It’s finally over, or is it? Will the vultures let go now?
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a closure report in the Sushant Singh Rajput case before a special court in Mumbai. It says there’s no evidence of any foul play in the actor’s death. Sushant was found hanging in his flat in Bandra on June 14, 2020 amid the Covid-19 lockdown. It soon turned into a media circus with conspiracy theories being churned out on an hourly basis.
For many months, the body of the young, promising actor became a source of national entertainment. Many television anchors and social media players assumed the role of Sherlock Holmes in the long-drawn whodunit drama. Those not in the role of a detective jumped in to derive mileage for self-publicity. There were those who claimed closeness to the actor to float dubious information for the media to feed on. Political players, of course, had to join in to partake in the feast. The media content consumers had plenty to munch on happily in the boring lockdown days.
Yes, nearly everyone benefitted from the country’s biggest entertainment show of that time. Television channels got TRPs to attract advertisement money; actress Kangana Ranaut gained publicity points by rekindling the nepotism debate in the film industry and targeting industry biggies; the opposition found an issue to corner the then Shiv Sena government led by Uddhav Thackeray; in Bihar, politics heated up over the matter; and people irrelevant to the case enjoyed their minutes of fame.
Vultures, we mentioned earlier. Few had real interest in the investigation, fewer any interest in the tragic loss of a bright actor. There were real victims – the family members of Sushant, who were sought to be manipulated by the media, and the genuine well-wishers of the actor who wanted a proper probe into the matter. But they were overshadowed in the tamasha that unfolded at breathless pace.
And yes, there was Rhea Chakraborty, friend of Sushant and the supposed villain. She was an evil incarnate – the person who swindled his money, who pushed him into drugs, who dumped him to turn the actor into a psychological wreck and what not. The media had to invent the culprit to keep the good story going. She fit the bill because she appeared to be a strong person and woman to boot. It always has to be a woman to ruin a man, isn’t it? It sits so well with entrenched misogyny in our society. Soon her demonisation was the sole agenda. If that squared well with justice for Sushant was inconsequential.
‘Punish her’, ‘hang her’, ‘burn her’ – if these calls reminded you of witch hunters in the faraway countryside, it was hardly any different here. The only big difference – the witch hunters were supposedly educated people. The instant justice crowd was furiously at work. Rhea spent 27 days behind bars for what turned out to be nothing. She endured the media trial and her fledgling career as an actor took a hit. A person less strong would have succumbed to pressure. She didn’t.
Now, is it finally over with the CBI’s closure report? It should be. The vultures have finished their task and unto other targets. Would there be an apology from the mainstream media organisations and the social media ‘activists’ for tarnishing a woman’s image? Can she sue them for all the mental agony she endured? We know in India apologies are uncommon. The media can get away with anything. Dragging them to court for defamation is rare too.
But the Sushant Singh Rajput matter should be an eye-opener. Anyone can be a victim of false narratives and justice cannot be dictated from television studios. There has to be a redressal mechanism.
(By arrangement with Perspective Bytes)
