These past months, as Raj Thackeray’s tirade against Amitabh Bachchan raged, the film actor chose to remain non-combative. Thackeray’s targeting of Bachchan was aimed at somehow carving a constituency for himself and his anti-outsider plank. Whether there is a space in Maharashtra’s politics for such xenophobia is far from certain. But with the media amplifying Thackeray’s mostly localised demonstrations, the narrative gained its own momentum. It is therefore healthy that Bachchan has joined the conversation. In an exclusive in The Sunday Express, he dwelt on the “spirit” of Mumbai. It was a reminder that Mumbai’s — in fact, any city’s — truest profile is best drawn as a ledger of debts, not entitlements.Bachchan’s story of his relationship with Mumbai is as much a personal history as it is a tribute to the ability of the great cities of the world to show themselves to be sites of endless possibilities, places that allow dreams to become reality. In it, he talks, for instance, of how in his early years in the city he would go in search of street children, so he could share his meal with them. This was once he had been assured that he would find sustenance in Mumbai. Raj Thackeray may not be listening. But that remembered little moment is a reminder of how dependent big metropolises are on the wide-eyed gaze of the new immigrant, so that they can be defined again and again.It also underlines a point we have made in these columns that our role models need to be more outspoken on the issues of the day. By asking for such public engagement, we don’t imply party politics. But given how dominant discourses in our society of spectacle rest on dominant personalities, public figures have a new responsibility. Sometimes it takes just a few words of reason, and not shrill counter-argument, to turn the page. As Bachchan has done.
