Trolling, VIPs and other happenings on Indian social media
We'd start this social media update with the disturbing trend of rightist trolling in the Indian social scene, and then we'd get you VIP stuff and else.
Humans are inhuman by nature. Put a gullible guy before a group of smarties and they would exploit him; put a stranger in a closed community and they would all turn racial; put a vulnerable person among socialising males and tell them whatever they do would never be known, and they might commit the worst possible crime.
We the humans hate people who don't follow our religion, traditions and beliefs. We hate them much more when they question any of our silly-looking beliefs.
We won't talk about global phenomenon, but in India, we are growing intolerant of even slight dissent. We hate those who do not like even our leader or our political line of thinking. And social media has given us a free tool to throw muck at anybody and as much as we like.
Look at some of the dissenters whom Indian social media has trolled, disparaged and abused. All these happen to be examples of social hate against people who talked against Modi's policies or pro-'nationalist' thoughts.
There is a crop of regular haters and there are others who get carried away. The regular ones can be seen abusing anybody who is a 'pseudo-secular' or 'anti-national' or 'you...Paki' or 'presstitute' or something like that. They hate anyone who even slightly questions Indian ancient wisdom or Hindu heroes or RSS leaders. Somehow, they feel that they are the biggest nationalists and their jingoism is doing the country much good. They also feel righteous in abusing others as they feel that a particular community in India has long been unduly 'appeased' by Congress and that the left-wing 'pseudo-intellectuals' have not allowed true national thought to prosper. Their abuse is for correcting these past wrongs!
@NarendraModi himself recently chided his fans against being abusive on social media. Hope, he was addressing these trolls and (Should we hope?) these ultra-rightists stop browbeating criticism and dissent in social media.
@HemaMalini has of late been saying good words about the girl who died in an accident between their cars, but after she got brickbats for being too selfish and not even inquiring about the child. Hema, the original dream-girl of Bollywood, was immediately rushed to a hospital while the fatally hurt girl was not. Was social media only showing her the mirror> She does not believe that; She has chosen to return 'shame on me' tweets to her critics.
A tweet early this week created bomb scare, forcing an Indian plane to land at Muskat. The tweet, saying there was a bomb in the flight and calling it 'operation badla' or operation revenge, was spotted by an airline staffer. We had heard about bird-hits but the cute Twitter bird hitting the plane? That was too scary, isn't it?
The dissent haters on Indian social media
Humans are inhuman by nature. Put a gullible guy before a group of smarties and they would exploit him; put a stranger in a closed community and they would all turn racial; put a vulnerable person among socialising males and tell them whatever they do would never be known, and they might commit the worst possible crime.
We the humans hate people who don't follow our religion, traditions and beliefs. We hate them much more when they question any of our silly-looking beliefs.
We won't talk about global phenomenon, but in India, we are growing intolerant of even slight dissent. We hate those who do not like even our leader or our political line of thinking. And social media has given us a free tool to throw muck at anybody and as much as we like.
Look at some of the dissenters whom Indian social media has trolled, disparaged and abused. All these happen to be examples of social hate against people who talked against Modi's policies or pro-'nationalist' thoughts.
- Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been trolled and even called anti-national only for criticising Modi government's economic policies.
- TV Anchor Rajdeep Sardesai was abused and shouted upon for commenting against Modi's show at Madison Square, New York.
- Rishi Kapoor has been called names for questioning beef ban in some parts of the country.
- Actress Shruti Seth has been trolled for disagreeing with Modi's call for #SelfieWithDaughter.
There is a crop of regular haters and there are others who get carried away. The regular ones can be seen abusing anybody who is a 'pseudo-secular' or 'anti-national' or 'you...Paki' or 'presstitute' or something like that. They hate anyone who even slightly questions Indian ancient wisdom or Hindu heroes or RSS leaders. Somehow, they feel that they are the biggest nationalists and their jingoism is doing the country much good. They also feel righteous in abusing others as they feel that a particular community in India has long been unduly 'appeased' by Congress and that the left-wing 'pseudo-intellectuals' have not allowed true national thought to prosper. Their abuse is for correcting these past wrongs!
@NarendraModi himself recently chided his fans against being abusive on social media. Hope, he was addressing these trolls and (Should we hope?) these ultra-rightists stop browbeating criticism and dissent in social media.
How the social media is coping with the powerful people
@HemaMalini has of late been saying good words about the girl who died in an accident between their cars, but after she got brickbats for being too selfish and not even inquiring about the child. Hema, the original dream-girl of Bollywood, was immediately rushed to a hospital while the fatally hurt girl was not. Was social media only showing her the mirror> She does not believe that; She has chosen to return 'shame on me' tweets to her critics.
@LalitModi has used the social media well for exposing his foes and earlier friends who are not helping him in these tough times. He has used Twitter to 'declare war' against his detractors, by publishing stories, exposing exchanges, giving out documents... One tweet, however, might make his life more difficult; it is a tweet accusing Indian President Pranab Mukherjee of having favoured a businessman when Mukherjee was Finance Minister. President House has lodged a police complaint against him for the defamatory tweet.
While we are still on defamation, let's share with you that a man has been booked under IT Act for defaming Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The defamation: a misleading claim that the CM was holidaying with his family while on a recent trip to the US. The photo really was a trip to Goa in India, which was used as a prank. Does this really call for an arrest, Chief Minister?
While we are still on defamation, let's share with you that a man has been booked under IT Act for defaming Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The defamation: a misleading claim that the CM was holidaying with his family while on a recent trip to the US. The photo really was a trip to Goa in India, which was used as a prank. Does this really call for an arrest, Chief Minister?
The blue bird hits a plane!
A tweet early this week created bomb scare, forcing an Indian plane to land at Muskat. The tweet, saying there was a bomb in the flight and calling it 'operation badla' or operation revenge, was spotted by an airline staffer. We had heard about bird-hits but the cute Twitter bird hitting the plane? That was too scary, isn't it?
