Sameera Sood: Bollywood is the new JNU and Deepika Padukone the new opium of distraction / Tavleen Singh: ‘Reporters’ were so drunk with their power to smear that they failed to fulfill their primary role

If one were to look at what is occupying TV news channels and social media, it would seem India’s tanking GDP and rising job losses, and tensions with China in Ladakh are less important than exactly what time actor Deepika Padukone reached Mumbai from Goa after being summoned for questioning by the Narcotics Control Bureau for some hash she allegedly wanted in 2017. For the last three months, Bollywood has been used by government-friendly TV channels as political distraction. 

Bollywood is the new JNU. What was demonised as the Tukde Tukde Gang is now the Nashedi Gang. Bollywood has always been the opium of a large section of Indian masses. Now, its salacious WhatsApp secrets are tumbling out, and the voyeuristic masses are transfixed. Indians have a new public enemy No.1. Just the way Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar were once. The names change, but the chant remains the same – ‘lock them up’....

https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/bollywood-is-the-new-jnu-and-deepika-padukone-the-new-opium-of-distraction/511014/

‘Reporters’ were so drunk with their power to smear Bollywood’s biggest stars that they failed to fulfil their primary role

Did you watch the vultures’ feast on our news channels last week? It made me sick, but no matter which channel I turned to for news, I was forced to watch the feeding frenzy. Forced to watch gangs of so-called reporters reporting from ‘ground zero’ on every move that famous Bollywood stars made after being summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau.

‘I am outside her hotel in Goa. Now I am tracking her on her way to the airport. That is her Mercedes car. This is an exclusive shot.’ Speculation, innuendo and half-truths were used to attack women whose guilt is unproven. These ‘reporters’ did not hide their schadenfreude. And, they made it clear that they believed NCB officials were doing a fine job. They praised them for trying to stop big traffickers from bringing drugs into India. They did not ask why the NCB has so far not been able to catch a single big trafficker in decades...

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/ncb-bollywood-drugs-case-actors-tavleen-singh-6617262/

Shalini Langer: Give me Rhea’s fortitude any day // Tavleen Singh: Rhea and her family have been sacrificed at the altar of lynch mob journalism

Hannah Ellis-Petersen: Actor's death fuels media frenzy in India

Rhea Chakraborty on 'media trial' after Bollywood star's death. By Geeta Pandey

Samjhauta Express blast case verdict: ‘Who will answer for death of my five children?’

Jailed and Harassed Former IGP Darapuri, 76, Shares His Ordeal

Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti launches Fast-unto-Death against JK Relief Department

Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti Fast-unto-Death enters day 7

एक बात हमेशा ज़हन में सवाल खड़े करती है A question that stays with me... / Ravish Kumar's Speech at Berkeley (2019)

Avay Shukla: Acts Of God And Follies Of Man




Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

Satyagraha - An answer to modern nihilism

Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942)

Three Versions of Judas: Jorge Luis Borges

Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime