After the televised tamasha over actor Rhea Chakraborty, we are now witnessing a rising hysteria over other film personalities who are alleged to have led debauched, drug-fuelled lifestyles that the morality-keepers of the nation look down on.
Internet chat messages, which anyone can write and tamper with, are being used to claim that they used soft drugs. It doesn’t matter that marijuana is available at street corners all over India and consumed publically during religious festivals.
If sadhus can consume hash at will, are we being hypocritical in making a moral example of Bollywood actors, particularly young women? Are they easy targets for an intensely patriarchal culture, where what’s good for the gander is not quite so for the goose? Is the government cynically using sold-out corporate media to detract attention from an economy and public health situation that is…