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In the Bollywood nepotism outrage, entrenched power is only attacked when it represents cultural distance. For example, no one attacks Sunny Deol, son of a superstar, because he is the icon of muscular nationalism in cinema, which the BJP appropriated by making him an MP. (1/4)
The symbolic targets of the nepotism charges are the Bhatts, because they represent secular-liberal values. Similarly, for Sonam Kapoor because of her statements against intolerance.
Kangana is the authentic "outsider", and not people like Kashyap, Swara Bhasker and Taapsee,
Kangana is the authentic "outsider", and not people like Kashyap, Swara Bhasker and Taapsee,
even though they are as much outsiders as Kangana, because she challenges not just nepotism but also liberal-secular values. That makes Kangana and Sunny Deol "one of our own" and Kashyap and Sonam part of the entrenched cultural elite. Ultimately, much the attack on nepotism is
an attack on liberal-secular values by proxy. And the charge is being led by the middle classes, who are equally entrenched with nepotistic & caste ties in their own fields, and who only see elitism when it is associated with cultural distance from their own majoritarian values.
