Actor Siddharth was at the centre of a raging furore yesterday for his crass sexual remarks for ace badminton player Saina Nehwal over her tweet expressing concern over the lax security measures undertaken by the Punjab government during his travel to the state last week.
In her tweet, Saina had condemned the security lapse in Punjab during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ferozepur.
But this did not sit well with Siddharth, who otherwise fashions himself as a champion of women empowerment but has no qualms in stooping down to the level of reprehensible trolls that use sexual innuendos against women whose opinions are at variance with them.
He responded to Saina’s tweet with a crass, sexually derogatory comment. “Subtle cock champion of the world… Thank God we have protectors of India. Shame on you #Rihanna,” Siddharth tweeted.
Cock’ is a slang used for the male sexual organ. By twisting the badminton term ‘shuttlecock’, Siddharth was trying to insult Saina in a crass, sexual manner.
Siddharth’s condemnable tweet triggered a massive controversy on social media, with netizens slamming the actor for resorting to sexual jibes in order to ridicule a woman whose political ideology did not jibe with his own. As outrage over his comment swelled and NCW took cognisance of his tweets, Siddharth brazened out his remarks, stating that his “cock” reference was not meant to disrespect anyone and there was no insinuation in it.
In an ideal world, the issue of using derogatory innuendos against women would have led to unequivocal condemnation cutting across political parties and ideological persuasions. But not in India, where the moral decay among the Left is so pervasive and ingrained that saving one’s own takes precedence over their commitment to the cause of women empowerment.
None of the virtue-signalling proponents of feminists from the Left cared to issue an open condemnation against Siddharth, because for them he continues to remain a “useful idiot” that they can use later when the controversy subsides, seemingly to reinforce their longstanding propaganda against Hindus, and by extension against the Modi government.
Even before the appalling treachery of the Left in Siddharth’s case came to the fore, another incident laid bare the unabashed duplicity of the liberal ecosystem. In a recent interview, Kanhaiya Kumar, a former CPI leader turned Congress member, made innuendos against Sonia Gandhi saying his ‘choice is young’ when asked about meeting the Congress president.
When asked about his “Khwaahish” (Desire) to meet Sonia Gandhi, Kanhaiya responded, “Iss tarah ke sawal aap humari umar dekh ke puchiye .Humari khwaahish bhi utni hi jawan hai jitni ek ordinary naujawan ki iss desh mein hai (You must ask such questions considering my age. My desire is as young as that of an ordinary youth in this country),” he said.
But since Kanhaiya belongs to the Congress fold now, he was immune to attacks and denunciations from the liberals, who are otherwise always eager to launch vicious campaigns against those who are found making innuendos against Sonia Gandhi. However, in this case, they uncharacteristically remained silent as ’eminent’ left-liberals turned a blind eye to Kanhaiya’s presumptuous remarks.
The Left refuses to condemn Siddharth and Kanhaiya Kumar for their innuendos against women
This is the classic liberal hypocrisy. They have a habit of holding others to higher standards of ideals and principles but when one of them is caught erring on those exalted standards, they bury their heads in the sand thinking that the issue will die its own death or would be supplanted by another controversy, saving them the trouble of calling out one of their own ideological brethren.
It also betrays that for the left “feminism” and “women empowerment” are nothing more than political tools that can be weaponised when deemed useful and necessary depending on its use. For instance, when a female liberal ideologue is called out for sharing fake news on social media, the Left cabal instantly portrays it as an “online misogynist attack” instead of acknowledging the fact that misleading information was being peddled by that person. But when one of the left-liberal members are caught in the brazen act of insulting a woman with vile remarks, the entire ecosystem becomes silent as the dead.
All the bombast of having unwavering adherence to “liberal values” is reserved only for the members belonging to the non-left. Being a part of the Left ecosystem grants offenders sufficient latitude to continue with their deplorable behaviour, lest condemning them would undermine their cause and weaken their fraternal unity. This is why people like Siddharth, Kanhaiya Kumar and many others get away with patently unacceptable conduct as liberals look the other way.
Compared to their silence on Siddharth’s crass sexual comments or Kanhaiya Kumar’s innuendos, the left ecosystem shows unmatched alacrity to attack and condemn people from the non-left, even when offences against them are unproven and phoney. This is the shameless duplicity that liberals have come to be associated with, and also one of the reasons for their undoing.
How handwringing over alleged hate speech but stoic silence over hate crime exposes hypocrisy of liberals
For instance, the liberals continue hyperventilating over the issue of alleged hate speech made at ‘Dharma Sansad’ in Haridwar last month. They have accused Yati and others who attended the Haridwar Conclave of making hate speech designed to whip up genocide against Muslims. Calls for police action have also been made against the attendees. An FIR was also filed in connection with the case and now they are making noises for the court to hear on the matter.
However, the same kind of spirited initiative was markedly missing when it to came to the death threats levelled against Yati Narsighanand Saraswati for his comments on Prophet Muhammad. Calls for ‘sar tan se juda’ or his ‘decapitation’ was raised, with even elected MLAs such as AAP leader Amanatullah Khan making clarion calls for his beheading. But none of the liberals who are making a beeline to demand action against attendees of ‘Dharma Sansad’ cared to unequivocally denounce the death threats braved by the Dasna Devi Temple head priest.
Just like the liberals have been muted against the death threats faced by Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, they were also silent about the calls for the decapitation of Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. No credible effort was taken by the Left intelligentsia to address the hate that was marshalled towards Tiwari, who years later was murdered in cold blood by followers of the murderous Islamist ideology that justified and called for his beheading.
Another instance where the hypocrisy of liberals has been stark is the Punjab lynchings related to sacrilege cases. The country was recently roiled with two horrifying cases of mob lynching that took place in Punjab over allegations of sacrilege. Angry mobs took law into their own hands and lynched two individuals to death on the suspicion of sacrilege, underscoring the abject state of law and order situation in Punjab.
Unabashed hypocrisy, a distinct feature of the liberal ecosystem
These incidents should have shaken the liberal conscience to the core, prompting an unreserved condemnation of the ghastly murders committed in the name of sacrilege. However, as warped as it has become, the moral compass of the liberals did not push them towards condemning the sacrilege incident, instead, they remained tight-lipped about the deaths while openly denouncing incidents of sacrilege.
As liberals lose their sleep over alleged hate speech but remain unbothered by hate crimes committed by their supporters, similarly, they make a great fuss over supporting feminism but refrain from holding to account their own members who are accused of denigrating women. This shameless hypocrisy has become a hallmark of the left ecosystem, where empty rhetorics prevails over meaningful actions.