By Nidhi Kinhal
This May, when we were all already pretty much done with the world, Rakhi Sawant stepped in and took on US President Donald Trump. “How dare him? Unhonein kaha kaise ki ladkoyon ko waha grab karna chahiye? Waha kahan” (How dare he say we should grab women there? There where?), she had said.
Now, she’s back for some desi politics talk. In this fabulous interview with Firstpost, she discusses Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath’s UP rule, cow vigilantism, anti-Romeo squads, and ICC Champions Trophy, Bollywood’s nepotism, and so much more. As a Bollywood-insider, she dropped some important truth bombs about the nepotism issue: “Jo jise jaanta hai, woh usi ko kaam de raha hai,” (the ones who know people get work) she mentioned. There’s no work for newcomers, she adds, unless you create lobbies or suck upto them. “Golden spoon mein stars paida hote hain.” (Stars are born in a golden spoon). Every moment with Rakhi is candid. For example, she has no qualms discussing her short stint with politics and Rashtriya Aam Party.
“I’m a very big Modi fan,” she declares. Her love for Modi doesn’t stop her from having critical, balanced opinions of demonetisation. “Bohot achha step bhi tha, thoda bura bhi hua, kyunki bohot saare log barbaad ho gaye,” she adds. (It was a great step, but it also caused harm, because so many people were destroyed.” She also systematically talks about how film financiers don’t have money anymore, and not many films are being made. “Modiji, aapne step toh bohot achha uthaya, lekin aapne mere baare me nahi socha.” (Modiji, you took a great step, but you didn’t think about me.)
We’re starting to believe more strongly than ever, that she’s more sensible than the people we have allowed to run this country. Addressing Yogi Adityanath with some scathing points, she says, “Pata nahi kitni gaayon ko chara khilaya hoga, ki aap mantri ban gaye. Vaise mantri banne wale gun toh aap mein hain nahi.” (I don’t know how many cows you must have fed to have become the minister. I mean, otherwise, you don’t really have the qualities of one.) “Aap hindu hain, main hindu hoon, toh hum sabko hindu toh nahi banaa sakte na?” she rhetorically asks him. Preach, Rakhi.
She also wants Yogi’s army to stop beating up married couples and people in love (we’re loving the no-judgement there) in the name of women’s protection, and says the police should stick to its job. “Police logon ko aur bhi toh kaam hai, kitne logon se rishwat leni baaki hai!” (The police have better things to do, they’ve so many people to still take bribes from!). She doesn’t limit herself to politics. After her clever insights on speciesism, “kamaal hai yaar!”, “khopdi bohot achhi hai Amit Shah ki” (which we can only loosely translate to, “Amit Shah is a smartypants!”), and an absolutely frustrated, “humaara system hi theek nahi hai” (our system itself is broken), we can’t help but agree with her when she says, “take my advice.”
Seriously, people like us will always hide behind our computer screens and privilege, and conveniently brand the likes of her as dimwits, but you can watch her be badass, authentic and informed, showing us that we’re the real ‘bewakoof insaans’ in the full video on Firstpost here.