EXCLUSIVE! Vikrant Massey on Palghar tragedy: The people who have been murdered and their families should get justice

Vikrant Massey who was last seen in Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Chhapaak’ opposite Deepika Padukone reacted on the recent incident that took place in Palghar where three men were brutally killed by the mob. Two sadhus along with their driver were brutally killed in mob lying and the police didn’t protect them when they were pleading for help.

Being disturbed with the entire incident, Vikrant Massey said, “Firstly, I refrain from making political statements or politically motivated statements. But as a responsible citizen, I have been following that and it’s absolutely condemnable. It is really ridiculous. I think they have made some 100 arrests as of now and legal action should be taken against all of them. It’s our failure if we bring any religious context in this situation. But coming back to the unfortunate reality, people will paint in a religious and political context. The people who have been murdered should get justice and their families should get justice. There should be strict action against the police officials who left the 3 men in the hands of that mob. We have watched the video where the old man who passed away was trying to cling on to the police officer, but the official just left him there. So, if the law and order authorities are behaving like this then where will the citizen go? The Government should make sure that no one brings in the religious angle into this situation and they should sort it out neutrally.”

Check out the video:-https://youtu.be/ZFyZ6UP-eVc

The actor said this during an exclusive live with us on ETimes Instagram. While he emphasised on wanting justice for the deceased and their families, he also spoke about the online troll culture on social media and how negativity gets spread like wildfire. Vikrant said, “Celebrity or no celebrity, we are unfortunately living in times when it’s either/or. There is absolutely no sense of neutrality and respect. I wouldn’t say that there is one particular section that is very vile but I think it’s across the spectrum. I think it’s become very politically motivated twitter. Initially, all of us logged into Twitter for information but now a lot of things have changed. I only go on Twitter and I interact with people who I feel like interacting with, share details about my projects. I am not very active on Twitter because I find it very vile and disrespectful. I realized it very early that it is something that affects me in a lot of ways, so I’m happy on Instagram. I love photography and capturing moments around me so I have identified that Instagram is the place to be for me.”

Owing to the negativity on socials, Vikrant refrains from being active on Twitter. He said, “Twitter is very difficult. I’ve really tried a lot to be active on Twitter but the problem is the minute I get on Twitter and I speak my mind, I think that disturbs a lot of people.”

The actor also revealed that he has lost his friendship of 20 years with his close friends when he has shared his opinion on societal matters which are connected to politics. The actor also reacted on Deepika’s JNU incident when she was brutally trolled on Twitter.

Vikrant said, “I feel in the last 6-7 years, Politics has become a part and parcel of every household. Unfortunately, you really cannot avoid it right now. You open a newspaper and the first thing you see is politics and then the news. You switch to a news channel and all you watch is news. It’s so bad that I have lost so many friends over the years, just because we have different political affiliations and ideologies. These are some dangerous times. Coming back to what Deepika did, I was very proud of her then, I am very proud of her now and I will always be proud of her. It is not because she went and supported, technically she didn’t ‘support’ anyone, she just stood in solidarity with the students. Deepika stood with the students without considering whether they are Hindu or Muslim or what their political ideology is. As a responsible citizen, if we are standing in solidarity with the students who are the future of this country, then I don’t think we are wrong. But, bringing in the political angle in the whole scenario was bad. You must have seen how people rated Chhapaak on IMDb after the incident and I feel it’s very ridiculous. I consciously don’t want to put myself through such things because now it has become violent and worse. I’m not saying that any particular section of people is doing these things, everyone is doing it. I mean when people say that the Right Wing is abusive, in reality, even the Left Wing is equally abusive. So, everyone is in the same dirty politics and no one is better than the other.”