What's common between Arjun Kapoor and Rahul Gandhi? They both come from influential families in their respective fields. They both have a track record with more misses and few hits. And they both are subjected to online comments that blur the line between criticism and bullying.

While Rahul was bombarded with Children's Day memes on 14 November after NDA swept Bihar polls, Arjun, a Bollywood actor, has found himself facing a similar attack in tone and tenor in the past couple of months — not by the IT cell of any political party, but internet users who seem to have developed a taste for trolling (read: bullying) the actor.

“What a talented family with a talentless Arjun,” read a comment on a family photo the 40-year-old shared on Instagram last week. “Papa ka nakamyaab beta (unsuccessful son of a successful father),” came another.

Almost all of Arjun’s Instagram posts in the past month or so have been flooded with such remarks. From “If failure had a face” to “Arjun the superzero”, personal attacks have become a staple in Arjun’s social media interactions.

But no film of his released in the past 10 months. He didn't even feature in any ad. Neither did he make any controversial comment. So, why he is being subjected to such vile attacks is a question only the internet — and those competing to drop the nastiest comment on his Instagram posts — can answer. Or maybe they cannot.

I am no Arjun Kapoor fan. I haven't watched most of his films. And if you don't like him, you shouldn't either. But cut the man some slack. Let him be.

In a career spanning a little more than a decade, Arjun has starred in 20-odd films. Most of these movies did not do well at the box office. His latest release, Mere Husband Ki Biwi, earned roughly Rs 10 crore nett. It was made on a budget of Rs 60 crore, according to Sacnilk.

In the past 10 months, many have joined the bandwagon of humiliating Arjun for no fault of his, and some have come out in his support, calling out the “bullies”. But there is also a third lot — the one that thinks this trend is part of a PR campaign to garner sympathy for the actor.

Arjun isn’t the first nepokid to have faced such attacks. Remember Uday Chopra? Son of the great Yash Chopra, Uday never made it big in Bollywood. His most remembered film is Dhoom, in which he played a sidekick. But the internet wasn’t as unforgiving then as it is now.

Arjun may not have the acting skills of a Shahid Kapoor. He may not be as charming as Ranbir Kapoor. And he may not have the dancing prowess of a Varun Dhawan. But he still, like every other person living or dead, deserves respect.

The treatment meted out to Arjun, born to film producer Boney Kapoor and his first wife Mona Shourie, may remind one of the scathing attacks RaGa faced in the run up to the 2014 general elections.

He was called ‘Pappu’ by opponent parties then — a tag that he hasn’t been able to shed even a decade later. The term resurfaced after NDA swept Bihar polls, with many targeting Rahul over what they called his 95th defeat.

The word Pappu is both an adjective and a noun. In Indian lingo, it means a stupid person. And bullies, many studies show, often have a lower-than-normal IQ.

So, the next time your fingers itch to drop a hate-bomb online, ask yourself a simple question: Who is the real Pappu here?