Bachchan or Swara, Someone Has to Speak for Women and Cab Drivers

When questioned about the Kathua and Unnao rape cases, Bachchan said he feels disgusted to even talk about them.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui
Camera Person: Abhishek Ranjan Chaudhary

“Why does this Swara Bhasker woman have to take a stand against everything, from the movie Padmaavat to the Kathua rape case?
Why can’t she just keep shush?”

Swara, Don't Talk, Let The Elders Do it

I think there may be some merit in this line of thought. Coming from a small North Indian town, where young girls were expected to shut up in front of elder men, and women could only have opinions on how karara parathas should be, I too would like to advise Swara: Please don’t get involved in these complicated matters, and let badey, samajhdaar log of the industry do the talking.

Uh Oh, an ‘Elder’ and a Powerful Company Take The Patli Gali

Oopsie. But when questioned about the two rape cases that shocked the entire nation, Amitabh Bachchan, arguably the most powerful star of the Indian film industry, and the ambassador of the ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign said he feels disgusted to even talk about them.

Wow, and that’s how a baritone goes mum.

Well, in that case, I will have to take back my words.

Swara, please continue raising your voice, because when the elders refuse to do so, the youngsters will have to take over.

Because when Amazon, one of the world’s most powerful companies can get bullied by a few desi trolls threatening to boycott the platform for featuring Bhasker in an endorsement, we can certainly forgive Mr Bachchan for his ‘safe’ stance.

Apparently, the company deleted a tweet featuring Bhasker’s endorsement after trolls reacted fiercely to the actor naming the Hindu temple where an eight-year-old was raped in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua.

Just a word of caution to Amazon, though: We only hope you don’t base your future decisions on what the trolls say. Otherwise very soon, you will have to move your India headquarters.

Cab Bigotry Why Why?

In other news, a man by the name of Abhishek Mishra recently went on Twitter to say that he will not board any cab from now on if the driver is Muslim.

Mishra went on to claim that he did this for Hindu drivers, who too have to encounter similar prejudices. Well, we only have one thing to say to this dude: Do you even know the ratio of minorities and the majority community in our country? If the ‘minorities’ started doing this to Hindu drivers, they would never make it to office on time!

Abhishek Mishra cancelled an Ola cab ride because the driver was Muslim, and boasted about it online.(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Also, isn’t it strange that Mr. Mishra, who is followed by the Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman - people who are supposedly there to uphold constitutional values - can post divisive shit all the time without any consequences. And lesser mortals like us can get into trouble with the HR for merely saying, ‘What the F**k’ in anger!

Luckily, bigoted guys like Abhishek Mishra don’t represent all of India. There are many of us who see bigotry for what it is. In fact, I would go so far to say that we as Indians are pretty tolerant people. I mean, if we can tolerate our joint families, we can tolerate anyone!

(The Quint is now on WhatsApp. To receive handpicked stories on topics you care about, subscribe to our WhatsApp services. Just go to TheQuint.com/WhatsApp and hit Send.)