his social media gaffes. Recently, Kashyap had moaned on social media that Bollywood needed to draw inspiration from Meryl Streep to stand up with the people who spoke up against various anti-social elements.
We in our film industry don’t even need to give a speech like Meryl Streep if we just start standing up with those who actually speak up.
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 9, 2017
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In the recent episode where 16-year-old Kashmiri Actress Zaira Wasim was forced into an apology by vile and abusive comments from Jihadi radical Islamists, Kashyap was asked point-blank by many to stand up and speak up against such fundamentalists. Kashyap though chose to target the people who asked him to speak up rather than the Islamic fundamentalists who shut up Zaira Wasim:
Dear Bollywood, you were simmering to show courage. A good opportunity for @aamir, @anuragkashyap72, @karanjohar and others to show that. https://t.co/aJAWE07Xqs
— Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) January 16, 2017
He steadfastly kept away from taking any names and instead spun the entire issue to PM Narendra Modi, and later to Modi’s online supporters. Kashyap could not muster up the courage to name and shame the Radical Islamic Fundamentalists who silenced Wasim, but was quick to needlessly drag in the Prime Minister of India, that too by tagging him on twitter.
Cut to Yesterday, where Sanjay Leela Bhansali was assaulted on the sets of his upcoming film “Padmawati” by an obscure group called the “Karni Sena”. The mob members alleged that Rajasthan’s and Rajput community’s history was distorted in Padmavati, the movie Bhansali was filming.
“The movie depicts love scenes between Rani Padmini of Chittor and Alauddin Khilji. This is an outrageous distortion of Rajasthan’s history as Rani-ji immolated herself along with the other women of the fort when they heard that Khilji was marching ahead to take over the fort,” Karni Sena state president Mahipal Makrana said, justifying their anger.
While any form of non-violent protest should be welcomed in a democracy, such display of brute force is highly condemnable. And for once, Anurag Kashyap seemed to be on the right side of the debate:
Can once the whole film industry come together and take a stand, and refuse to be a pony that all bullshit and bullshitters ride on??
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 27, 2017
At the same time Shame on you Karni Sena, you make me feel ashamed to be a Rajput.. bloody spineless cowards ..
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 27, 2017
But soon, this one-off act of physical assault by an obscure group was likened to armed warfare by the likes of ISIS, by branding it as “Hindu Terrorism”
@ssingapuri same that gives you the right to constantly tell us what to do.. asshole fundamentalists, Hindu terrorists..
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 27, 2017
Hindu extremists have stepped out of twitter into the real world now.. and Hindu terrorism is not a myth anymore
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 27, 2017
The same Anurag Kashyap who shivered in his boots to name Radical Islamic Fundamentalists during the Zaira Wasim episode, had suddenly found his voice and had named and shamed a “Hindu Terrorist” group on Twitter for their act of “Terror”. Suddenly, a one-off assault was labelled as “terrorism”, such “terrorism” had a religion (unlike other forms of terrorism which have no religion), and Kashyap had finally summoned the courage to name such “terrorists”.
This is the breed of “Meryl Streep” India can produce, unfortunately, shy of condemning a certain kind of “terrorism” but jumping the gun on attacking another kind of “terrorism”. Kashyap’s only argument on not naming Islamic Fundamentalists during the Wasim episode was that he had made the movie “Black Friday”, which had documented the Bomb blasts in Mumbai. This Indian “Meryl Streep” feels that a one time condemnation of some other radicals is enough to cover up for all further silences?
