SubscriberWrites: Tackling nepotism in politics is more important than Bollywood

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14th June 2020, when one of the most successful, young, charming heart-throb of Bollywood died under suspicious circumstances, the utmost affection rolled around the country for him and masses were angry. Without having any godfather, he steered up his career quite well in short time. From dance to television to movies, his ladder of success was commendable. Also, he was quite a brilliant mind, who showed the courage to leave his Engineering career for his passion towards art. When such a multi-talented person passes away at so young age, the shock and grief among people is obvious. But unfortunately, that entire anger was misused by many media houses to target Bollywood as a stronghold of Nepotism and the masses were taken away in that direction. Though the accusations of nepotism are being thrown on Bollywood since long time (that may be true), but this was unprecedented.

Somehow, people were able to turn their anger into tribute for Sushant by making his last movie as most watched online premier. However, in long run the bigger question faded away – The Nepotism!

But why we do care about nepotism in Bollywood? Or, I should ask – Do we really care? Despite Sushant being a young, dynamic, outsider, self-made, versatile actor, his last movie became most watched because he died. All movie fans should ask themselves – Do we really have seen ‘Dil Bechara’ if Sushant would not have not died? A big parameter of success of Filmstars today is Box-Office collection. Sushant biggest Box-Office movie has reached 200 crore. But on the other side worst movies of another so-called star who does almost the same movie every year, easily cross 300 crore. Also, that another star is neither a versatile actor, nor he is an outsider. His ancestors were already in the show-business since long time. Then how Box-office collection of Sushant is much lower than that “star”? Obviously, it’s We, The People, who chose to watch other movies than of Sushant. Then why we blame Bollywood for nepotism? Who is actual responsible? Who is actually nurturing the nepotism? Is it Bollywood, or us?

Now we should understand how our daily lives are surrounded by nepotism and we are the core catalyst of it. We prefer our own people to be hired ignoring deserving talent in the company we are working for. We choose to give admission to our relatives’ children, even if other poor and meritorious students are left uneducated.  A person who is running an organisation, handovers his chair to his son, not to any talented employee of his organisation. At the local kirana store, the owner who handles the cash-flow, when goes old, does not give his cash-handling to his years loyal worker, rather he gives the cash-flow and accounts handling to his son only. Conclusion is – Do we really care about nepotism in our lives?

A counter argument of this situation can be – a middle class man is burdened with so many responsibilities that he cannot trust everyone, so he has to choose his family only. True that! This logic can be accepted up to come extent. But then, how the issue of nepotism can be solved in longer run? First, we need to understand that which thing is having how much of impact and accountability towards our lives? Bollywood, or any private entity is an outcome of effort of an individual or small group of people. Those people have made this empire on their own. They have not taken your votes, your taxes, your land and any of your property. So, they may not have any accountability towards you. They can choose anyone (from within or outside their fraternity) for a job. But if you have invested something, then definitely they are responsible for your expectations. For example – A Political party, makes promises for our development, take our votes and trust, makes government, rule on us, take our taxes; is a public entity. Hence, they have huge accountability towards us. We should and we must raise our voices if we see something wrong there, for example nepotism. Their activities directly affect our daily lives. But do we really care about nepotism on politics? We often vote and chant the names of those politicians whose only achievement is being son/daughter of an established political family. Many times, it happens that talented hardworking candidate loses the election but the politician’s son/daughter not. Why so? Who is responsible? WE. Nepotism is inside us.

Also read: Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt lose lakhs of Instagram followers as Sushant fans call out ‘nepotism’

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