A tiny lamp versus the tempest
By K.N. Pandita
If Kangana Ranaut’s critical statement hurt anybody or any institution, the right thing to do was to make her judicially answerable on refusing to apologize. In no case, it warranted taking the law into one’s hand. This country has to be ruled by the law of the land and not the jungle law.
Kangana’s critics are deliberately touching upon only the peripheral issues of little or no importance while keeping clear of the core issue. They know by raking up the core issue the iceberg will rise like a huge amphibious monster.
And what is the core issue? Since long, people are heard talking of fantastic things about the illusory fairyland of Bollywood. But the gossips seldom go out of drawing rooms because of existential threat accompanying disclosures. The chitchat is about drug mafia, hawala mafia, Bollywood mafia, police mafia, politicians’ mafia and the government mafia. So it is mafias all around and intertwined in the financial capital of India.
All the hell broke out when Kangana publicly spoke about Bollywood – the school of mafias. She has been targeted mercilessly by those who know that she is an insider and cannot be contradicted. If she were a plebeian, nobody would care a tuppence. What does that mean? It means that the insider is not only well informed but has been a witness to the antics of the underworld. The atrocious events that unfolded recently like the demolishing of her office, hurling abuses at her (in absentia) in the Assembly, filing FIRS against her and unleashing a defamation tirade against her in the baptized media all show that those who are guiding the acts of vandalism have a reason to motivate them for their acts of perfidy. Kangana is vindicated.
The news has trickled down that Rhea Chakraborty, under investigation by the NCB has disclosed to the authorities the names of at least 15 reputed Bollywood bosses and performers who are connected directly or indirectly with drug trafficking. We are informed that the NCB is locked in consultations with highest authorities in the country to seek directions on crucial issues because what trickles down is that many important politicians, ministers and government or police functionaries and others are involved in drug scandals. No name has been mentioned.
Kangana said only a fraction of what Rhea is said to have disclosed. It is so because the latter seems to be an actor on the sage. As the NCB will proceed in grabbing the violators of law one presumes they will also ask Kangana to clarify her statement on drug trafficking in the premier entertainment industry of India. Kangana’s first crime is that she spoke out what she knew. She dared to speak out and only people with firm knowledge can speak the truth. Her consolation is the proverbial axiom satyameva jayati.
If we can rise above prejudice and look at this episode from the prism of the duties and responsibilities of an honest Indian citizen, we all will hang our heads in shame for not having picked up courage at any moment to speak out the truth and help pull out a historic institution from the cesspool of infamy and shame into which it has lately sunk, thanks to politicians and rulers with no agenda other than that of self-aggrandizement. Kangana did the pioneering work for the Indian culture.
Narcotics apart, other aberrations and misdoings are also rumoured about the mafia den such as hawala transactions, sex scandals and promiscuity galore. Bizarre stories of some den gangsters misusing their clout with unscrupulous politicians and men in authority, establishing extra-territorial linkage, covertly influencing democratic institutions and viciously harbouring anti-national opportunists on a large scale, and what is worst anti-national insinuations. The Bollywood fraternity knows that the vast youth population of this country is their admirer. As such they have to be the role model for them. It is precisely this aspect that sticks out its neck when we dispassionately analyse the statement of Kangana. As such this courageous daughter of India has rendered immensely valuable service to the nation in general and the Indian youth in particular.
These social vices and aberrational activities are not of recent origin, no, these have a long history. Anybody desirous of knowing more about it should go to the history of the Don, his criminal activities in connivance with Maharashtrian conduits, formal or informal, and his final escape to Pakistan wherefrom he operates with no less subversive thrusts. As long as he receives support from local contacts in the city of Bollywood, our variegated mafias will have a field day.
Incidentally, Kangana’s drawing comparison of her pulled down the house with what PoK and Pak vandals did with the Kashmiri Pandits has unduly sparked resentment of a small ignominious section of the Pandit community. Some of their Solomons have pontificated that Pandits should avoid jumping into the fray. I will not comment on that. I salute late Balasahib Thackeray the great benefactor of our community but I am deeply in pain to see his followers bringing shame to his name and to the name of Shivaji Maharaj by indulging in vandalism and disrespecting a brilliant and bold daughter of the nation.
I have always struggled to make the Pandit community overcome two negative traits in their character (a) self-aggrandizement and (b) abject cowardice when it comes to telling the truth. The lamp that Kangana has lit will not be put out by the tempest raised by self-seeking multitudes. How long will Indian nation go on delaying the demolition of the edifice of evil bent upon destroying our civilization and life?