Sushant Singh Rajput’s brother-in-law Vishal Kirti on Sunday slammed Shekhar Gupta and his portal ThePrint for toxic journalism and insulting a grieving family by downplaying their grief as ‘toxic family structure’. In a blog, Vishal said that despite the tragedy in their lives they all had been trying to move on with their lives.
The article penned by ThePrint’s employee Jyoti Yadav had claimed that “the way Sushant’s family has reacted says a lot about the burden of being a son in a Bihari family”. The article claimed further, “What has escaped popular attention is the toxic family structure of cow-belt India, especially Bihar, and how it treats its precious sons”.
Vishal Kirti said that that article was “unintelligent” and “offensive” not only to the deceased Bollywood actor’s family but to all Indian families. In the blog, he once again emphasised that the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is not an opportunity to spread mental health awareness. Refuting her allegations that Sushant’s family knows very little about the issue of mental health, Kirti said that the environmental factors that contributed towards the deceased actor’s alleged depression ought to be investigated.
Vishal Kirti said, “Those hostile environmental conditions could include gaslighting, blackmailing, alienating, covert medication, overt overmedication, and so on. I am not saying that a very hostile environment is necessary for people to fall into depression but in this case, the presence of a hostile environment seems to ring true.” He also said that he will be the first to accept with dignity if it is established in a Court of Law that Sushant Singh Rajput suffered from depression without any foul play.
On Yadav’s allegations of ‘toxic Bihari families’, insinuating that families have a tendency to scapegoat the wives or girlfriends of their sons in order to avoid recognising their son’s autonomy, Vishal Kirti said, “This is where Jyoti’s stereotypical “toxic Bihari family” trope gets debunked. The FIR didn’t say that my father-in-law couldn’t stand Ankita. He actually adored Ankita and even stayed over in Mumbai with Ankita and Sushant. The FIR mentions one specific person called Rhea and giving it an anti-feminist flare is toxic journalism.”
He continued, “Moving on to the state of Bihar in general. There are millions of well-educated middle-class families in Bihar where there is no toxic attitude towards their son’s girlfriends and spouses. I am sure there are some families with these attitudes but taking the experiences of some and painting it with a broad brush is another toxic journalism masterstroke.”
The brother-in-law of the deceased actor once again emphasised that the FIR was against Rhea Chakraborty and not anti-women. In a previous blog as well, Vishal Kirti had slammed ‘therapist’ Susan Walker Moffat for divulging confidential details regarding the mental health condition of her client Sushant Singh Rajput. He had also suggested that this was illegal for her to do so and said that he was leaving it to his father-in-law to press charges on the matter.
