Mumbai, Jul 14 (IANS): "Disgusting" and "shameful" is how Bollywood celebrities Amitabh Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Farhan Akhtar have dubbed the molestation of a teenager by a mob in Guwahati.
The 17-year-old had gone to a pub with another girl Monday night. She was looking for an auto when 11 men pounced on her. The other girl escaped.
A video clip of the girl being molested was caught on camera and went viral on the net. It caused outrage.
Here's what the B-town twitterati had to say:
Amitabh Bachchan: Horrid visuals on TV of molestation of young girl... but just a point. How does TV crew know of it live and why don't they intervene?
Bipasha Basu: Guwahati molestation of a 17-year-old girl for 29 minutes on the road! Shameful! These monsters have to be punished!
Anupam Kher: My country gives me millions of reasons to be a proud Indian. But it also makes me feel ashamed to be one on many occasions.
Shekhar Kapur: As a society we must take collective responsibility for Guwahati for making incidents like this acceptable and rampant. Constant bombarding of female image as mere object of sexual titillation is bound to alter perception of the immature male. Physical abuse of women and even rape is not a sexual act, but act of humiliation and power by male lacking in self worth.
Farhan Akhtar: Guwahati pathetic! Shameful! Indian women better realise that they are on their own.
Vishal Dadlani: I apologise to the girl, on behalf of this evidently depraved nation. Can't even imagine her trauma. I swear, I'll NEVER be a bystander while an innocent person needs help, no matter what the risk.
Rahul Bose: Sickened by the beating, molestation of a class 11 girl student in Guwahati. Saddened to the point of despair that none came to her rescue. How much more violence against women must we see before we realise it will end civilisation as we know it. What makes men silent onlookers to such carnage? what delight in seeing a 17-year-old girl brutalised?
R. Madhavan: Guwahati is a bitter reminder of how socially we are still a third world or worse country. If any genuine progress is to be made, then a drastic social change in mindset has to be enforced.
Mandira Bedi: Shameful. Disgusting animals who gloated while they molested a woman and played to a camera while at it. Sickening.
Pritish Nandy: Disgusting, the molestation of a girl in Guwahati by a mob of 30. No one stopped them. Shame on those who molested the girl. Shame on those who saw it, did not intervene. Shame on police who have done nothing since.