If minority community says there's intolerance in society, listen to it: Actor Swara Bhasker
Mumbai, Oct 12: Actor Swara Bhasker says it's time mainstream film industries start being responsible in how they represent social issues, including those faced by minorities.
Swara said if a particular community feels that something bad is happening to them, the privileged ones must not dismiss it.
"I think it's time that mainstream Bollywood and other language industries begin to be a little sensitive and responsible in how they represent issues. Issues, that may be aren't personal to us. Just because an experience is not my own doesn't mean it's not legitimate. It's so basic, something so easy to forget," the actor said.
She was speaking at the India Film Project where the poster of her upcoming, "Sheer Qorma", a love story of two Muslim women, was launched.
The film, directed by Faraz Arif Ansari, also stars Divya Dutta and Shabana Azmi.
Swara said same is the case for religious identity, caste identity, sexual identity and even gender identity.
"At so many levels, we all must be privileged in our own ways that just because we haven't had an experience we feel 'no man this doesn't happen or no this much doesn't happen.' If a girl is saying she freezes when a bike passes next to her on a empty street, listen to her. You may not have felt it because you're not a girl.
"If a minority community is saying that there's intolerance in society, then listen to it, you may not have felt it because you're not from minority community. If a Dalit is saying, 'I feel scared that I will be lynched,' listen to him. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it hasn't happened to someone else. Similarly if queer people say, 'We feel discriminated against and we don't belong,' listen to it."
At the session, the actor was asked why are influential voices within the industry reluctant to speak on topical issues.
Swara said public figures "are more vulnerable to a lot of destructive negativity" and if people want celebrities to speak up, a healthy environment must be created first.
"If we want our public figures, people with legacies, to speak out and take responsible sides, then we have to become the society which doesn't punish people doing that."
Swara claimed that she lost out on four brands endorsements and three events the day she campaigned for candidates for Lok Sabha elections.
"I am not saying, 'oh I am so great' but if you're going to make the stakes so high, that a superstar can talk about a dinner conversation and then face so much flak or another superstar can give his opinion and his car can be stoned on a shoot, then how can we expect people with legacies or public profiles to actually risk their lives, families, careers?
"Why should they? We need to ask ourselves questions as a society. Even with 'Sheer Qorma', I am 100 percent sure it is going to create a debate. I am being polite when I say 'debate.'"
The actor said as artistes and people with voices, "we have to take our conviction seriously."
"We have to respect our own conviction. Sometimes we pay a price for it, hopefully not a heavy one, but sometime in life you have to stand up for your conviction. Hopefully we will move to a society where we are not scared to stand up for our convictions and that's the effort of the film as well."
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Health minister Wes Streeting's resignation piles pressure on UK PM Starmer
London (PTI): UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from the Cabinet on Thursday, declaring that he had lost confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
As a frontrunner to replace Starmer at 10 Downing Street, Streeting is expected to launch his bid to be elected Labour leader if he can secure the backing of the party's requisite 81 members of Parliament.
It piles further pressure on Starmer, who has been attempting to quell an internal rebellion over the devastating results for the governing party in last week’s local elections.
“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and that Labour MPs and Labour unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism," Streeting said in his resignation letter addressed to Starmer.
“It needs to be broad, and it needs to be the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope you will facilitate it,” he said.
The former minister accused his boss of lacking any vision and overseeing a power “vacuum” and also went on to highlight his own record of leading the Department for Health and Social Care and state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
Streeting added: “The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values. Thanks to our Labour government, it is on the road to recovery: lots done, but so much more to do.
“These are all good reasons for me to remain in post, but as you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled to do so.”
His words are being interpreted as paving the way for a Labour leadership contest, with former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband among his other expected rivals.
While some indications are that this process may not be triggered any time soon, Starmer's future as Labour leader is looking extremely tenuous if the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) gets involved in a formal election process.
Meanwhile, Rayner issued a statement earlier to confirm that she had been cleared by the UK tax authorities of any wrongdoing over her financial affairs that had forced her to step down from the Cabinet last year.
"I took reasonable care and acted in good faith, based on the expert advice I received, and HMRC [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] has accepted this," she said.
This is seen as her declaring her intention to be ready to join the fray, should a Labour leadership election be launched.
The latest turmoil at the top of the British government comes after a series of junior ministerial resignations, with Starmer staying the course by announcing their replacements. Earlier his ally, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, cautioned her colleagues to refrain from plunging the country into chaos and putting the UK’s economic recovery at risk.
“We shouldn’t put that at risk by plunging the country into chaos at a time when there is conflict in the world, but also at a time when our plan to grow the economy is starting to bear fruit," she said.
However, the deep divisions within the Labour Party ranks are only expected to escalate further in the coming days and weeks.
