From litter to Twitter

Pradnya Gaonkar Rane

Cricketer Virat Kohli recently shared a video where his wife, actress Anushka Sharma is seen yelling at a man in another car, and chiding him for littering on the road. While the video was applauded by many, the man in the video Arhhan Singh later took to social media to aplogise for his mistake but also spared no words in criticising Anushka for the way she went about the whole thing and ‘for ranting and yelling like a crazy roadside person’. He also stated that the whole thing was nothing but a publicity gimmick on her part. His mother too took to social media to defend her son who she claimed has been exposed to public hatred due to such an act by the power couple. Within no time, the whole episode has become a hotly debated topic. There were mixed responses coming up on the social platform with people agreeing to the personal damage caused due to circulation of such videos on social platform. At the same time, others welcomed the gutsy act of using their status to spread the awareness of cleanliness and urged others to carry forward the campaign.

Clinton Vaz, who has been passionately pursuing his goal of eradicating various environmental issues including the garbage menace, stands in full support of Anushka Sharma. “Be it a celebrity or a common person, the act of littering is wrong. If he apologises and then says that it is unnecessary then it is a different matter. Whether it is a celebrity stunt or not, all these things are secondary,” he says. Vaz adds that the Goa Government’s approach is also similar in that everybody needs to know what they are doing is right and wrong and if they are still doing it then it justifies the act of clicking pictures. “Take for example the traffic police’s traffic sentinel scheme which clearly is in support of clicking pictures. If you approach the person who is doing the wrong act then it becomes a confrontation. If you take pictures it is not confrontation but it is taking 

evidence of an act which is wrong,” says Vaz.

Shrikant Barve, a chess tutor and a very active member on social media platform believes that the man whose act was recorded in the video has taken it in a negative spirit. He further says that it can be considered as a celebrity stunt and people like Anushka and Virat recording these incidences and uploading it to social media is a silly thing. “Certainly, that person is not a victim. He agreed that he made a mistake which in his view should be pardoned. A silly one. Had that person stopped his car and lifted that tiny piece, things would have been different,” opines Shrikant Barve. Barve further adds that things could have been handled differently perhaps. “Someone should show the mirror but this should be done without insulting the human being. Such acts only build up hatred which is even more harmful,” urges Barve who believes that the dignity of a person should be respected.

Felly Gomes, who runs the NGO Live Happy and is very active environmentalist however has an interesting take on the whole thing. “If Anushka and Virat posting a video of a person littering is considered to be a publicity stunt then it is the best stunt. More of such people should get involved in creating awareness and get rid of the garbage menace,” he says, further suggesting that if the whole episode has generated a lot of unwanted publicity for Singh and his family, they should turn the attention into something positive. If social media is used to defame then it can also be used to build up the image too. He even goes on to suggest that they should conduct a cleanliness drive to prove that they are in support of the creating awareness about the hazards posed by the garbage menace. The need of the hour is to protect the nature. “A lot of the garbage generated comes from rich people as most of the packaged goods are used by the rich. It’s time that the rich use their wealth to create awareness and get rid of the garbage menace,” says Gomes.