Jaya Bachchan has once again come out of her hibernation to stir the cauldron of controversy. The Samajwadi Party MP has a trademark style of disappearing from the public eye for long periods, keeping a low profile but then suddenly coming out in the open, preferably in the upper house of the parliament, and making some passionate speech. On Tuesday, in the Rajya Sabha, Jaya made illogical and ill-timed remarks on the entire Sushant Singh Rajput-KanganaRanaut-Rhea Chakraborty and the drug culture saga of Bollywood, in turn making a dent on the already dwindling popularity of Amitabh Bachchan.
While speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Bachchan had urged the government to provide protection and put a ban on the unending bashing being faced by the Bollywood members. “Some of the people who have got name and fame have said it is ‘gutter’,” she had said, adding they should not defame the industry.
“It is the film industry that gave name and fame to many people. There is a continuous process to defame the industry for the things done by a handful,” said Bachchan. Notably, Kangana had recently called the film industry a “gutter”.
Just because there are some people, you can't tarnish the image of the entire industry. I am ashamed that yesterday one of our members in Lok Sabha, who is from the film industry, spoke against it. It is a shame: Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan in Rajya Sabha https://t.co/cSvxi5dioc
— ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2020
On Monday, the first day of the monsoon session of the Parliament, Ravi Kishan had said that drugs abuse and trafficking are ruining the lives of young people. He had said that actors are considered role models for some and if they are indulging in narcotics, it would be a bad influence. He said that drugs are trafficked in India from China and Pakistan through Punjab and Nepal.
Looks like Jaya didn’t like Ravi Kishan and Kangana’s comments and therefore came out with a rant, that is a little difficult to justify, courtesy the glaring fallacies in her arguments.
While Jaya is no stranger to controversy, it is sad to see her going out on a limb to defend an industry that has become a safe haven for consuming psychedelic narcotic products. And when called out for it, Jaya resorts to giving false equivalences.
Just because an industry has given a break to Kangana or for that matter any actor/actress, it doesn’t mean Bollywood as a whole, absolves itself from the Bollywood mafia and the drug culture that has been festering it for so long.
Jaya Bachchan, the senior actor, who many might consider a gatekeeper of the Bollywood has a history of selective outrage.
In 2014, when the SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had made baffling statements after the Shakti Mill gangrape case in Mumbai, Jaya Bachchan had observed a stoic silence.
The veteran Samajwadi Party leader had said: “Ladkon se aisi galtiyan hojaati hain to iska ye matlab nahin ki phaansi de di jaye (Boys do make such mistakes but that does not mean that they should be sent to the gallows).” Mulayam had then opined that death penalty for rape accused was “unfair”,
Back then, Jaya Bachchan conveniently decided to sidestep the entire conversation by not muttering a single syllable against her party leader. To date, she hasn’t condemned him and still believes that if she takes the moral high ground, people will take her seriously.
Kangana Ranaut on Wednesday aggressively hit back at Jaya Bachchan for her “jisthaali me khatehain, usi me ched karte hain” remark
“One thali was given in which a role for two minutes, item numbers and a romantic scene, that too after sleeping with the hero,” claimed Ranaut.
She added: “I taught feminism to this industry. I decorated the thali with patriotic and women-centric movies. This is my thali, not yours Jaya ji,” added the National Award-winning actress.
कौन सी थाली दी है जया जी और उनकी इंडस्ट्री ने? एक थाली मिली थी जिसमें दो मिनट के रोल आइटम नम्बर्ज़ और एक रोमांटिक सीन मिलता था वो भी हेरो के साथ सोने के बाद,मैंने इस इंडस्ट्री को फ़ेमिनिज़म सीखाया,थाली देश भक्ति नारीप्रधान फ़िल्मों से सजाई,यह मेरी अपनी थाली है जया जी आपकी नहीं। https://t.co/lPo9X4hRZX
— Kangana Ranaut (Modi Ka Parivar) (@KanganaTeam) September 16, 2020
The Bachchans and especially Amitabh Bachchan have been extremely stoic in their responses on the society. Well managed by his PR team, Amitabh more often than not has chosen to keep silent on even the most burning of issues.
And that’s entirely fine, the country is doing just fine without his opinions but as a public figure with considerable sway over the masses, his political correctness has more often than not brought a question mark on his credibility.
If the Bollywood culture is toxic and is being rightly called out by the industry-insiders so that it can be put on a course-correction mode, then that doesn’t mean that Kangana or Ravi is ungrateful. They are one’s trying to make the industry a better place for the newcomers, unlike Jaya who believes in making superficial statements and keeping mum when asked to talk about Mulayam’s statements.
Her hara-kiri remarks have brought a lot of flak to Amitabh who has been caught in the crossfire and it would be fair to say that brand Amitabh has taken a nosedive here. Jaya’s hara-kiri statements and Amitabh’s ascetic silence could spell doom for the Bachchan clan.
