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Shekhar Suman lashes out at Shobhaa De, says it’s difficult for a man to admit to being pushed around by a woman
Subhash K Jha (DNA; May 3, 2016)

By hitting out at his son, Shobhaa Dé has hurt Shekhar Suman. In her column, she has lashed out at his son Adhyayan Suman for speaking about the physical, verbal and emotional abuse he allegedly suffered during his relationship with his one-time girlfriend Kangana Ranaut.

Says Shekhar, “I’ve always been an admirer of Shobhaa Dé’s columns. She normally talks so much sense and she’s so non-partisan in her comments. What has happened to her now? She has hit out at my son for speaking out about the trauma that he suffered when he was in the relationship with Kangana. Ms Dé thinks my son is being a cry baby for talking about how he was physically abused. But I think it takes a man a lot of guts to speak about being pushed around by a woman.”

Shekhar is also baffled by the columnist’s logic regarding abuse in a relationship. “She says men in the film industry frequently abuse and hit women. Does that make it wrong for my son to speak out against the violence he suffered? Gender has nothing to do with the violence suffered in a relationship. My wife Alka and I have seen our son go through the worst possible torture and trauma. We watched helplessly as his girlfriend took possession of his life and soul.”

Shekhar maintains that for wife Alka and him, watching their only son suffer, was unbearable. “We had lost our other son when he was just a child. Watching Adhyayan drown in his relationship, was like losing our other son, (now) our only son. Adhyayan was completely under her spell. He would not hear a word against her, no matter what she did to him. He maintained she was loyal and devoted and would not even look at another man and that she even washed his clothes. When he saw all those messages to Hrithik on her phone, he was devastated.”

Shekhar says he not only had to suffer his son’s humiliation but also his own. “It happened at a get-together in Khar where Kangana misconstrued something I said and began abusing me in Hindi with the choicest maa-bahen gaalis. That was the time when my wife and I felt we had lost our son. Luckily, we got him back. But what about all those parents who lose their child when he or she gets into the wrong relationship?”

Shekhar feels being a good human being is far more important than being a good artiste. “Just because you are a National award winner, it doesn’t give you the licence to walk all over people and destroy their lives. Success is nothing when compared with the values that make you a good human being.”