With the ongoing uproar on Twitter about Salman Khan’s ‘raped woman’ comment, his stony silence on the issue, and his father’s apology on his behalf, it seems as though those coming out in support of Khan have nothing to offer except he is ‘Bhai’.
His comment, which was an answer to a question about his training and hard work for his upcoming film, ‘Sultan’, went like this:
I’d have to lift the same 120-kilo guy 10 times for 10 different angles. And likewise, get thrown that many times on the ground. This act is not repeated that many times in the real fights in the ring. When I used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman. I couldn’t walk straight. I would eat and then, head right back to training. That couldn’t stop.
What hits hard is the mindless support that fans are showing Bhai. The defence is that he retracted his statement immediately after he said it. Really? Tanmay Bhat could have retracted his Lata-Tendulkar war video too and that wouldn’t have stopped anyone from backlashing. So why, now, when the offence is much graver?
The only reason Khan would have wanted to retract the statement would be to avoid the very uproar he is facing right now. Not because he realised it was insensitive to say he felt like a ‘raped woman’. How do you know what a raped woman feels like, Salman Khan?
Rega Jha’s Open Letter Is A Must Read
In an open letter, Buzzfeed India’s editor-in-chief, Rega Jha, rightly addresses the ‘intelligent Salman Khan Fan’. She points out all the things that are wrong in supporting Salman Khan right now.
And it’s not just about women, Intelligent Salman Khan Fan. When you support Salman Khan, you’re supporting a nationwide culture of placing influence and money above the just course of the law.
You’re defending the kind of cowardice which prompts a man with power to not only deny his crimes, but to then throw several other people – drivers, law enforcers, civilians – under the figurative bus to save his own VIP skin.
Salman Khan has always been a misogynist. His charity work would have been a topic for another day, had he stopped doing the things he does when started with this goodwill work. That would have reflected the kind of ‘redemption’ his fans talk about. Doing charity on the side doesn’t mean that you can get away with abusive behaviour, murder, and misogynistic comments.
The Problem Is Not Salman Khan, Its You: The Fans
Here are some tweets by Bhai fans that will lend weight to the notion that it is really his fans who prop him up and allow this behaviour.
Why Is Bollywood Silent?
At this point, apart from coming out in his support, what can Bollywood even say? Khan’s yearly Eid-release blockbusters cater to many Bollywood careers as does his production house. Can Bollywood really afford to have a bad name with Salman Khan? No, they definitely cannot ‘afford’ it.
Either way, Salman’s silence on this matter is astounding. Does he hope that people will forget about this soon, as they forget about everything else?
As they’ve forgotten that he got away with murder?
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