A handful of Bollywood talents, including Twinkle Khanna, Swara Bhasker and Richa Chadha, strongly condemned the “eerie” accident involving Unnao rape survivor, who openly accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of rape.
But the stony, studious silence maintained by heavyweights, including the Khans and the Kapoors is equally defeaning in a case that has rattled India.
On Monday (July 29), the rape survivor and her family met with a near-fatal road accident on a highway in Uttarpradesh when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck.
While the rape survivor, who was 17 when she was allegedly raped, managed to escape with critical injuries, her two aunts died, while her lawyer is also seriously injured.
Case registered
Amidst calls of conspiracy to silence the survivor, an FIR was registered against the rape accused Sengar, his brother Manoj Sengar along with eight others at the Gurjubuxganj police station in Rae Bareli.
“I pray this poor girl gets the justice she deserves. This is horrific and clearly with the truck’s blackened number plate seems far from a co-incidence,” posted Khanna.
Richa Chaddha was more vocal as she lamented at the state of rising violence against women in India and compared the grim developments in Unnao case to a movie.
“And surely these are all coincidences...? straight out of a 90s film... A scary and crap one. Proves again, not only is there no rule of law in UP, if you want to experience kalyug, make a trip. It’s where kids die for lack of oxygen and rape victims are crushed under trucks,” posted Chaddha. She even urged everyone not to remain silent.
“This is too eerie to be a coincidence... If you defend this, you’re complicit in looking the other way,” added Chaddha. She even posted a picture of the accused BJP politician to openly name and shame the alleged perpetrator.
Swara Bhasker, who was last seen in Veere Di Wedding, expressed her outrage in a succinct manner.
“What the actual [expletive] !!!?!!!!!!,” exclaimed Bhasker.
Bollywood’s provocative director Anurag Kashyap made his support to the Unnao rape survivor, who’s reportedly on a ventilator fighting for her life now, clear by re-posting the outraged tweets on his timeline and chronicling the developments in his life.
Ironically, the big names from Bollywood including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan or Karan Johar haven’t participated in the outrage, a point that has not escaped Sanjay Jha, National Spokesperson of Indian National Congress, the opposition party.
“Dear Bollywood, it’s a shame that several of you popular stars (whom many look up to) have maintained a studios, incandescent silence on #Kathua #Unnao rapes. Seriously, are you guys so scared of Narendra Mody & co? Or maybe you are plain indifferent,” said Jha, along with the hashtag Speak Up.
As per the latest developments, a CBI team – who’s on call to investigate the rape case – visited the hospital to meet the family members, who have constantly claimed that they were being threatened by the rape accused and there’s a conspiracy to eliminate them.
