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Journalism of Courage
Swara Bhasker has found herself in the eye of a storm yet again, and this time even Amazon – for whom she is doing a campaign – has been seemingly adversely affected. The Anaarkali of Aarah was among the first celebrities to take part in an online social campaign against the Kathua and Unnao rape cases that have shaken up the country. Over the past couple of days, many have been tweeting posters and messages with the common hashtag #JusticeForOurChild and its variants, demanding justice for the victims.
Posters in hand — a message reading “I am Hindustan. I am Ashamed. 8 years old. Gangraped. Murdered. In ‘Devi’-sthaan temple. #Kathua” — many celebrities shared their photos online. However, they have been facing the brunt of it as well since there has been some objection to the words/phrases used in the poster, saying it is anti-national and communal.
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Days later, after Bhasker tweeted out an endorsement post for Amazon, there was a massive uproar on social media as people not only trolled the actor for her previous tweet, but also started trolling Amazon India for engaging Bhaskar as a campaigner for their “#AjnabiShahatirKiGoogly #ChonkpurCheetahs” campaign. So much so, that after retweeting and responding to the actor’s tweet, the MNC’s social media team deleted their post. Although the official reason for the deletion is unknown, and indianexpress.com has reached out to Amazon for a comment, it is being widely speculated that this step was taken in response to the public backlash against Bhasker, and her association with the brand.
Some even went as far as starting the hashtag #BoycottAmazon, slamming the company for “siding with” an actor who maligned and hurt religious sentiments of Hindus. Tweeple demanded Amazon should not associate with Bhasker and must be removed from brand endorsements or else they would uninstall and boycott the tech giant’s app and services.
In the tweet, Bhasker had written: “When I made the big move to a new city, all I wanted was a swanky music system, music being my passion! No matter how much I hunted for it, couldn’t find anything of my choice. In fact, I only got confused! #AjnabiShaharKiGoogly #ChonkpurCheetahs”.
Amazon India retweeted her post, featuring it in one of their campaign tweets. This was later deleted without explanation, but not before people had taken screenshots of it.
https://twitter.com/shtoons/status/987207723556061184
Soon #BoycottAmazon and #UninstallAmazon started trending on the micro-blogging site and people started giving bad reviews to the app.
https://twitter.com/SajithSasidhar2/status/988061363321868288
https://twitter.com/imsmitakhare/status/987957935161597952
https://twitter.com/vijesh21/status/987910193148145664
https://twitter.com/iampandey2668/status/987891905647132673
https://twitter.com/Jarvisirish/status/987946964716216320
But not everyone joined forces against Bhasker, as many even expressed shock over how could it be logical to break association with someone who was condemning a heinous crime as child rape.
https://twitter.com/Akathisia11/status/987750172326326273
https://twitter.com/11DreamKiller11/status/987758018270904320
https://twitter.com/slamsam18/status/987819045280886784
https://twitter.com/vickievignon/status/987735446548598784
For Bhasker, though, such controversy is not new, as she was at the receiving end of a lot of flak just a couple of weeks back when she wrote an open letter to film-maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali after watching his movie Padmaavat.
