Bachchan’s Blog and Points to Ponder…
I have been reading Amitabh Bachchan’s blog for the past few weeks. And I must say I am amazed and appalled that an artist of his stature after having contributed enormously to our film industry, after having entertained 4 generations of movie-goers, having been instrumental in putting India in the minds and hearts of scores of non-Indians around the globe should at age 65+ need to continually defend himself on the flimsiest grounds imaginable. The media in general and Raj Thackerey in particular stoop low so low accusing and alleging him at every pretext. Is it because they get to share the limelight he is in? The surest fastest way to get noticed is to target someone that huge and voila! you can be the subject of discussion in a blog like this and everywhere else.
A couple thoughts on this new-found passion for extracting apologies. What he/she said/did has “hurt the sentiments of our community”. How has every group/organization/individual turned so suddenly sentimental about their identity? And how can one person speak for the entire community? Has he/she been given the right to do so? Does Raj Thackerey represent the sentiments of the whole of Maharashtra or just himself and his goons? If speaking Hindi is such an anti-Maharashtra factor, the Bombay Film Industry that produces mainly Hindi films ought to pull out of the state, shouldn’t it? Is it a fallout of the omnipresence of media that everyone is so hell-bent in projecting themselves as superior to the rest? That a little joke (leave alone criticism, what Jaya said seems so sooo harmless) has started hurting people. The day a community forgoes the ability to laugh at itself, it signals collective psychological trouble.
“I am a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan” is the mother of all cliches. But I’d like to live with it. I may not support all that he does but any disagreeable thing he does (from choosing not-so-good roles to hob-nobbing with Bala Saheb) when compared to the depth of his talent and consistency in deliverance, his ability to bounce back from intense lows to dizzying heights, well, there is no comparison really. Anyone else in his place of unimaginable success would have lost his mind, taken things for granted, become arrogant etc etc. But his supreme humility humbles everyone around him. I say this only after I consistently hear the same from his co-workers who swear by it. And it unnerves me pains and angers me that today he has to explain and clarify his stance to people who live with totally debased agendas.
Artists are repeatedly getting targeted. It is a dangerous trend. One that scares me to some extent. His latest blog entry has a list of good deeds he and Jaya have done for the state. It seems like an agni pareeksha. If he has been asked to prove his loyalty, should everyone else? I spoke to a few Marathi folks and none of them agreed with what is going on. Is there anyone who represents them? Will they be heard? I hope this phase is just that – a phase. It must pass to let good sense and moderation prevail.
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27 Responses to “Bachchan’s Blog and Points to Ponder…”
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the recent events are disturbing to say the least. and democracy seems to have gone to the dogs what with anyone who has 500 people on their payroll can go and start tearing posters, passing threats et. all. i do believe bachchan family’s status is what makes them very very vulnerable now that people have them on their target to achieve any kind of mileage.
but this isn’t new. dilip kumar had to some face some really gruesome years (real heart wrenching stories) when any politician would come and ask him to prove he is not a pakistani spy in india.
the problem lies with education according to me. for it is so easy for people in power to brainwash their following… in the first place how can such people even have a following?
tragic events.
I felt bad for Jaya and AB…geez now come on…Just because the people in Assam are getting killed because they speak Hindi, doesnt give you a right to sabotage and shit/piss on anybody…i have no idea, what the law has to do with this? But, cant someone complain against him? what is the law procedure to deal with people..sorry maniacs like Raj?
Very sad…but salute to this man…for his patience, integrity and humility.
One can only marvel at the foresightedness of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar when he said long ago that division of states on a linguistic basis will be the bane of modern India. So true and so profound.
OM…its not about the law but about the willingness of the lawmakers and its custodians to implement it to the letter. We bask in fake glory when a Manu Sharma or a Sanjeev Nanda is convicted, but what about the thousands of other such cases that lie under the carpet just because the perpetrators or the victims are not celebrities or because the incident is not newsworthy enough?
Not long ago, an arrest warrant was issued against Bal Thackeray and the police were told by the Maharashtra home ministry to tread lightly as his arrest might fuel widespread violence all around Mumbai and Maharashtra and maybe even in other parts of the country. Our own people put these scoundrels on a pedestal above the law and then rue it when it goes against them.
I do understand TN, but, this just cannot happen to the poor man, Mr.Bachchan on a daily basis…he deserves some respect, you better damn give it to him…
How about a public petition signed by all the maharastrians living in Maharashtra, alleging that they have no problem to it?
A similar incident happened with Aamir Khan about his comments on the Narmada Dam. Aamir stood his ground, refused to apologize and as a result, his movie, Fanaa, never got released in Gujarat (or maybe in a few theaters with heavy police presence). In my opinion, Aamir showed a lot of perserverance and justified his stand refusing to bow down to fanaticism and intolerance even when it meant huge losses to the movie’s produces and possibly jeopardizing his career as well. In Amitabh/Jaya’s case, by bowing down to these self proclaimed saviors of Maharashtra, they might have encouraged such rowdy rude behaviour instead of putting an end to targeting stars for political mileage. For a celebrity with such a huge fan base across the country and abroad, he certainly would have the support of the industry and majority of the INDIANS. Being humble and apologetic may solve the current situation keeping his producers happy, but the problem may erupt again - maybe with some other celebrity. It’s tragic to see that in a country which is dealing with lack of education, floods and other serious crisis, some politicians are chasing filmstars - whether for their own milage or for a cause.
Honestly speaking, Amitabh Bachan, should be the last person to be targeted for hurting the sentiments of any community. Apart from his acting anc charisma, what i admired the most in Amitabh Bachan, was the way he would go all out to respect the cultural sensibilities of any place. So in Andhra Pradesh, he would laud NTR and Chiranjeevi, in Tamil Nadu it would be Rajnikanth, in Karnataka it would be Dr.Rajkumar. And no these were not publicity stunts, these were genuine appreciation. One reason why AB is adored by many in the movie industry, is because of the way he appreciates the good work done by them. And unlike most of the Bollywood stars, for whom India begins and ends with Mumbai( or Delhi), Amitabh Bachan is a person who has a great knowledge of India and its diversity. You would never see Mr.Bachan, making cheap jokes about some one on basis of religion, caste or community.
Regarding Raj Thackeray’s tirade about AB caring more for UP, then what would Raj say about the various Marathi NRI’s settled in US, who regularly fund various development programs in their home state. Should they not be caring more for their adopted homeland ie the US? It is sad that a person who has gone out of his way to respect cultural diversity is now being accused of hurting the sentiments of a community.
Mohandas Pai of Infosys has said that due to the migration of North Indian workers abck to their homeland, Infosys project coming up in the state of Maharashtra has been delayed. This has forced them to shift 300 “seats” to their Chennai centre.
Which arguably means that 300 maharashtrians have lost a job opportunity due to MMS hooliganism. And more importantly, other IT firms are yet to come out with figures, but surely projects are getting delayed. Who ought to apologise to the people of Maharshtra? Is it AB or Raj?
@Anand, can you point us to the link on the web about Mohandas Pai’s statement. I find it difficult to believe that Infosys would issue such a statement… it’s a very charged statement.
Oz:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080064926&ch=9/11/2008%2011:12:00%20AM
Apart from Bachchans Blog
I don’t feel sad about Jaya,.
It was completely unnecessary from her side to utter such nonsense,
‘Hum UP wale hai’ and all
She is from Bengal; not UP
I feel sad about Abhishek and Amithabh
@Anand, you misread the article particularly the quote from Infosys. He never mentions anything anti himself.
While parties like MNS and the Kannada Rakshana Vedike, are no better than a bunch of jobless losers and goons, they would not be so openly articulating their agenda, if there was not support for them.
I dont have much idea about MNS, but KRV has considerable support among Kannadigas, never mind the fact that its no better than a goon squad. Take a peek into Orkut’s Bengalooru Community, and you will find many of the members openly supporting KRV, and asking outsiders to leave Bangalore. And they are not the standard jobless semi educated person, on the contrary, many of them are well educated and working professionals.
And that makes me doubt, whether our education has really taught us anything. Tp date bias on basis of regional, caste and religion is strong, if anything else, it has grown much stronger in recent times. If you speak out against the bias, you are branded a sissy, a coward, a traitor to your own community. And this malaise is uniformly spread across all communities and regions in India, not one region is blameless. Some show it openly like in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and in some cases it keeps simmering in the background.
Raj Thackeray or the KRV leaders are not fools, whatever their faults may be. They know that there is a considerable amount of support for them, and thats why they brazenly articulate their dada giri. It reminds meof the famous snake and frog story in the Panchatantra. The frog, in order to get even with his rivals, invites a snake into the well. The snake gets rid of his rivals, and after finding it has nothing else to do, know begins to eat up the frog’s relatives, friends and even his own family members. Today like frogs we are encouraging snakes like MNS and KRV for our own short term gains, but surely a day when these snakes raised by us,will turn upon us.
@OZ
Even the NDTV news showed Pai’s statement in the same light, clearly saying that Infosys is suffering because of MNS’s attack on North Indians. Then they showed this interview piece with the man himself where he says “north Indian laborers are going back home and hence our new centre at Pune was not completed on time.” (That sounds ridiculous, for a company committed to timely-delivery of software!)
In any case, it at least gives media a chance to have some brand-backed attack on MNS.
Though I think Jaya could have been more satirical than she did (that was a plain stupid comment), Raj Thakarey needs to get a sense of humor, and Big B needs to come out of that ‘hum toh aam aadmi hain’ presumption and stop apologizing like a common man.
@Varun, hopefully things have cooled down now that the apology has been accepted. How easy has it become to ruin the economy of a state! I mean we don’t need terrorists anymore to blow up shit to cripple our economy. the economy is being ruined from public platforms. hopefully normalcy now returns soon. the question is for how long?
And it is true. I have booked a flat in Pune, which was to be ready by Dec 2008 … now, it has been delayed till December (at the earliest) because a large section of the contract workers are north indians and they fled. What was worse, even after the issue died down, the builders found it very tough to bring them back because they had already found gainful employment in other states
Amitabh has apologized and Raj has accepted on behalf of Maharashtrians. But is this the end of the issue? And I am simply not talking about the MNS issue here..we allow hooligans to mistreat our artistes and sports heroes. A cricket match is lost and hooligans throw stones at cricketers’ homes. It is happening because as a society, we have become self centered. We do not have the time and inclination to stop, stand up against what is morally and ethically wrong.
One more culprit is the media, especially the 24/7 News channels, which give undue publicity to the likes of MNS and KRV, and make them out to be some kinda heroes.
It was the media which made Raj Thackeray a hero, sensationalizing his every quote, and every action, building up a hero like image for him. Raj being a smart operator, played along and manipulated the media perfectly to his advantage.
Mr Bachchan’s apology on his blog is truly heart wrenching. If this can happen to a man of his stature, how safe can we feel? The law and order in this country has gone to the dogs.
The man should be booked for disrupting unity and integrity of the nation - and should be branded a traitor, no less. Its b’coz of people like him that the terrorists/insurgents look upon Mumbai as a soft target; makes one wonder- do they have a nexus? I mean - “I’ll keep them fighting and shouting over trifles, till you pick the moment to strike!” Deserves to be flogged in public!! What’s happening to us? The country is, like, swarming with such goons; they are everywhere: in assam, wb, karnataka, j&k…everyone has suddenly been made conscious of their ‘identities’ - the REGIONAL sort, that is…no one gives a shit about being part of an entity called India! Are we going the USSR way - end up being split into bits and pieces? We’ll ‘wait and watch’!
Having lived in Bombay for the first 22 years of my life I can say that the Shiv Sena and its offshoots havent progressed beyond their strategy of ruling the city thru sheer terror, while stoking Maharashtrian sentiments … I recall my school principal (a Jesuit priest) slapped in public by some local Sena shaka head due to him refusing to give school admissions to kids just becaused they happened to be Maharashtrians. The man stood his ground on granting admissions based on merit despite the humiliation he faced.
In AB’s case its obviously more complex. I think its genuine concern on Mr Bacchan’s part, for the common people, to publicly apologize for his wife’s loose remarks. Raj and his cronies would not hesitate to go about rioting and thereby harming poor folks, if the Bacchans refused to relent. Sad indeed! I bet its not easy being the Bacchans when you have such clows trying to do anything they can to you, if it gets them a spot on the news…
@Bugsnest, Your principal’s story is really a sad reminder of how easy it is to hijack democracy. It was brave of him to stand that assault. Salute !
Sad really sad…i am really embarrased to say this..but i know someone from my far away family, who sickfully defends these actions..not of slapping a principal..but, bashing up couples(youngsters) sitting in park…i was too young to say anything at that time..but i would love to face him now..infact i WANT to face him now
On Orkut there is a fan club community for Raj Thackeray and it has a strength of 10,568 members. Even if you disregard many of them as fake profiles or inactive members, you would still be having a core of 100-150 members who are active in that community.
Now i am assuming that the people who use Orkut are well educated or must be working professionals. But the comments in that community, show the hatred they have for non Marathis. I really again wonder what kind of education we are having? Honestly the posts made me wonder which world these guys are living in.
Some standard remarks
1) Jaya should get out of Maharashtra, all outsiders should get out of Maharashtra.
2) Boycott all products endorsed by AB, Abhishek and Aishwarya- As if that will make a difference.
But this is a Gem from that community
“Bachan Family is not even disgrace to Mumbai and Maharashtra but they even disgrace to this nation India. Amitabh Bachan ran away to US and took their citizenship to get over his dues which was on his prevoius co. ABCL.
Bachan Family is disgrace to India”.
To date i dont ever recall AB taking up US citizenship, nor do i even recall his worst critics( of whom there is no dearth) accusing him of running away to the US.
I know of another guy, my friend’s friend actually, he is an IIT-IIM graduate, but his language and tenor, would certainly please Thackeray or Hitler or even the Ku Klux Klan. He hates Muslims, non Kannadigas( he is from Karnataka) and Blacks. And he perfectly believes that what Raj is doing is right, all those dirty bhaiyyas from UP-Bihar need to be kicked out not just from Mumbai but even from Bangalore.
And those who hail from UP-Bihar are no innocent lambs either. There are a considerable number of them, who still believe all South Indians are Madrasis, and make fun of the local language, culture and even the movies. It is this kinda boorish behaviour which is manna like heaven for the MNS and KRV, gives them an opportunity to say, “Look did we not tell you, these Northie bhaiyyas are so bad”.
Anyway i dont want to point fingers at any specific community, because as i had mentioned, this sickness is spread across all communities without any exception. Inspite of our education, our IT prowess and all that, we still love to stick to our age old biases and prejudices and never look beyond our noses.
Also one more worrying tendency i noted of late, is the way migrating communities form Ghettoes among themselves. Migration to cities and other states for better job opportunities has been happening from a long time. But in the earlier days, migrants would totally integrate with the local ethos and culture of the city. They would learn the local language, and participate in the local festivals. But of late the migrants to cities tend to isolate themselves from the localities, creating their own ghettoes, creating their own enclaves.
This has been happening in Bangalore a lot. Bangalore had seen a lot of migrants even before the IT boom, due to the educational, scientific and research institutions there. People from all over India flocked to Bangalore and made it their home. But these migrants totally integrated with the city, many of them learnt Kannada, took part in the local festivals, while also celebrating theirs. And Kannada people also learnt other languages to interact better with outsiders. It was a perfect example of live and let live.
But the latest breed of migrants is different. Many of them dont learn the local language, now Kannadigas have no issue with that. But there are a considerable number of them who make fun of the local language, and who keep poking fun at local traditions or customs or even Kannada movies. Kannadigas are generally tolerant and peace loving, even if you dont learn their language, they try to learn yours and get on with you. But when you take advantage of this tolerance and start to make fun of their languages or way of living, it certainly raises hackles. And this provides perfect cannon fodder for the likes of KRV or MNS.
I dont support KRV or MNS, and will never do in my lifetime. But more sensitivity to the local cultures and traditions, trying to learn the local language, these are things which can go a long way in establishing a trust with the localites. We feel it is pretty hep to say that we know Spanish or French or German, but somehow we feel its quite infra dig to learn Tamil or Kannada or Telugu, though there is a greater probability we would settled down in Hyderabad or Chennai or Bangalore than Paris or Berlin or Madrid. Right now there is a wall of mistrust comming up between localites and migrants, and the day that wall breaks down, the likes of KRV and MNS will go jobless. But to break that wall, there needs to be an effort from both sides.
@Ratnakar, thanks for mentioning the stupid organization like KRV in Karnataka. I still don’t get it how such orgns huge amount of publicity. I’m from Karnataka, which was known for its tolerance for any community or language. I’m sad to see such communities on orkut. Its all the media people who are giving importance to such a******s. But, I do agree with you that many “educated” people supporting such fanatics. I would like to hear opinions of PFCites who’re non-kannadigas but staying in Bangalore/Karnataka…(Tushar…etc..)
~Vivek H
Once upon a time Maharashtra showed the way to rest of India, by igniting the nationalist spirit through leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
This was the state which pioneered social reform in India due to visionaries like Jyotiba Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar and social workers like Anna Hazare.
Some of the finest military officers in the Indian Army hailed from Maharashtra. As did some of the best doctors, engineers, scientists.
What fate has befallen that state, that they now have to put up with goons like Raj Thackeray and hopeless leaders like Vilasrao Deshmukh.