For Bollywood stars, anti-Padmaavat protest was terrorism, but burning buses during anti-CAA riots is dissent

For Indian ‘liberals’ democracy is a fluid concept. What is terrorism in one situation is dissent in others. Remember when Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat was released? Buses were burnt, children in those school buses were terrorised by a mob who thought a fictionalised portrayal of their queen was an insult, which was far from the truth because the film actually glorified the Rajput women, so much that Bollywood starlets felt these women weren’t ‘feminist’ enough.

2 rupees Bollywood people were out condemning the violence, and rightly so.

https://twitter.com/FarOutAkhtar/status/956347197628403713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/VishalDadlani/status/956596322529828864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/VishalDadlani/status/956193324460687361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/deespeak/status/956545489209507845?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/deespeak/status/956223787036418048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/Actor_Siddharth/status/956178149414338560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Yep. From all quarters.

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/957194205280874496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/ReallySwara/status/956215295273816065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
See Delhi Chief Minister taking a dig at Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar? Well, Delhi has seen buses being set on fire by the unruly mob but not a peep. Well, one of his own MLAs was part of a crowd that ran riots in Jamia Nagar in Delhi last weekend.

On 17th December, when rioters attacked a school bus in Delhi’s Seelampur, Kejriwal tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/1206896604088684544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Did I tell you his party members and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was actually busy spreading the rumour that Delhi Policemen were actually setting a bus on fire instead of dousing it?

https://twitter.com/msisodia/status/1206211852675342337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The rumour spread far and wide. This was vehemently denied by Delhi Police and even bystanders and witnesses who saw it happen said that the police was actually dousing the fire. But why let facts get in way of propaganda?

Read: ‘Left’ will never call out their own. Principles be damned. Women be damned. Feminism be damned

Speaking of Aam Aadmi Party, Vishal Dadlani, a very vocal AAP supporter, had actually gone on to say that the brutal Hyderabad gang-rape and murder followed by the encounter of culprits as they tried to escape police custody was to ‘distract’ people from passing of the CAB. He still thinks it is a ‘distraction’ from the economy and other issues.

https://twitter.com/VishalDadlani/status/1207372539355267072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/VishalDadlani/status/1206444775110430720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
See how these ‘rioters’ (because clearly, the ones who set the buses ablaze are nothing short of hooligans) are revolutionaries?

And nothing like a couplet that invites people to take to streets to top it off.

https://twitter.com/VishalDadlani/status/1206449845755506688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Just because he worked in a film which spoke about revolution, doesn’t mean real life is fiction.

https://twitter.com/Actor_Siddharth/status/1207397375838318594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Not a word on the violence that has been unleashed by the rioters. He was angry against those rioting against Padmaavat even though the “Supreme Court deemed fit to release”. But a law passed as per constitutional process in both the houses of Parliament calls for violence.

Read: The protests, condemnation, silence and support is all driven by one need : ‘Roti’

Shabana Azmi, who was expressing anger at those who wanted to harm Deepika Padukone, the actor who played the lead role in Padmaavat, is busy reciting ‘shyries’ on the violence and expressing regrets she can’t be physically present there.

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/1207580665778192384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Oh and her step-son and entertainer Farhan Akhtar shared factually incorrect information on CAA and NRC while maintaining complete silence on the rioters attacking school bus in Delhi.

https://twitter.com/FarOutAkhtar/status/1207143874138910720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And less said about 2Rs actor Swara Bhasker, the better.

With the anti-CAA protests turning violent, none of the Bollywood stars who have in the past compared violence to terrorism condemned the Muslim mobs running a rampage. In fact, they have contributed not just in spreading misinformation but also justified the violence.

The hypocrisy of these Bollywoodiyas is nauseating. Their ignorance is shocking and their unwillingness to educate themselves and use their position of influence to actually educate the masses is even more saddening.

Amit Kelkar: a Pune based IT professional with keen interest in politics