Samir Soni on Bollywood supporting Rhea Chakraborty and sharing ‘smash patriarchy’ slogan: It’s become a gender issue, what’s next, a communal turn?

Actor Samir Soni doesn’t understand why so many celebrities have been sharing the slogan written on Rhea Chakraborty’s T- shirt that reads: Roses are red, violets are blue, let’s smash the patriarchy, me and you. He feels it was “totally unrelated” to the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

“I was like ‘Who are these people? How can they, all of a sudden, from talking about innocent or guilty, take to talking about sexism?’. It didn’t even make sense. I mean, they suddenly woke up to patriarchy now? The people who did support — they’re well within their right to support whatever and express what they want — they’ve done a great deal of disservice to the movement of feminism, or gender equality by raising an issue as important as that for a thing which is totally unrelated,” confesses the 51-year-old.

He goes on to add he didn’t get what their motivation was behind raising this, and that someone needs to tell them that, “When you use an important cause for an issue which is totally unrelated, then you are trying to hijack that situation for something else.” 

Soni is happy with the way the case is going, as he feels we will get to ‘bottom of it’. “It will not be comfortable for a lot of people perhaps, but that is what it is. Rhea’s arrest is first step towards justice. Obviously there isn’t any other way of looking at it. This case has become like a can opener, can of worms rather, which started off as ‘why was Sushant killed’, and then the drug aspect cannot be ignored, the underworld dealings and stuff. I do understand anybody who won’t agree that the case is going in the right direction. Some people are saying ‘we are talking about drugs, although initially case was murder or suicide’, my answer is quite simple. We gave local authorities almost 2 months to figure out, we should at least give CBI and NCB and ED at least a few months,” he tells us.

It took the actor “a long time” to understand what the quote was, and he wasn’t even aware it was Chakraborty’s T-shirt which started it all.

“I had to google the definition of patriarchy, is there something I’m missing here? Suddenly, it’s become a gender issue. What is it going to become next, a communal issue? Again, I’m not saying Rhea is innocent or guilty, all a logical person is looking for is an honest enquiry and that the guilty should be punished. If she’s innocent of any wrongdoing, then all power to her,” says Soni.

However, he maintains that he still cannot understand people’s motivation behind all this. “But what happens is when you take important issues and twist them around to suit your convenience, then not only do you lose your credibility a bit, but also belittle the cause,” he adds,

The actor also took to Instagram on Tuesday night to share a post which read, “Who are these people, who are talking about patriarchy today????”

He reveals one follower shared a quote with him, “She said ‘if for arresting Rhea we should hold patriarchy responsible, then maybe we should hold matriarchy responsible for having her younger brother arrested? He was young and following his sister’s instructions’. If you are really going to bring patriarchy and matriarchy issues, then shouldn’t you be fighting for Kangana’s (Ranaut, actor) cause.”

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