The Shiv Sena has dug up an old Cobrapost sting video to launch a tirade against actor Sonu Sood. Writing in his party mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the BJP had adopted Sonu Sood to portray the Maharashtra government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in a poor light.
Raut wondered if the BJP had propped up Sonu to help stranded migrant workers from Maharashtra amidst the nationwide lockdown. Writing in his weekly column RokhThok, Raut expressed his surprise on the sudden emergence of ‘Mahatma’ Sood on the social media scene in his state.
Sood has earned plenty of plaudits for helping hundreds of migrant workers by providing free transportations to them so that they could reach their native places during the nationwide lockdown. He trended for days for his responding to SOS calls made by poor migrant workers on social media platform Twitter.
However, Raut felt that the famous actor was merely acting at the behest of the BJP. He said, “Sood is an actor whose profession is to deliver dialogues scripted by someone else and make a living out of it. There are many people like Sood who would promote any political party if paid well.”
Many wondered if Sonu had used fake Twitter accounts to build his image as a messiah during the nationwide lockdown. Journalist Dilip Mandal shared a screenshot of a Twitter user, whose Twitter account had disappeared soon after Sonu claimed to have helped him.
सोनू सूद ने जिन लोगों को ट्विटर के ज़रिए मदद पहुँचाई, उनमें कई लोग ट्विटर छोड़कर जा चुके हैं। ट्विटर से मदद लेने के बाद उन्हें ट्विटर से नफ़रत हो गई होगी शायद।
मैं अगर सोनू सूद का एकाउंट देख रहा होता तो ऐसी ग़लतियाँ कभी नहीं करता। PR के लिए मुझसे संपर्क कीजिए। pic.twitter.com/K22SG3gSt4
— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) June 7, 2020
Raut also referred to the last year’s Operation Karaoke by Cobrapost website, which caught Sonu agreeing to promote the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls using his social media platforms in exchange for money. (Watch the sting video below)
Other entertainment celebrities caught in the sting operation had included Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh and Baba Sehgal; actors Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Sonu Sood, Amisha 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 spouse Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba, Koena Mitra, Poonam Pandey, Sunny Leonne; comedians Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar; and choreographer Ganesh Acharya and dancer Sambhavana Seth.
Raut said that no sensible people would believe that Sonu Sood had suddenly developed so much compassion for stranded migrant workers. He said that the BJP had politically adopted the actor and tried to create influence among the North Indian migrant workers.
Last month, Union Minister Smriti Irani had publicly praised Sonu Sood for ‘helping’ migrant workers. She had tweeted, “I’ve had the privilege of knowing you as a professional colleague for over 2 decades now @SonuSood & celebrated your rise as an actor ;but the kindness you have displayed in these challenging times makes me prouder still Folded handsthank you for helping those in need.”