Monthly Archives: August 2020

SSR case: Why is KARNI Sena forgiven & shown respect?

The coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has been taking place in the media 24/7 over the last many days. In this period, numerous people who claimed to have been close to the late actor are interviewed, in some cases without any verification.

Among hundreds of such interviews, one which has grabbed a lot of eye-balls is that of Surjeet Singh Rathore. He spoke about his experience on Republic channel of him being one of the few ones to have gained access to Sushant’s dead body soon after his death.

He was the one who claimed that the actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty said, “Sorry babu,” as soon as she saw his dead body. The founder of the channel and anchor Arnab Goswami believed him at face value.

During the show, the anchor and Rathore came out with the theory that since Rhea said, “Sorry” to Sushant, it meant that she definitely did something wrong to him.

Now whether or not they are right in their interpretation is not something that I wish to discuss here. An important aspect about the interview is the two identities that Surjeet Singh Rathore possesses. One, he is a film producer.

More importantly, he is also the Vice President of the fringe group Rathriya Rajput Karni Sena.

It was one of the few Karni Sena groups that had been up in arms against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat in late 2017 and early 2018, alleging that the film distorts the history of Rajputs and thereby hurts their sentiments.

So the big question that emerges here is why a member of such a group was given access to Sushant’s dead body. Mind you, only a selected few were given entry there. The anchor Arnab Goswami, who is always eager to ask tough questions, didn’t ask this to Rathore.

But Rathore himself revealed on the show that he is a member of [one of the] Karni Senas and he was allowed because a member of the ‘Rajput community’ was dead.

This makes it more interesting. As we all would remember, Goswami had slammed Karni Sena members numerous times on his channel back then because of their stand against Padmaavat which lead to violence in various places in the country.

And here he not only believed everything that this Karni Sena member said at face value, but also thanked him profusely more than once for being on his show.

Interestingly, what wasn’t pointed out on the show was that Sushant had subtly made his stand against Karni Sena clear during the Padmaavat controversy by dropping the words ‘Singh Rajput’ from his name on social media. During that time, the same Karni Sena members and followers had trolled Sushant for his act. (Read about it HERE and HERE)

Also read: Expecting MIRACLES from CBI in Sushant case isn’t smart

After doing this, Sushant had also tweeted saying, “We would suffer till the time we’re obsessed with our surnames. If you’re that courageous, give us your first name to acknowledge. #Padmavati.” This clearly indicates that he was against the division of humans into different communities, castes, samaajs and what not.

If you feel this is hypocritical, here’s more. Rathore is the co-producer of a film inspired from Rajput’s death titled ‘Shashank.’ The poster of the film, which you can see below, has words like ‘Nepotism,’ ‘Depression,’ ‘Suicide,’ ‘Murder,’ etc, scattered over the image of a man who is about to hang himself to death.

Let that sink in…

Also read: ‘Anti-nepotism’ brigade has created a TOXIC atmosphere online

Expecting MIRACLES from CBI in Sushant case isn’t smart

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Few days back I saw a video of the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) team arriving in Mumbai after they were handed over the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case once the Supreme Court (SC) gave its nod. They were hounded by tens of journalists screaming out the same question repeatedly – “Will Rhea Chakraborty be arrested in the Sushant case?”

The CBI team had just taken over the case at that time. So, how can these journalists expect them to take a decision as major as arresting Rhea just less than a day after they started working on it? This isn’t a case of a driver jumping a signal in which an instant challan is issued.

When the media behaves this way, you can well imagine the state of the mind of the keyboard warriors; the ‘die hard’ fans of Sushant who feel they are fighting for the truth by typing out orders on social media for the CBI to arrest Rhea Chakraborty or anyone else in the case.

I have seen countless posts where people have just assumed that the CBI will perform instant miracles now that they have taken over the case. I can understand primary school kids having such expectations. But these are educated grown-ups working at senior levels who are impatiently expecting results in the case.

Sushant Singh Rajput and Rhea Chakraborty

All such expectations aren’t surprising though when a large contingent of social media users can start believing that disliking trailers of films starring ‘insiders’ can give justice to Sushant [about which I have written HERE]. These people were literally dancing in joy when the CBI was given the nod to take over the case.

And they were given massive encouragement to go wild by a ‘news anchor’ who considers himself to be the only judge in the nation who matters. He and his panel on the debate literally clapped with wide smiles when the SC allowed the CBI to be involved in the case. Have we forgotten that the very foundation of the case is a tragic death of a talented artiste?

It is also funny to see this anchor put pressure to get the CBI involved and then applaud the same when he has already solved the case on his channel and concluded the suicide to be a murder, much before the CBI got involved. In fact, he refers to the case as ‘Sushant Singh Rajput murder’ after a series of sting operations his team carried out.

Also read: ‘Anti-nepotism’ brigade has created a TOXIC atmosphere online

Right now nobody would like to be in the shoes of the CBI team which is assigned the case. I hope the super excited media and the social media let them work in peace without pressure. I don’t have much hope though going by the crazy expectations from them.

In case, the results of the CBI investigation don’t bring the same results that the media and social media are expecting, it won’t be long before the CBI too is targeted from the studios and the keyboards.

What will they demand then? A CBI inquiry on the CBI itself?

(Additional reading)

An open letter to Arvind Kejriwal

Fact check: Was Deepika Padukone was paid Rs 5 crore to attend JNU protests

‘Anti-nepotism’ brigade has created a TOXIC atmosphere online

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The debate around nepotism in Hindi film industry has been going on since last few years, ever since Kangana Ranaut accused Karan Johar on his show for favoring star kids.

The incident triggered never-ending debates on social media on whether star kids are plain lucky to get an easy entry into the film world and more chances than someone who isn’t from a film background.

Despite the controversial nature of the subject, the star kids debate was still under control. But Sushant Singh Rajput’s sad demise a couple of months ago has made things go completely out of control. In fact, that’s a mild way of putting it.

Sushant didn’t come from a film family. In today’s times, he is known as an ‘outsider,’ who made it big in the Hindi film world, where there’s cut-throat competition. Slowly after his death, theories started cropping up that he was depressed because a number of big producers from the industry had boycotted him. Strangely, there is no such proof of this except those What’s App forwards and unverified ‘news’ reports.

This thought has become so deep-rooted in the minds of a large number of people that they have started hating any artiste who comes from a film family. Negative comments are being posted against them almost every second, just because someone from their family had made it big in the industry.

This didn’t start immediately after Sushant passed away. It has gradually increased since last one month and has now reached an unimaginable level. These trollers are making it look as if it is a crime to be born in a film family.

So now films are categorized as those starring ‘nepo kids’ and those with a cast which doesn’t come from a film family. Leave alone general public, I can see such divisions even made by few journalists, who are expected to be neutral and unbiased.

And if you don’t like a film starring an ‘outsider,’ you get judged for being a supporter of the ‘nepo gang’ and an enemy of self-made actors. For example, recently a reviewer didn’t like Khuda Haafiz and the person was judged for the same, not just by Twitterati but also the film’s lead actor Vidyut Jammwal.

It looks like it has also become a crime to judge a film objectively instead of being heavily biased by taking into account whether it has any star kids.

Also read: You might be triggering DEPRESSION in someone without even knowing it

The dangerous levels to which this anti-nepotism feeling has reached became clearer last week when the trailer of Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak 2 released. This anti-nepotism gang pounced on that trailer like a hungry wild animal pounces on its prey. In just few days, the trailer has got over 60,000 likes and 1 crore 10 lakh [or 11 million] dislikes!

Sadak 2 trailer with 11 million dislikes

But there’s more. Sadak 2 has a Google rating of just 1.1 after as many as close to 20,000 votes.

You don’t even need to be a regular internet user to know this is a powerful campaign against the film because it has the likes of Alia Bhatt, Pooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt, who are now addressed as ‘nepo kids.’

Average rating of 1.1 for Sadak 2 on Google

Although the trailer hasn’t been lauded by large section of the audience, having so many dislikes and low rating is not normal by any means. Race 3 (2018) and Joker (2012), two of the most hated trailers in recent years, didn’t receive an iota of such negative ratings.

Also read: Fact check: Was Deepika Padukone paid Rs 5 crore to attend JNU protests?

This is clearly a planned strategy which has spread like wildfire. I hate to say this but this is exactly how political trolls and their IT cells operate. They target a film and start spreading negativity through dislikes, down votes and toxic personal attacks on people related to the film.

Believe me, your ‘dislikes’ isn’t going to give justice to Sushant Singh Rajput but I guess common sense is not very common, especially when the minds are brainwashed so deeply. Also their rude comments and intolerance for a different opinion instantly remind me of these political trolls.

Then there are people like KRK who are making full use of the controversy to gain popularity by trending topics like #JusticeForSSR and #CBIInquiryForSSR. He is the same person who used to personally attack Sushant in his ‘movie reviews.’ On more than one occasion, he also went onto say that Sushant is just a TV actor, he shouldn’t consider himself a film actor.

Just like these political trolls this anti-nepo gang too believes in the false notion that they are warriors fighting against injustice. But instead they are making things go chaotic and toxic online.

And the world is watching us.

(Additional reading)

An open letter to Arvind Kejriwal

Why people in their 30s should stop believing they are 70

Dhoni could have scored more 100s but…

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India and the cricketing world is overwhelmed with emotions right now as former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced retirement from international cricket. And why not? He was not only one of the greatest players to have played for India but also one of the finest in the world.

Dhoni achieved such greatness also because of him being a terrific captain of team India. As we all know, he is the only captain to have won the 20-over World Cup, 50-over World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy, along with various other series victories.

But the one quality in Dhoni which we rarely find in other captains is his selfless attitude as far as one-day internationals are concerned. He considered the team above his personal interests in ways we hardly see in other players and that deserves tremendous applause.

Let’s go back to the period when Dhoni was relatively new in the Indian team in 2005. It was in one of his earliest series itself that he made his announcement through a powerful 148 against Pakistan in Vishakhapatnam. In the same year, he smashed 183 not out against Sri Lanka in Jaipur, which remains his highest score.

In both the innings, he batted at number 3. There were times when he opened the innings or batted in the top four and had scores of anywhere between 70 to 90 under his name. In other words, Dhoni had made a name for himself as a quality top-order batsman.

Soon after winning the 2007 T20 World Cup, his first stint as a captain, he was also made the captain of the ODI side. Being the captain, nothing could have stopped him from continuing to bat in the top four and score many more runs for himself.

However, after being made the captain of the ODI side, Dhoni realized that the team has enough batsmen to bat in the top four or five. Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag were fixed openers and there was Gautam Gambhir too who had to be played in the top three. Plus, there were the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

So, Dhoni humbly accepted his role as the number seven batsman. You don’t need to be an expert in cricket to know that someone batting at 5-down doesn’t get too many opportunities to score centuries. He could have scored many more hundreds but he chose to keep team India ahead of his personal interests without even mentioning this anywhere.

Records also tell us that that Dhoni has scored just one century each while batting at number 6 and 7. The second one came against Pakistan in 2012 only because the top order collapsed at 29 for 5, so he got ample overs to bat. [You can check HERE]

Although Dhoni never made a show of his selflessness, there’s one symbolic moment where it was for everyone to see. He was the winning captain of the 2011 World Cup Final against Sri Lanka. Plus, it was his innings of 91 not out that helped India lift the cup. The 6 he hit to see India home is one of the iconic moments in India’s sports history.

Also see: Only time Tendulkar was NOT selected in team India, neither injured nor rested

However, as soon as the World Cup was presented to him, he gave it away to his team-members to enjoy. He is nowhere near the trophy in the below picture of the team celebrating the 2011 WC victory. He chose to stand in a corner and cheer.

When Kaluwitharana scored 0 in 70-run partnership

Fact check: Was Deepika Padukone paid Rs 5 crore to attend JNU protests?

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Deepika Padukone visited the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) in January to show support to the students’ protest for atrocities committed against them in the campus. Now, ex RAW (Research and Intelligence Wing) officer NK Sood has alleged in a video shared few days ago that she was paid Rs 5 crore from a Pakistani businessman to attend the protests.

As soon as the video was out, a large contingent of Indians on social media started hateful messages against Padukone, labelling her as traitor or anti-Indian. They believed the claim made in the video to be 100 percent truth. Why? Simply because it goes with their ideology. We all know on which political side they are and which party and its leaders they worship.

Because of their ideology, they didn’t pay heed to the fact that the person in the video has NOT shown even an iota of evidence against Padukone. If there is some allegation against someone they hate, which in this case is Padukone, it is considered to be the truest thing in the universe.

Well, if they can believe any random What’s App forwarded message sent by unknown people, it is not surprising for them to believe a video shared by an ex-RAW officer.

Deepika Padukone at JNU protests in January

I have nothing against Sood. He has served the country by being an important part of RAW and he should be respected for his work. But that certainly doesn’t mean he is above proof. Nobody is, irrespective of whether or not you have served the country in any way.

This might sound childish but it needs to be spelt out to a lot of people out there that an allegation made in front of a camera without presenting any proof or document whatsoever isn’t enough to be called true. Law or legal procedure is equal for all.

Also read: An open letter to Arvind Kejriwal

This doesn’t mean I am giving any clean-chit to Padukone. If it can be proved that she indeed took money from someone to attend the protest, there should be action initiated against her.

Funnily, those who are blindly believing the allegations made in the video are the same ones who defend their favourite political leaders when they are accused of committing any crime by stating that there is no evidence.

For them, law is as per their convenience.

Watch the video: