Was Hema Malini Dreaming amidst nightmare in Mathura. Seems so. The clash between policemen and the illegal squatters of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi in Mathura has become a nightmare, with the city SP and an SHO killed by the armed followers. In retaliation, many of the group were killed by the police and several policemen are still missing. (As per news reports:- 24 people, including Mathura’s Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi and Station House Officer Santosh Yadav, have been killed in the massive clash between police and encroachers that broke out yesterday, forcing Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to order an inquiry.
The violence erupted when police tried to evict illegal occupants, believed to be from an outfit called Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, from Jawahar Bagh on the directions of the Allahabad High Court ) The killers of the policemen allegedly enjoyed the state govt patronage. Its always been evident that politicians give patronage to criminals/terrorists to further own motives, but these criminals/terrorists in turn become threat for the entire country as a whole and hence the politicians come into damage control mode and then blatantly send security forces to fight them and get killed/maimed in the process . And then emerge as saviours. (Khalistan movement is the biggest example in recent times in India).
But what is perhaps as serious is that the MP from Mathura, renowned actress Hema Malini was no where to be seen taking stock of the situation. Whats worse is that Hema Malini was away more than 2000 km away in Mumbai for shooting on picturesque locales and even tweeting the pics. For her, the joy of the moment was how easy it has become to reach Madh island nowadays.
However, within moments, Hema Malini’s indifference to the Mathura clashes, which had been the headline since late on Thursday night, was noted on Twitter, the BJP leader quickly deleted the tweets and instead posted, “I just came bk frm Mathura & got the news of the violence tht has taken place there in which policemen have lost their lives.”
“So so upset by ths news frm a place which is so dear to me, Will go there again if my presence is required. My heart goes out to the bereaved,” she said in another tweet.
But then Hema Malini Ji, deleting anything does not take away culpability in today’s world of connectivity where anything you post online. It draws flak from everyone and it should as it is richly deserved.
#HemaMalini, rapped over tweets, to reach Mathura at ‘earliest’.https://t.co/GEGqhqyc04@dreamgirlhema pic.twitter.com/KBi4pEuGRF
— Bollywood Bubble (@bollybubble) June 4, 2016
With #Mathura on boil, BJP MP #HemaMalini posts shooting pics on Twitter, deletes them quicklyhttps://t.co/OhrRuuXZUN
— India TV (@indiatvnews) June 3, 2016
The damage was done, BJP is now facing another PR mudfest in defending her. Here’s to another waste in news space.
This is not the first time Hema Malini is under fire as an MP. Last year, her Mercedes collided with another car on a highway in Dausa, killing a family. Though it was established that it was no fault of hers, her attitude during the whole episode was a lot left to be desired. And speaking of her family, her husband Dharmendra’s record as MP from Bikaner was abysmal as well.
We can make a case against fielding film personalities for public office. That argument is very strong, but we have to examine the exceptions of actors who reached bigger heights in public office than they had in films. Ronald Reagan is the most prominent name, even though his record as a president is very dubious. In India, NT Ramarao, MGR, Jayalalitha, , MK Karunanidhi etc are prominent examples. Some like Chiranjeevi and Govinda have been an outright joke.
Bollywood actors are not connected to the audience masses the way Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam actors are, who are in the forefront on all political opinions discourses or during relief/rescue efforts in natural calamities. Therefore they champion the causes of the masses effectively and the people can see themselves in them, be it NT Rama Rao’s Andhra pride or Vijayashanti’s support to Telangana creation. Anyone who is not from these states often ridicules the crazy following the film stars enjoy there but there is a reason for that. South Indian actors are one with their audiences, Bollywood ones just want to wave them from their high rises.
Bollywood actors on the other hand don’t even air their opinions on the things that matter, all they do is put up the appearance of being socially aware when their new release is due. This farce has been exposed so many times but it continues. Their love for the country is seen from the fact that they refuse to condemn any act of terrorism originating in Pakistan so that it doesn’t hit their film’s business there. As for their political views, the lesser said the better.
We have one superstar saying that clear majority for any political party is bad for the country, or bimbettes who rinse their sorry selves in jaccuzzi lecturing about saving water in Holi, finding killing dogs cruel but killing cattle normal, backing left leaning feminism at the drop of a hat and so on. They have zero connect with the country or the problems with it, and they are proud to proclaim that.
Most of them, when fielded by political parties, are nothing but forced ‘leaders’. Mrs Malini is one of them. She’s been lucky enough to ride the Modi wave, after all people were so angry with the Congress that they would have voted for effigies. And effigies are what ‘leaders’ like her are.:-.mute, invisible, just kept there to fill in the numbers, while they do nothing more than enjoy their perks and make an occasional appearance in the parliament (Govinda had to be literally reminded that he should attend once every 66 days otherwise his seat will be vacant) and are used as crowd pullers in poll campaigns and roadshows.They are too insulated from the problems facing the country and society to give it a thought and do something about it.
And most of the times, not doing anything is what they excel at. If we think that by replacing the usual suspects with these celluloid icons we will improve things, or that they will feel compassion for their allotted constituencies or that they will be able to act when needed and that they will value us just because we have idolized them on screen, we are the biggest idiots there can be. And we really have been making a joke of ourselves for too long.
People who love money too much or who love fame too much need to be kept away from politics, but in reality its only these two who are flooding the positions. Until that changes, enjoy the dreamgirl’s tweets while her constituency goes through nightmare.