Bollywood is not known for its intelligence but a significant chunk is regularly adamant to display the lack of it, especially on social media, more so when they try to make political points.
Farhan Akhtar, the son of lyricist and leftist Javed Akhtar, today deemed it fit to dispense some important political advice to the people of Bhopal. He told them who they should not vote for. Displaying the Bollywood special brainwaves, he stated that the people of Bhopal should save their city from another “full of gas” tragedy.
How and why exactly Farhan Akhtar reached to the conclusion that a crass pun on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy that killed thousands and has been responsible for countless birth defects in children of the city for generations would be funny for the people who have lived through it, is something we may never understand, but then, the expectations from the Bollywood brand of politics was never very high, to begin with.
There was another problem in Akhtar’s tweet asking Bhopal not to vote for Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. They already have. As in, Bhopal has already voted in the 6th phase of elections, back on 12th May.
Twitter was quick to point it out to him.
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1129958089023676416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/chintan20/status/1129951736834199552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Suhas_AN/status/1129956546060808192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Akhtar family is politically vocal, however, the volume does not always translate into sense. Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi have been campaigning for Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai, like path-breaking actress Swara Bhaskar. Congress’ Bhopal candidate Digvijay Singh has also been praising Kanhaiya Kumar a lot.
Twitter users also pointed out the sheer insensitivity behind the tweet where Akhtar tried to use one of the worst industrial disasters in the world as a cheap pun.
https://twitter.com/TheMinioness/status/1129956591485181953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Some people also tried to point it out that trying indirectly to help a Congress candidate while bringing out the topic of Bhopal Gas Tragedy may not be the sign of a very bright brain.
Akhtar, and for that matter, many of his Bollywood counterparts try a lot to make political points. However, the ignorance and on the top of it the sheer insensitivity of his tweet only proves that for the likes of him, it is all about the agenda they want to peddle, it is never about the electoral process or democracy. Even a devastating industrial disaster that made countless innocent people suffer is just the topic for a cheap pun for them.