The likes of filmmaker Karan Johar and actresses Kareena Kapoor Khan and Priyanka Chopra are getting trolled for their silence on police brutality in India while expressing concern on incidents in the US.
Abhay Deol calls out ‘woke’ Indian celebrities for their silence on police brutality at home
Mumbai - 04 Jun 2020 15:07 IST
Our Correspondent
The wanton killing of African American man George Floyd by a white police officer, since dismissed and charged with murder, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. has sparked violent protests throughout the United States.
A number of Hindi film personalities, filmmaker Karan Johar and actresses Kareena Kapoor Khan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas among them, have been quick to join the #BlackLivesMatter trend on social media to condemn the killing.
In return, they have been trolled by Indians for their collective silence on police partisanship and brutality during the Delhi riots in February 2020 and the hardships and deaths of daily-wage workers during the over-two-month countrywide lockdown ordered by prime minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
#BlackOutTuesday pic.twitter.com/foN7I9mYpQ
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) June 2, 2020
Now, actor Abhay Deol has come forward and slammed these celebrities in an emotional message on Instagram. He posted the picture of a page from a notebook on which he wrote ‘#MigrantLivesMatter, #MinorityLivesMatter #PoorLivesMatter’ and shared a note that said, “Maybe it’s time for these now? Now that ‘woke’ Indian celebrities and the middle class stand in solidarity with fighting systemic racism in America, perhaps they’d see how it manifests in their own backyard?”
Deol added that America had sold violence to the world and it was but a matter of time that violence would come back to haunt them but added that he does not mean they deserve it. “I’m saying support them by calling out the systemic problems in your own country, because they turn out to be one and the same thing,” he said. “I’m saying follow their lead but not their actions. Create your own actions, your own movement, relevant to your own country. That is what the Black Lives Matter movement is all about!”
This is not the first time Deol has criticized the double standards of his colleagues in the film industry. In 2017, he had lashed out at the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Yami Gautam and Sonam Kapoor for endorsing fairness creams.
