let’s hail the celebrities who dare to speak out
It is heartening when celebrities go beyond platitudes in the wake of national tragedies and offer concrete contributions to express their grief. Ace cricketer Gautam Gambhir has pledged, through his Gautam Gambhir Foundation, to bear the entire educational expenses of children whose parents were martyred in the recent Maoist attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. Gambhir has not shied away from expressing his opinion in the wake of rising anti-nationalism in the Kashmir valley too. In the wake of an Indian security personnel recently slapped and kicked by a local who clearly had more sympathy for militants than for those who were putting to risk their lives to maintain the country's integrity and sovereignty, he tweeted that for every slap on an Indian jawan, 100 jihadis must be killed. Earlier, he had mocked the azaadi brigade, saying they were free to leave the country. Gambhir also donated his Man of the Match prize money to the families of the jawans killed in the Sukma incident. While he is not the only sportsperson to have come out against anti-national elements — those such as Virender Sehwag too have spoken out — the numbers are still sadly few. Some of the iconic names in the sports world — as also in other vocations such as films — have largely maintained silence over the phenomenon of rising militancy in the country and increasingly incidents of insult to our national symbols such as the Tricolour. It appears that these celebrities are more concerned about protecting their ‘neutral image' than using their social status to send out strong messages to the anti-nationals. Gambhir's gesture is in sharp contrast to the callous remark that senior politician — and a former Union Cabinet Minister at that — Farooq Abdullah has made on the unrest in the valley. He claimed that while there has been no hue and cry over the killing of two dozen security personnel in the Maoist attack, the violence in the valley was being projected aggressively. As this was not bad enough, not say inaccurate, since the Sukma Maoist incident did receive wide media coverage and has been the subject of elaborate discussion, Abdullah claimed that the focus on Kashmir was designed to project Muslims in a negative light. If he cannot speak sense, he must keep shut.
There are but a few celebrities who seriously take up a cause of both national and social importance. The silent ones include those who have been otherwise vociferous in their condemnation of ‘growing intolerance' in the country. A striking exception is popular actor Nana Patekar, who has silently been working among the lot of distressed farmers of Maharashtra. While the political class is busy scoring points over rivals on the issues of droughts and debts and suicides, he has been helping farmers financially and in other ways too. There are other celebrites too, but they are not enough. Celebrities are adored by the masses and their actions go a long way in restoring the morale of the aggrieved.