I was not surprised to get the news of B grade actress Payal Rohatgi being jailed for an ‘Objectionable’ post on the Nehru-Gandhi family. This is not the first time that she has made any such controversial remarks. After failing to make it big in modeling and her film career, she opted to be a social media samurai. Well, Twitter gave her the fame. Rohatgi shared fake news and fringe theories multiple times from her Twitter account. She was blocked from Twitter for a week for ‘communalising’ the 2019 Hyderabad gang rape. The Twitter handle of the Mumbai police blocked Rohatgi in 2019 but they rectified their action when she resented it and informed the ex-Chief Minister’s wife, Amruta Fadnavis who voiced support for her.
During the 2018 Kerala floods, Rohatgi had claimed that it was a wrath of God due to cow slaughter. Her remarks were called as an “insensitive” after which she was trolled on Twitter due to her remarks. In July 2019, she also commented on inequality in Islam on Instagram over Zaira Wasim’s decision to leave Bollywood. Police complaint against her was lodged at Oshiwara police station in August 2019 over her remarks. The lady also attacked the 19th century Indian social reformer, Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a “traitor” and lackey of the British and accused him of defaming the tradition of Sati. She also glorified in the tradition of Sati in which a woman burnt herself alive after the death of her husband. Hindol Sengupta and Sanjeev Sanyal presented balanced views of the events over her. Museum Secretary of Raja Ram Mohan Roy Memorial Museum said that Rohatgi seems to know nothing about him. In June 2019, Rohatgi claimed that Maratha ruler Shivaji was born in a Shudra varna and later moved up in the caste hierarchy. NCP leader Jitendra Awhad filed a complaint against her in Mumbai and demanded arrest over her remarks. She issued a video apology over Twitter.
Rohatgi claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India was not a legitimate child of Motilal Nehru but was born out of an illicit relationship of Kamala Nehru with another man in the Facebook video in October 2019. She also alleged that Motilal Nehru had five wives. Youth Congress leader lodged a police complaint against her for insulting the Nehru family. Later, she offered a public apology to Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. On 15th December, she was detained by the Jaipur Police due to her remarks on the Nehru-Gandhi family. Rohatgi has been booked under relevant Sections of the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including that which deals with insulting with intent to provoke a breach of peace. A small-time Bollywood flop actress is sent to judicial custody – till December 24 – by a local court in Rajasthan on Monday morning. The Bundi District Court had earlier rejected Rohatgi’s bail plea; her lawyer is planning an appeal against that rejection. On Sunday, Rohatgi was picked up from her residence in Ahmedabad in Gujarat – by a Rajasthan Police team.
In response, Dinesh Parekh, appearing for the complainant.- the Congress’s Charmesh Sharma reminded the Court that Rohatgi had posted scurrilous content about members of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Payal Rohatgi has said she made the video – the allegedly objectionable content in question – when a discussion on ‘triple talaq’ was happening in Parliament (in the Monsoon session) and she felt that the Congress was not supporting the bill. A case had earlier been registered by Rajasthan Youth Congress General Secretary Charmesh Sharma. In his complaint Sharma alleged the content tarnished the image of the country and spread vulgarity and religious hatred besides disgracing a woman’s character. The content was posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on September 6 and again on September 21. Earlier this month, Rohatgi alleged on Twitter that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was being pressured by the Gandhi family into acting against her. She claimed that she had a “recording” of people referring to the pressure and sought an apology from interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
There are many like Rohatgi on social media who claim to be nationalists but forget the fact that they violate all the boundaries of decency. I personally think she does all this thing to stay in limelight. Considering what she has done in Bollywood and Big Boss. She is doing it all for publicity and to stay in the limelight. She has not done anything credible in her career. Rather, she is a D grade actress who exposed her body, did nude scenes and tried to get into the limelight. It is not just Payal Rohatgi or Koena Mitra, Akshay Kumar who is a present superstar paying the maximum income tax, Raveena Tandon who was among the most sought after Bollywood actresses before her marriage, actor Anupam Kher, singer Sonu Nigam and a lot of others who raise their voice against the appeasement in Bollywood. If you talk about people who are not from Bollywood, the highest scorer in two world cup finals – Gautam Gambhir, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, who have passed out from the number one university of the world – Harvard University also voices his concern against appeasement. These are few of the prominent personalities. They are/were by no means failures in their respective fields. People everywhere, in every industry, of all age groups, gender, social status are fed up with the one way secularism that has been going on in India for decades. Hindu Nationalism, under the banner of Hindutva, meaning, “Hinduness”, was adopted into the BJP ideology in 1989, courtesy of course by their affiliate RSS.
In its essence, it calls for India to be ruled in Hindu manner as opposed to the current secular rule of law. It makes the central assentation that India is a Hindu nation and that all other religious minorities essentially exist in India by the good-will and laws of the Hindu majority. No doubt, nationalism is a feeling that makes one proud of his/her country even if the country has some shortcomings. The concept is widely abused and misinterpreted across the globe. Many people use the term ‘Nationalism’ to define a feeling associated with a bunch of fanatic extremists who would support their nation no matter what. By definition, Nationalism for these nations means support of these parties/rulers as due to their style these rulers/parties are equivalent to the respective country as far as framing rules and policies are concerned. So any criticism of the ruler/party is deemed as a criticism of the country on a whole. The biggest irony however is that both Islam and Communism are against the concept of ‘Nationhood’.
People like Payal Rohatgi are not much successful in their respective careers. So, finding a place in politics can be their prerogative and we all have witnessed in the past, more you create controversy against the Nehru Gandhi, more are you are liked by the BJP. Maybe this arrest can fetch some fortune for Payal in active politics.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
