November 21, 2024

Deepika At JNU: Taking On The BJP Cannot Be A Publicity Stunt

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-01-08 22:29:09

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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Deepika Padukone's new movie, Chhapaak, releases this Friday. Hence, it is very easy to think that her visit to the JNU was a publicity stunt. But given the divisive times we live in and the fact that the ruling dispensation has displayed a vengeful nature for lesser faults, harassing political opponents, businessmen, artists and others for holding a view contrary to theirs, one thinks that it must have taken a lot of courage and conviction for her to be there in support of the battered students. Ultimately, it was an act of faith for Deepika. She did what she thought was right and did not worry about the consequences. She deserves respect and huge applause for daring to walk the talk despite knowing that she can be targeted for her act.

She was targeted immediately on social media by the army of trolls that always targets famous people who show even a small deviation from the BJP ideology. But for once, the trolls got such a hiding from other netizens that they were forced to beat a retreat. Some BJP leaders even called for a boycott of her film. This was a patent admission by them that the BJP or the ABVP was involved in the attack. For why the BJP should be worried if Deepika supports the students if the party or its student's wing was not involved in the attack? But sanity prevailed later when senior leader Prakash Javadekar doused the fires and said that any citizen was free to support any cause in "a mature democracy" like India. Social media was full of praise for the actor for being socially aware and taking an interest in an issue that was raising temperatures across the nation. Most of her colleagues in the film industry also hailed her courage and conviction.