“Operation Karaoke” may sound like an innocuous Friday night plan made by a group of upper-middle-class teenagers, but it is anything but that. It’s a lengthy sting operation, and the only singing involved here was done by celebrities to the tune of black money. Cobrapost, an Indian non-profit journalism company that specialises in long term investigative reports and sting operations, is back with another explosive story.
After exposing bigwig media promoters who agreed to a business proposal by an undercover reporter seeking promotion of Hindutva agenda and influencing of electoral outcome for a price, Cobrapost has now released a report on 36 Bollywood celebrities willing to accept large sums of cash in exchange for posting favourable messages on behalf of various political parties while making them sound like personal opinions.
Playback singers Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh and Baba Sehgal; actors Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Sonu Sood, Ameesha Patel, Mahima Chaudhry, Shreyas Talpade, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Pankaj Dheer and his son Nikitin Dheer, Tisca Chopra, Deepshikha Nagpal, Akhilendra Mishra, Rohit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Salim Zaidi, Rakhi Sawant, Aman Verma, Hiten Tejwani and his wife Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba, Koena Mitra, Poonam Pandey, Sunny Leone; comedians Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar; and choreographer Ganesh Acharya and dancer Sambhavana Seth were caught on camera in the 60-minute film.
Each of these celebrities, who have massive reach on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, agreed to defend political parties for huge sums of money, and mostly black money. The exceptions where four actors — Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan, Raza Murad and Saumya Tandon — who refused to be party to such activities.
Cobrapost, posing as a PR agency, approached these celebrities through their agents and briefed them on what they wanted. Cobrapost then offered them between Rs 2 and 50 lakh per message. Sonu Sood reportedly demanded Rs 20 crore for an eight-month contract. Minissha Lamba, who was told 80 to 90 per cent of the payment would be in cash while 10 to 20 per cent would be “white”, reportedly said: “Lekin aapne mujhe bola tha ki saara cash hoga (But you had told me payment will be made entirely in cash).”
Some celebrities were more than enthusiastic than others. Playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, who has been called out for being vile on social media on a number of occasions, reportedly ranted against Muslims and suggested ideas on how to make the posts appear more organic. He said, “Abhi jaise ye teen talaq wala hai na teen talaq wala toh usko positive karna hai ki Muslim mard toh mard hee hote hain unka kaam hee hai Muslim mard kee tareh in auraton ko… auraton ko izzat dijiye wo aapki maa hai wo aapki bahen hai wo aapki beti hai theek hai wo aapki saas hai toh Modiji ne auraton par zyada dhyan diya hai (Right now there is this issue of triple talaq. I will write positive things about it saying that Muslim men are typical men who… give these women respect. They are after all your mother, your sister, your daughter or even your mother-in-law. Modiji is paying attention to their good).”
He also suggested linking triple talaq with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign. “Toh Beti Bachao Beti Padhao maybe teen talaq mein se hee aata hai beti kisi na kisi kee toh beti hai toh iss tareh jahan par jo garam mudda hai na usko open kijiye log chunenge baaki toh wo fir aisa lagega ki chal raha hai (Maybe Beti Bachao Beti Padhao arises out of this triple talaq. A woman is a daughter of someone. Take up such a hot issue to open debate. People would jump at it. Otherwise, it will look something like routine).”
What is bizarre is that two actors who fell for this sting have already been “stung” in the past and learnt nothing from that experience. Well-known television actor Aman Verma reportedly said on camera in the Cobrapost film, “I would love all in cash.”
For the uninitiated, Aman Verma was embroiled in a sexual harassment controversy in 2005. A sting operation conducted by India TV caught Verma on tape talking to an aspiring actress and suggesting she spend the night with him. The other celebrity in this least who has now been twice bitten and not once shy is Shakti Kapoor. In yet another India TV sting from 2005, Shakti Kapoor in a Mumbai hotel room similarly propositioned an undercover reporter who was posing as the actress.
According to Cobrapost, “The names of political parties were used, in good faith and public interest, for a narrative purpose only, and this is not an insinuation of their actual involvement in the practice. The investigation was made to expose the celebs willing to endorse a political agenda in return for monetary gains.”
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