Back in the day, before Narendra Modi joined Twitter and forever changed the course of Indian Twitter, Twitter had bloggers who had discovered the micro-blogging sites, parody accounts (Chetan Bhagat had a dedicated Satan Bhagat) and generally funny, interesting people. Most had a joke or two on wordplay, puns and Bollywood. Then 2014 happened and there were Modi supporters, condescendingly referred to as ‘Bhakts’ and those who opposed Modi, the ones who referred to his supporters as ‘Bhakts’, the new age ‘liberals’.
Riding on political jokes, the funny men, the parody accounts were now standup comics. Modi jokes were the easiest way to offend the supporters, some of whom would get offensive towards these flagbearers of free speech and political incorrectness. Soon, jokes were written just to trigger a Bhakt. The jokes had moved from 140 characters to stages and videos. Realising the potential of Facebook, SnapChat and YouTube amongst the younger crowd, which is most of their target audience, they moved to these platforms. To reach out to the young, impressionable ones. The ones, who in their first year of college, are looking forward to their first Valentine’s Day, but the Bajrang Dal is ready to either get them arrested or married off, thereby pushing them towards the ‘liberals’ who talk about #LoveIsLove.
They are young, charming, social media savvy and very responsive to fans. They have a way with words which young girls, especially teens and girls in their early twenties could find extremely flattering. That also makes these young girls susceptible to harassment, by the very people they look up to.
Twitter is full of these young stand up comics, lawyers, ‘poets’, ‘journalists’, who like to call themselves progressive just because they are ‘courageous’ enough to voice out their opinion which is against the current government. They are considered liberals, intellectuals for mocking the ‘Bhakts’ with a joke or two on Rahul Gandhi, just to come across as ‘politically neutral’. They also identify themselves as feminists and make their misogyny laced comments disguised as ‘jokes’ with punchlines which they would joke how ‘Bhakts’ would do. The audience would get it… mostly because they would have come across such behaviour from men, irrespective of their political inclination, but perception is created that only ‘bhakts’ abuse.
And then, once in every few months, you would come across how one of these ‘woke’, feminist millennial is nothing more than a sexual predator. Twitter user @AGirlOfHerWords, in a series of tweets, today accused a stand up comic, Utsav Chakraborty, who was previously known as @Satan_Bhagat on Twitter (as Chetan Bhagat’s parody), of sexually predatory behaviour. This included allegations of advances he made towards minor girls.
Hey Utsav. How many girls have you harassed you vile man. These messages for a young girl I know. pic.twitter.com/fXGWpbqfqf
— Mahima Kukreja ??✊? (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
Mahima shared various screenshots she had received from various girls who had come out and accused Utsav of sending unsolicited ‘d*ck pics’ (every girl I know on Twitter has received at least one at some point), asking for nude images of girls and even justifying them.
And this is not it. All India Bakchod (AIB), people who regularly hire him for their sketches, were made aware of the accusations levelled against him.
AIB knew. I don’t know if all them knew but the person who runs it knew. I told him. AIB still gave him work. You should know this. https://t.co/X4OcM1pcTr
— Mahima Kukreja ??✊? (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
So, the ‘woke’ feminists from AIB, Rohan Joshi, Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba and Ashish Shakya knew, yet none of them called him out.
Sumedh they knew. Meet me. I’ll tell you. There’s more too.
— Mahima Kukreja ??✊? (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
I want you all to know that I told famous Feminist comic men when this happened thinking they’re my friends. NOTHING HAPPENED. in fact he worked with most of them afterwards too.
— Mahima Kukreja ??✊? (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
More stories tumbled out with other ‘woke feminists’ being accused of harassing girls.
This prick utsav and that idiot @sapanv catcalled an dharased me at night when I was alone in a room auditioning for a tv show . I felt so humiliated and embarrassed tagt I went back and cried .
— Wmn Together Gurgaon (@WmnTogetherGgn) October 4, 2018
More allegations followed.
this guy asked for nudes from a person I know, not once but twice because he even forgot he made the same demand to her once before. he’s a serial predator who doesn’t miss an opportunity to prey on women. pic.twitter.com/BO94RNX77X
— my sou-ditious heart???? (@soupykaur) October 4, 2018
And the threats.
I want everyone to know @Wootsaw is a piece of shit. He sent me a dick pic, was creepy, then cried saying I’ll ruin his career if I tell others. I told two of the most influential men in comedy in India. Nothing happened. Let me tell you what else he has done with others.
— Mahima Kukreja ??✊? (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
And as I said, young ones are conditioned to believe this is ‘liberal’ behaviour because they publicly identify themselves as ‘liberals’ and ‘progressive’.
Unfortunately, Utsav is not the first ‘woke, feminist’ to have been accused of displaying sexual predatory behaviour.
Pic 1 : Placard activist @mehartweets standing up for a #MeToo cause.
Pic 2 : Having a great time with her poet friend Shamir Reuben, known for of sexually harassing minors, against whom she never uttered a word. pic.twitter.com/7LQtxFKI6Y
— THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) October 4, 2018
In February this year, another popular name in the poetry circle, 24-year-old Shamir Reuben who regularly spoke on empowerment, gender equality and feminism, was accused of sexually harassing minors. And even then hardly anyone spoke up against ‘one of their own’.
All India Bakchod has released a statement saying that they will investigate the case and till then have pulled down videos featuring him.
Statement pic.twitter.com/eLpthXifwf
— All India Bakchod (@AllIndiaBakchod) October 4, 2018
This incident comes close on the heels of charges of sexual harassment put up by actor Tanushree Dutta against Nana Patekar back in 2008. Even in her case, the high and mighty like Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan have steered clear from extending explicit support to her.
And if you think such behaviour is prevalent only in the entertainment industry or amongst people only in the social media, you are wrong. Last year around this time, a damning list of academics in Indian institutes was put up on Facebook by a student, where she had accused the professors mentioned in the list of engaging in sexual harassment. At that time, champion of naming and shaming sexual harassers, the Leftists cabal had taken it upon themselves to prove how this naming and shaming was ‘blackening faces’ and they were uneasy with the name and shame list. The statement is signed by 12 self proclaimed feminists including Ayesha Kidwai, the Leftist professor from JNU, who believes she is a parallel judiciary by leading a public inquiry against the Vice-Chancellor of JNU, Nivedita Menon, who believes Kashmir is not an integral part of India, Vrinda Grover, the advocate who rallied to save Yakub Memon and Kavita Krishnan, pro-Naxal ideologue activist who tried to pass off Diwali as a non-religious festival.
In wake of Harvey Weinstein incident, a lot of people are coming out and retelling the horrors of men in powerful position abusing their power by sexually harassing women, and even men. Hence, it comes as a shock when the torchbearers of feminism in India are actively trying to suppress these voices by being silent and complicit in the act perpetrated by the predators.
And not only have the so-called liberals come around to shield one of their own they have even come out and asked people to ‘rethink’ the allegations because with 2019 elections around the corner, it is necessary now more than before to stand united against the ‘fascist Modi’ regime, even if it means ignoring abuse of power. From Tehelka’s Tarun Tejpal to former TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute) chief R K Pachauri, the ‘liberals’ have downplayed the molestation charges and tried to silence those who spoke up.
Men, and even women, who abuse the power they have because of social standing or the position they hold, tend to get away with this behaviour because victims are threatened, abused, bullied for raising their voices. The victims are made to believe that speaking up could ‘ruin their lives’ because of the rampant victim shaming that takes place. It is all about the display of power. That they have a hold over you. As Oscar Wilde said, “Everything is about sex. Except for sex. Sex is about power.” Not necessarily that the predator is attracted to the victim, but because they have the power to manipulate the situation to a ‘win’.
And the left ecosystem does indeed look out for one of their own, even if it goes against everything they pretend to stand for.
