Jaadu tona? We are all magic, not black magic
Practitioners of black magic, gold diggers, manipulative — these are some of the terms being used to generalise omen from the Bengali mmunity. All this, after ushant Singh Rajput’s family dged an FIR against his rlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. llowing this, people on social dia began to allege that Rhea ractised black magic and pushed him to take his life. “I was very angry at such statements. Because of Rhea, Bengali women are getting trolled. One girl is an alleged old digger; we don’t even ow the case. We don’t even ow this girl’s story. How is it ir to blame all of us?” actor oena Mitra asks. Slamming the whole engali women witch nting” talk, actor Tanushree utta says, “This has been started by the self proclaimed men’s activist Barkha Trehan. She is an a** licker to morally bankrupt men and now she is maligning Bengali women. We are sexy, smart, classy, massy and awesome.”
Responding to how Bengali women “catch a big fish”, actor Swastika Mukherjee recently wrote, “Yes I prefer Rui or Bhetki, then fry it in mustard oil and finish it off with steaming rice with some green/ red chillies.”
Actor Sayantani Ghosh feels it’s sad to see people succumb to the idea of such templates. “It shows how shallow, we as a race, have become. The funny part is that it’s the educated lot who believe such things. I did a reality show and an actor, a friend of mine, told me back then that I was performing well because I did black magic. Why is it difficult to accept that a person can be talented as well,” Ghosh says.
Actor Bidita Bag says, “Just because one Bengali woman has done something wrong and it hasn’t been proven as well, it does not mean you can label the entire Bengali community.”
Sreemoyee Piu Kundu , author and columnist, blames Bollywood and popular culture for misrepresenting Bengali women. “It is extremely clichéd and linear. Kaala jaadu is prevalent in all parts of India. The shaming of Bengali women is deplorable and how is this helping the (Rajput death) case? Why can’t we let justice take its own course, rather than go into the whataboutery. When you allow sexism and communalism, it is a dangerous cocktail of the worst kind of bigotry” she opines.