Vinayak Padmadeo
Actor Gul Panag is part of a tiny minority of celebs who’ve spoken about social points, together with farmers’ protest, when many from her fraternity have remained silent.
The previous Miss India says she ‘sympathises’ with celebrities who select to remain silent due to the concern of reprisals both from the federal government or their lobbies which have focused celebrities up to now.
“I’ve sympathy (for them) and it’s a private alternative to face in assist of one thing or keep silent. It’s fully a person choice,” Gul informed The Tribune on Sunday.
“Historically, celebrities in India have by no means taken sturdy positions. Within the UK and US, now we have seen many celebrities taking a really public place in opposition to what the federal government of the time was doing… be it the Black Lives Matter, be it Taking the Knee. They took symbolic positions. Why they don’t do it in India is due to the concern of the establishments being weakened or simply the concern of being harassed,” Gul mentioned.
Celebrities, together with cricketing nice Sachin Tendulkar, present Indian cricket crew captain Virat Kohli and a few from the movie fraternity, together with Akshay Kumar and Karan Johar, joined the ‘India in opposition to propaganda’ drive after pop icon Rihanna and local weather activist Greta Thunberg supported the farmers’ protest. The Indian celebrities drew a number of flak for voicing their pro-government stance.
Gul, nonetheless, factors to the truth that the one cause why among the well-known personalities who used to mock the earlier authorities for gasoline rises are mum on the identical problem as we speak as a result of they concern reprisals.
“This can be a authorities that guidelines by concern. The earlier authorities might be mocked at as they weren’t afraid. However clearly this authorities is hypersensitive to mockery and so they rule by concern. So, they’ve instilled concern and successfully taken away your capacity to talk on issues that you just need to converse,” she mentioned. “The style wherein organised lobbies come after celebrities who converse out is the rationale why they don’t converse out. They’ve come after folks like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. And the opposite very vital side is that one thing I learnt from my father (Lt Gen HS Panag). My father has all the time known as a spade a spade. And but, he was capable of rise to the highest. How? As a result of he didn’t have skeletons in his closet. You possibly can’t afford to have skeletons in your closet after which tackle the powers that be,” she mentioned.
— to www.tribuneindia.com
