It’s been a day of upheaval in the fan circles of Allu Arjun. I, as a person, have never seen any of this actor’s work, however the buzz online of his arrest was unavoidable to say the least. And I had so many questions - Why was an actor of a movie arrested for the death of a cinema-goer? Why was the theatre operator not held accountable? What the hell was this actor’s lawyer doing, because there was no co-relation between the actor on the screen, the popularity of the movie and a stampede in some random cinema hall. But as the day progressed, and the way the events unfolded and the media frenzy that followed it made things clearer to me.
This wasn’t an arrest of intent, because the allegation would never would had stuck. It’s like arresting a cricketer if someone chokes on a potato chip while sitting in front of their TV screen. It was absurd, it was illogical and moreover it was too left field. Unless, all this was theatre. Was it? Was all of this absolutely staged? Were you, once again made a chum by the media machinery? Was this a distraction from something? Did you know the cabinet approved ‘On-nation, One- election’? Did you see how someone who is rich and famous, was arrested, jailed and got bail in under a day? Do you know Umar Khalid is yet to get a hearing from SCI after over 4 years being in jail without a trial? Do you remember Stan Swamy had to move court to get a sipper to drink water? Do you even remember any of the atrocities that we casually keep sweeping under the rug as a society and people, as the TV screens and social media keeps beaming flickering lights into our brains?
Here’s a comparative case for you to understand better. Do you even remember the Hathras Stampede? I’m guessing not. Let me jog your memory - It was the 3rd of July 2024, a person named Sooraj Pal Singh aka Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari; a self-styled godman headed a satsang in Hathras. There was a stampede and around 121 people got crushed by the crowd. The powers that be termed it ‘ruckus’ and hand waved it as a conspiracy created by ‘anti-social elements’. That’s 120 more people than what Allu Arjun was “arrested” for. There was in-fact an FIR filed, but DID NOT name the godman as an accused. The FIR mentioned that the followers of the preacher had thrown slippers and other belongings of the victims in nearby farmlands to destroy evidence. On why Mr. Pal Singh, also known as Bhole Baba, was not named as an accused by the police said, prima facie the case has been filed against those who had applied for permission for the event. There has been no update to if anyone was arrested, no media feeding frenzy happened, no amount of journalists hounded the preacher or the police for justice. No one asked about anything, the circus moved on real quick.
Do you see the similarities? Or for that matter of fact, do you see the discrepancies? Do you see the sheer amount of noise the media created over one death vs 121? Do you think that is because the death of that one unfortunate woman was more important, sinister or valuable, or do you think it was easier to distract you with a shiny celebrity than a self styled godman? Celebrities have, and always will be easy targets. They are in the public eye, they are open books, and they depend on public sentiment to succeed. But so do godmen & godwomen, and politicians, sports stars and nowadays even some PR whorish entrepreneurs. But then why are we so riled up over an Allu Arjun, Salman Khan, Rhea Chatterjee, Shahrukh’s son, Deepika Padukon; but not at all over a hundred Hathras or a thousand Umar Khalid? Are we that vacuous and infantile as a people? Are we that much of a mute on-lookers or have we really developed that much of a selective amnesia as a collective that we now conveniently choose what to outrage on and when to stay silent?
In my opinion, all this Allu Arjun arrest stuff was just planned PR. Now the question is planned by whom? The usual suspects would be the ones who will profit from the rejuvenated profits of a movie by pumping the fanbase with rage and empathy. That is a simple hop, skip and jump from what happened. But there is a something else I think is at play, prepare to put on your tin-foil hat for this section - There are forces at play, dark forces, intelligent forces, think tanks, who’s entire existence is to pull off magic tricks. A slight of hand is being played on us, constantly. Look here, see this, whoa what is that - And by the time you recover, the trick is complete. Your attention is divided on purpose. Your mind is filled with smoke, so that you don’t see the thin ice you are standing on. These forces have reach, they have the controls, they know what you like, they know what will rile you up, they know where you will outrage, and why. And they use everything in their power to make sure your attention is on the things least important. Watch more cricket, every day, when you aren’t, look at this celebrity, if that doesn’t work, someone will say or do something outrageous. By the time you have recovered from that, another celeb puts their foot in their mouth, or gets married, or has a kid, and on and on and on we go. Like toddlers in casket, looking at the shiny merry-go-round, as your inheritance, past, present and future is being looted, pillaged and corrupted. And by the time we will, as a people, recover from this pseudo-hypnotic state, there will be nothing left to save. The dark slime would had infected every important aspect of our lives. There will be no differentiating from the infection to the artefact. What is going on today, has changed India as we knew it. And you are responsible for it.
The views expressed in this article are personal. They do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, or positions of Vygr and Vygr Media Private Limited.
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