Recently, Arhan Singh, the man that Anushka Sharma shamed on social media for littering on the road, sent a legal notice to her and her husband.
In a video uploaded on social media by Virat Kohli, Anushka is heard saying to Singh- “Why are you throwing garbage on the road, you cannot just throw plastic on the streets just like that..”
She then asks the man to use a dustbin instead of throwing garbage on the streets.
https://twitter.com/imVkohli/status/1007952358310055937
After the incident, Singh had put up a post on Facebook where told off Anushka for “ranting and yelling” at him “like a crazy roadside person”. He also said that the garbage went out of his car mistakenly.
https://www.facebook.com/arhhan/posts/10156104029597771
Even his mother posted on Instagram regarding this incident where she accused Anushka of putting his son’s privacy at risk and exposing him to “unwanted hostility”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkGNa-jA_hS/?utm_source=ig_embed
Read More: How Indore Became The Cleanest Indian City Again And What Other Cities Can Learn From Them
Now, I’m not judging anyone with what they decide to do with their social media handles. Whether they post cat videos or nudes, it is their space. But what really gets out of hand is the legal notice that Arhan Singh sent to Virushka.
This is really taking the Hindi proverb “baat ka batangad banana” to another level. Even though it’s just a legal notice and not a full-fledged lawsuit, it still seems like a ploy for attention more than anything else.
And this is what I hate about people everywhere, we will do anything to get attention and publicity. When people say “any publicity is good publicity”, they don’t mean- go and file a legal notice so that all the news outlets cover you and you get your 5 minutes in the spotlight.
This problem is further propagated by our media’s age-old habit of giving attention to worthless stories because they are controversial and the readers’ habit to just lap up such content.
The problem that this creates is that the attention is diverted from the main issue to the events that happened after it. The problem, in this case, was Indians’ old habit to litter on the road and act like its cool.
Through their huge influence, Virat and Anushka tried to set an example by rebuking the man and putting it on social media. Granted, it did come off as a bit high handed and attention seeking, but in the end, the message was “littering is bad”
But now, the entire narrative is about who said what? What does Virat think about this? What does Anushka think about that? The conversation is no longer about how this systemic mindset that has been drilled into our heads needs to be removed.
It is no longer about how Indians lack a basic level of civic sense and need to be shamed in order to not pee on roads or spit on pavements.
Well, the conversation needs to be about this issue and we need to move ahead to remove this goldfish-memory-syndrome from society and media, where we just remember stuff for very little time and just forget it after that.
Sources: Hindustan Times, Economic Times, India TV News
Image Source: Google Images
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What a stupid article. It is not about someone wanting media attention. The stupid media of india has given so much attention to sharmas video post and humiliated singh. He has been wronged and put to shame in india; his response is justified. Your article is utter rubbish and