Opinion | Sonakshi Sinha is brave to speak up for Sonam Wangchuk and CJP. She shouldn’t have to be

There is, undoubtedly, something brave — even exceptional — in speaking up as Sonakshi Sinha has. But should it be? Even as we admire her public support for a protest against the government, it’s important to ask why so few from “the industry” speak up now.

The first, most cynical answer might lie in the lessons learnt about bandwagoning. In 2011, social media was still young, and a tweet or a post on a “social issue” was something done casually, like a happy birthday message on an office WhatsApp group. Now, with takedown notices and trolls becoming far more common, celebrities might just be thinking through the issues they want to express solidarity with.

What this explanation misses is the many selfies with ruling party leaders, the identical tweets on pro-government issues, and other endorsements of that ilk.

The second explanation is that, like so much of the country, the stars of the screen might just be afraid. And not without reason.

The writing was on the wall as early as 2015. Speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award, Aamir Khan said that “Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is a sense of growing disquiet.” What followed was a political firestorm, and Khan partially backtracked on his words. Then, in 2020, Deepika Padukone visited the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus days after students were attacked on campus by masked assailants. She did not say a word. Her presence, though, was enough to invite a reaction from a troll army.

It is easy, of course, to dismiss Sonakshi Sinha’s words as armchair activism. Or to ask for more “bravery” from public figures with wealth, relative power and a platform. But such criticism masks some basic facts about societies and democracies that so many of us have forgotten.

Those with the most also have the most to lose. A single protest against a film, a court case, or violence is money and jobs down the drain, and can hurt many a career. There is a reason why political and cultural workers — from the Communists to the RSS — are often frugal. They are used to the discomfort that may well result from political talk and actions. The difference between a democracy and other systems, between societies and polities that respect free speech and the rest, though, is that there should be no “price” for speaking up. Right or wrong, well-thought-out or frivolous, we should all be able to support or criticise any government or leader without having to clarify that we are not “anti-national”.

Yes, Sonakshi Sinha is “brave” to speak out as she did. She shouldn’t have to be.

aakash.joshi@expressindia.com