Should Aamir Khan run with the torch? Or shouldn’t he?
A lot can be said of Aamir Khan’s rather ingeniously hypocritical blog-post where he basically repeats the done-to-death moral equivalence of Kashmir, Palestine, Tibet and all the “human rights abuses” of the world, while not forgetting (and this is where the ingenuity lies) to throw in the plight of Kashmiri Pandits as a counterbalancing afterthought (as if that too is somehow an example of state-sponsored atrocity). Similarly B Raman’s open letter to Aamir Khan, correct though its central theme of how India and China differ in their reaction to dissent, can be criticized as introducing a rather tortuous “Muslim” angle —that being that the reason why Aamir Khan and Saif were asked to run with the torch was that it would be interpreted as an endorsement of China’s policies by “widely-respected Muslim personalities”
The truth, as most of us all know by now, is that Coke and Lenovo (not China or India directly), two corporate partners of the Beijing Olympics, have chosen their brand ambassadors Aamir and Saif Ali Khan respectively to run with the Olympic torch. That’s all that the torch-carrying ceremony is—an advertisement opportunity for the corporations and an obligation-discharging one for the stars on its payroll.
In other words, principles ko maaro goli. It’s all about dollars, cents and thanda matlab Coca Cola.
Continue reading ‘Of Torches, Tibet and Shakti Kapoor’
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