Actress-turned-environmentalist Juhi Chawla, on Monday, hit back at claims that stated she filed a lawsuit against the roll-out of 5G wireless network technology in order to gain publicity.
Chawla posted a 14-minute long video on Instagram where she opened up about how her fight against the installation of cellular towers began. She revealed that she saw 14 cellular towers suddenly crop in at the Sahyadri Guest House right in front of her home. Later, she came across a news article that explained the harmful effects of cellular radiation on human health.
Chawla, who believes that there are harmful effects of radiofrequency radiation (RF), on May 31 filed a lawsuit against the implementation of 5G mobile technology in India. She said that 5G technology exposes people and animals to RF radiation that is 10 to 100 times greater than it exists today.
However, her lawsuit got dismissed by Justice J R Midha, who retired a few months ago. Justice Midha, while passing the judgement last month, had said plaintiffs (Juhi Chawla and the other two) abused the process of law. Justice Midha also imposed a cost of Rs2 million (Dh98,897) on plaintiffs. Also, the court had said it appears that the suit was for publicity.
Reacting to such claims, Chawla said: “Whatever transpired in June left me feeling hurt and confused. On one hand, I received some bad press and publicity, on the other, I received heartwarming messages from unknown people telling me they were genuinely and completely in support.”
She added, “One such message was from a group of farmers in Maharashtra which brought tears to my eyes, they wished to carry out a voluntary drive to collect a small sum of money from each of their 10,000 farmer community to help me pay the hefty penalty, I had been fined with. Moments like these made me grateful that no matter what, I had lent a voice to the health concerns of many, many simple people of my country. When the storm died down, and I could see more clearly, I became calm and strong because I realised what an important, timely, relevant and impacting question I had raised. Had it not been so, would the world have erupted the way it did?”
She further said, “All this while I remained silent because I believe silence has its own deafening sound, but now I’d like to bring forth some very important and shocking details of happenings, in my 11-year journey of discovering EMF radiation, its health effects and the glaring ignorance of certain authorities in this regard.”
Alongside the clip, Chawla asked her followers to decide if it was a publicity stunt or not.
