Passing the (black) buck? Why Renuka Shahane's post on Salman Khan is a must read

Caveat: Salman Khan was acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court on 25 July in two cases pertaining to allegedly killing deer on 26 and 28 September 1998. The third case, which pertains to allegedly killing black bucks on the intervening night of 1 and 2 October 1998, is pending before the trial courts, and no verdict has been arrived at as yet. Another case related to the incident, filed on 15 October 1998 at PS Luni where Khan is accused of violating the Arms Act, is also pending before trial courts. It was earlier reported that the actor had been acquitted in the black buck case as well.

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Today has been a revelation. People across the globe discovered that if you keep a case in court long enough, the blame magically shifts from you... to no one. In Bollywood actor Salman Khan's case, this happens a little too often and a little too much.

In 2015, Mumbai High Court acquitted Salman in the 2002 drunken hit-and-run case. Back then his lawyers had insisted that it was his driver and not Salman who had been driving. In 2016, Rajasthan High Court acquits him two cases of poaching, because the bullets that hit the deer could not be traced to Salman's licensed gun. There is no word on whether or not it matches the gun of other the actors (who were all filming Hum Saath Saath Hain) present. In the poaching case, the driver has gone missing.

As if this amount of bad blood wasn't enough to deal with, Salman has also been doing the rounds of the media recently for his insensitive comment comparing his rigorous workout schedule during Sultan's shooting with the trauma a rape victim goes through. A comment for which he is at loggerheads with the National Women's Commission, but resolutely refuses to apologise.

Quite a few Bollywood celebrities have spoken about the actor's run-ins' with the law but none so eloquently or without any filter like Renuka Shahane. In a post that's deliciously sarcastic, Renuka asks why Saif Ali Khan, Amrita Singh, Tabu, and Sonali Bendre were not charged. She's also curious whether the missing jeep driver killed the black buck.

But it is this question that gets her the applause: "Do judges decide according to Buckworth-Lewis method?"

At first glance, this post reads like a direct criticism of Salman, which it is, but not quite. Renuka seems just as appalled by our judiciary, our law and order, our justice system. Or the lack of it. While, on one hand, she seems to be criticising Salman, on the other she also seems to want to know that if truly innocent, what's the compensation for the 'trauma' Salman's been through.

Read the whole post here.