By Surendra Bhatia
Salman Khan always wins a lot of positive press when he steps out into the streets outside his house to dance and accompany Lord Ganesha to His sea abode. His father, Salim Khan, has raised a truly secular (a highly inadequate and often toxic word in present times!), or better put, a truly cosmopolitan family, representative of the India all dream of. Salman, as also his siblings and their relatives by marriage, celebrate feasts of all religions, and Ganesh Utsav is only one of them. Yet, Ganesh Utsav is special because it is Maharashtra’s biggest festival and the one that often brings the state to a standstill.
This year too, Salim Khan and his family brought the idol out for immersion after keeping it at home for one-and-a-half days. As usual, Salman too stepped to dance along with friends and family members, and the video of this went viral, as it always does at this time of the year. Then he did something that is quite normal but for certain segments of hypocritical bigots, it provided an opportunity to try and create a stink. What did Salman do, after all? He took a cigarette break. TV cameras, cell phone cameras and eyes of bystanders don’t miss much. Suddenly, Salman’s lighting of a cigarette during Lord Ganesh’s celebratory procession became the new video viral, all else being shunted to the side. And scores of tweets started circulating, condemning Salman for smoking during the procession as if it is the weirdest thing ever.
Really? People don’t smoke or drink in temples but in processions taking Ganeshji for immersion, is it unusual for people to step aside, smoke surreptitiously, take a swig of beer or whisky on the sly and get back to dancing with the non-smokers and teetotallers? Not highly recommended or appreciated but such cigarette breaks and sips of alcohol are common enough in processions… okay, stepping aside to have a cup of tea, too, is common. What really is the big deal? Smokers smoke, drinkers drink, and it’s not known that Hindu Gods expressly frown upon such acts… if anyone has concrete proof, please forward.
India is such a liberal society where Hindus and Muslims and Christians and all others — Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians et al — participate and celebrate each other’s festivals. So, to pick on an innocent lighting of a cigarette — such a non-issue! — to create a fake controversy is pathetic.
It is only because everyone in the country has acquired a new eye that can take photographs and shoot videos and put them out for mass consumption that Salman and other celebrities are constantly thrust into controversies. Perhaps, the celebrities ought to be a bit more careful in public, because it is impossible to ask the public to be more respectful of an individual’s privacy. The eye may not lie but it can surely strip the context away. Very, very sadly.
