The above heading is from the
movie National Treasure:
“Ben: A hundred and eighty years
of searching, and I'm three feet away. Of all the ideas that became the United
States, there's a line here that's at the heart of all the others:
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future Security." People don't talk that way
anymore.
Riley: Beautiful, huh? No idea
what you just said.
Ben: It means, if
there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the
responsibility to take action. I'm gonna steal it.”
The above quote is with reference
to the article “Silence of
the superstars: Why our Sachins & Rajinis are useless as rebels” by
Manu Joseph (The Times of India , February 12, 2017).
The writer states “Celebrities
are often too close to power to take the side of ordinary folks. It is as
though good life holds them hostages in a paradise”.
It is very much true that
celebrities want always from everyone and does not want to offend anyone in
power.
Here I beg to differ about
Rajnikant since in 1996 elections he famously said "If Jayalalithaa is voted
back to power, even God cannot save Tamil Nadu."
I think the author missed that part
of Rajnikant contribution in politics. But I completely agree about Sachin
Tendulakar and Rahul Dravid:
“Rahul Dravid, who is still
celebrated by the suave middle class for appearing educated and conscientious,
in short for being one of them, has never challenged his corrupt bosses who ran
Indian cricket. He has not done that even after retirement. Sachin Tendulkar
never spoke ill of the cricket board or even about betting and other issues
that might embarrass the board. In my only interview with Tendulkar, he
threatened to end the session if I persisted with questions on the nexus
between cricket officials and betting.”
It is shocking that Tendulkar
played many Test and One Day matches with Azharuddin, Ajay Jadega (both Azhar and Jadeja were implicated then) but Sachin never ever spoke about betting. He shared dressing
room with Azharuddin for more than 350 days approx. (considering around 47 test
matches and around 160 one days Tendulkar and Azhar have played together).
Another classic case is the
Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. Chennai Super Kings was banned
for 2 years for Spot Fixing but the captain of the team M S Dhoni , S Raina , R
Ashwin maintained stoic silence.
Remember Gurunath Meiyappan, I think MS Dhoni
might not remember him now at least officially.
This reminds of the famous
statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
“Bathroom mein raincoat pehen kar ke nahana,
yeh kala to Doctor Saab hi jaante
hain aur koi nahin jaanta hai”
I think above statement applies
to Cricketers, Actors (for black money and casting couch).
Further, at one point writer
strayed, which I disagree with him:
"As Aamir Khan learned in 2015
when he spoke his mind about the feeling of `intolerance' that was prevalent among the
minorities at the time."
I think this statement endorses
that Intolerance was there at time which is incorrect. Instead it could have
been written as intolerance that was perceived by select elite members of the
society.
Compliments to Manu Joseph for taking a subject and naming Sachin and Rahul in an article ( even though we know that Sachin, Rahul and Rajnikant are no more stars what they were a decade back).
Note: Irrespective of stoic silence by Sachin and Rahul, respect for their game will never diminish.
Reference:
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