While he may be vilified for being the right-hand man of the dictatorial Nazi regime, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had been correct on one thing. He had once said, “Speak a small lie and repeat it to the extent that people will start perceiving it as the truth.” The same applies to our Indian media, which is continuously peddling the propaganda against the recently approved Citizenship Amendment Act.
However, in a meeting at the Hyatt hotel in Mumbai, organized on Sunday, many Bollywood personalities attended the meeting, refusing to bow down to the diktats of the so-called ‘custodians of secularism’. To quote Mumbai BJP president Hitesh Jain, who attended the meeting as well “As a part of outreach program, we’re reaching out to all the segments of the society to explain the history and rationale of CAA and answer any questions people may have. This was a closed-door meeting. We’ve also reached out through various associations from the entertainment sector.”
Irked by the fact that the entire Bollywood did not boycott the meeting, the leftist media tried to downplay this entire meeting as if it was a massive failure, and nobody attended it. Hindustan Times gave the title that only a few actors turned up, while the Mid Day clearly mentioned the list of people who gave this meeting a miss, as shown below –
To be honest, the mainstream media, dominated by leftists, has started bullying anyone and everyone who is even remotely supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act. Most of the Bollywood artistes with a leftist approach, like Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, Swara Bhasker, Anubhav Sinha, Ali Fazal etc. are up in arms against the government and are leaving no stone unturned in order to make sure that the entire Bollywood looks like they’re completely against CAA.
However, to their dismay, over 70 personalities from various facets of Bollywood attended the meeting, which included prominent faces like adman Prahlad Kakkad, producers like Ramesh Taurani, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Ritesh Sidhwani and Bhushan Kumar, directors like Kunal Kohli, Anil Sharma, Luv Ranjan, Abhishek Kapoor apart from other artistes like Ranveer Shorey, Shaan, Urvashi Rautela, Prasoon Joshi, Neeraj Shridhar, Vaishali Samant, Suresh Wadkar, Rahul Rawail etc.
Interestingly, none of the attendees were dissatisfied with the proceedings of the meeting as well. To quote Ranveer Shorey, who was one of the few personalities in Bollywood to openly speak out in support of the CAA, “CAA on its own is a humanitarian act. Many of my friends were worried about CAA & NRC in conjunction. However, there’s no NRC right now & we shouldn’t panic for nothing. Moreover, there is no ‘religion’ section in the NRC.”
"CAA on its own is a humanitarian act. Many of my friends were worried about CAA & NRC in conjunction. However, there's no NRC right now & we shouldn't panic for nothing!" says Bollywood actor @RanvirShorey#ArtistsSupportCAA #IndiaSupportsCAA pic.twitter.com/Iy9PBGpZ4E
— Know The Nation (@knowthenation) January 6, 2020
Singer Shaan also welcomed the approach of the government, as he said, “It would be a difficult task for an individual to prove persecution. Therefore, it was important to draft an assumption (religious persecution) to be able to make a law/rule for CAA. At the end of the day humanity first!”
"It would be a difficult task for an individual to prove persecution. Therefore, it was important to draft an assumption (religious persecution) to be able to make a law/rule for CAA. At the end of the day humanity first!" says @singer_shaan#ArtistsSupportCAA #IndiaSupportsCAA pic.twitter.com/YmVBbEsN4W
— Know The Nation (@knowthenation) January 6, 2020
Even socialite Pritam Singh, otherwise known for his stints in the reality shows Bigg Boss addressed the elephant in the room as he mentioned, “Minister Piyush Goyal elaborated on what CAA is and why it is being implemented. He explained that there is nothing to fear from the act. Most of the people from the industry don’t even know what the act is and are causing confusion.”
"The recent attack on #NankanaSahibGurdwara was a real eye-opener for the Sikh community. It only corroborates & exposes the atrocities on minorities in Pakistan," says actor @iampritampyaare#ArtistsSupportCAA #IndiaSupportsCAA pic.twitter.com/cSMQ9Kcmkt
— Know The Nation (@knowthenation) January 6, 2020
Interestingly, there were some A-listers as well who were invited to the meeting, but they couldn’t attend the meeting due to different reasons, among whom were personalities like Rajkummar Rao, Kangana Ranaut, Javed Jaffery, Sonu Sood and others. According to various media sources, Rajkummar Rao couldn’t make it as he was out of the in the country till the 15th of January. Imtiaz Ali’s message to the organizers read as “I am very far away in Antarctica. But great that this is happening :)”.
Though Ajay Devgn wasn’t able to attend the meeting either, he had already declared his intentions in terms of CAA as he denounced the violence in the protests and mentioned the need to be sensible on such sensitive issues. As such, people from all genres of Bollywood were invited. It is another matter that some of them deliberately gave the event a miss since their sole purpose was to protest against the current government, even if they ended up making a complete fool out of themselves.
Now coming to those who are against the CAA, It seems that their stand is based on absolute white lies, and they still live in denial mode, refusing to accept that they might be wrong as well. As media circulated lies that people like Anubhav Sinha, Swara Bhasker were not at all invited, as mentioned in news reports of media portals like Mid Day, Vipul Shah called out the bluff, saying that he personally extended the invitation to Anubhav and Swara.
Moreover, it is also time that we call the spade the spade. Most of those who attended the anti CAA protests and left no stone unturned in inciting violence across the nation, are not even in the crème de la crème of Bollywood to be precise. If we bar exceptions like Taapsee Pannu, Vishal Bharadwaj, even Anurag Kashyap for once, there is practically nobody who has even made people notice with their performance. People like Anubhav Sinha and Mallika Dua have been in the news mostly for their visceral hatred against PM Narendra Modi or BJP, while actors like Ali Fazal, Satyajeet Dubey, Swara Bhasker, have either been limited to playing the second fiddle, or at the best, be the lead actor in a relatively flop film.
Such people are protesting against the act not because they’re genuinely concerned about the well being of the nation, but because they sport blind hatred for Narendra Modi, and won’t hesitate in backing even the terrorists, just to make sure that the incumbent PM is out of power. These people aren’t interested in prudent discussions and are only concerned with fear-mongering. However, the fact remains that even they were invited but chose not to attend.
Anurag Kashyap, who otherwise minces no words in bashing PM Modi and mentioning the need for women empowerment, chose to deliberately ignore the plight of a woman employee who had confided in him that she was being sexually harassed by his Phantom Films partner Vikas Bahl. Kashyap had omitted to take any action against Bahl and eventually the victim had to quit the company.
Swara Bhaskar is another name who can be seen protesting with half baked knowledge. Recently she ranted about how she is under threat because of NRC. To quote her, “Of course I’m scared. I don’t have a birth certificate, passport or any legal documents. What will happen when the act gets implemented?” Swara, however, did not mention as to how she held a degree in Master in Sociology from a centrally deemed university like JNU if she did not have the requisite documents.
Most of the citizens saw right through these tactics of purposefully lying to create a fear psychosis. While genuine misunderstandings related to the Citizenship Amendment Act are valid, Swara Bhaskar is lying about the very facts that determine her existence and using that to gain popularity or protest is completely unacceptable.
The Government in its part has done their best to dispel the fear-mongering and misconceptions which have been fueled by the opposition and elements who have ulterior motives so that the citizens aren’t affected. However, irrelevant people like Anurag Kashyap, Swara Bhasker etc. can continue to protest for all they want and when they are embarrassed for their lack of information on the subject, they have no one to blame for it but themselves.
