Disclaimer:- I feel, trolling in any form e.g. vulgar, foul language, obscene comments, aggressive threatening, sexual and gender specific personal assaults are highly objectionable, condemnable and unjustifiable. I don’t support such acts on online as well as offline platforms.
The sole objective of this article is to expose trolling that occurred (and still continued) on various online/offline platforms, thrashing, abusing and demonizing particular ideology and organizations.
Latest victim of trolling is India’s defense minister
Manohar Parrikar. He came under heavy fire from TV studios of Parliament for
statement which he never made. He made general statement about anti national
rhetoric, but expert twist masters and self-styled custodians of India’s liberalism
and free speech exploited the opportunity to grilled Parrikar on secularism.
Fortunately he is used to person for such attacks and bravely defended himself
in Parliament.
Another incidence occurred this week, which shamelessly attacked RSS conglomerate under the guise of Kids Trafficking, which is actually a educational drive.
But when I came across English weekly's kids trafficking report and watched Rajya Sabha proceedings, I decided
to make audit of trolling in India since 1947.
Let's have look at it.
Few months ago, during Live TV show, a senior English TV
channel anchor asked veteran BJP leader and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely,
whether aggressive trolling on social media by BJP supporters will ever stop?
And, will BJP leaders issue statements/ advisory appealing those involved in
trolling to stop it? BJP leader advised the anchor and other victims of
trolling to ignore or digest it. The answer itself was not digestible to these
TV channel anchors.
The trolling is certainly not new phenomenon anywhere
in the world. But, now a days, fundamental difference is that, modes of
trolling has changed from offline platforms such as leaflets, pamphlets,
newspapers and magazines to vast swathes of social media platforms and comments
pages of e-Editions of newspapers and magazines.
With explosion of social media platforms and its
ever-growing user base as well as influence, trolling has become widespread,
followed by minimum reaction time. Also it has surpassed traditional trolling
techniques by completely destroying monopoly of trolls.
Trolling In India:-
In India, trolling was monopoly of few intellectuals,
especially Leftist leaning intellectuals, Leftist journalists, authors and
media personalities. They used to create nonexistent issues to troll, lambast,
thrash, curse and criticize India’s Hindutva groups and indigenous ideologies.
Let’s us shed light on trolling by leftist intellectuals since 1947.
Trolling after Gandhi ji’s murder:-
In 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Marathi youth Nathuram Godse. During
his childhood, he attended RSS shakha, but later distanced himself from RSS
citing RSS incompatibility in dealing with Muslims. But still on 4 February
1948 Nehru government banned RSS for its so called involvement in Gandhi
assassination. On 11 July 1949, Government of India lifted ban on RSS after
failing to gather evidences of its involvement in Gandhi murder. To lift the
ban, Nehru government told then RSS chief Shri Guruji to express faith on
Indian constitution, to express respect for national flag and to draft
constitution for RSS.
The RSS was banned for its so called involvement in
Gandhi murder and Nehru government lifted the ban on RSS after assurance of
expressing faith on Indian Constitution! In all, it was so ridiculous exercise,
which many Congress leaders believed that it helped RSS growth rather than
stopping it.
Later, on November 21st 1966, a Commission
of Inquiry named as Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur Commission of Inquiry has been set
up to unearth conspiracy to assassinate Gandhi. The report was made public by
Indian Home Ministry in the 1970. As per
Justice Kapur Commission report, the "RSS as organization were not
responsible either directly or indirectly, for the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi and it has not been logically proved that the accused were ever members
of the RSS.
First, Nehru government lifted ban on RSS for not able
to prove its role in murder and then Justice Kapur Commission categorically
said that RSS was not involved in Gandhi assassination. But still in the year
2016; after long 68 years of Gandhi murder, good chunk of journalists, writers,
authors and political leaders used to hurl abuse at RSS and other Hindu groups
for its role in Gandhi murder. It is most shameless act of trolling in modern
India. While trolling RSS in connection with Gandhi murder, these trolls
conveniently ignored findings of Nehru government and Justice Kapur Commission
report.
Same phenomenon is described by veteran journalist
Arun Shourie, he said- For our friends, Commission of inquiry credible only
if it is useful in proving their prototype allegations!
No one is lagging behind in trolling RSS in Gandhi
murder case. And still creating hue and cry for being trolled online!
Trolling after Jhabua nuns gang rape case:-
In Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district 4 nuns were gang raped by tribal youths in
the year 1998. Then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh coined it as
communal act and concocted meaning of his statement was Hindutva outfits rapes
4 nuns. State Police arrested some 24 tribal youths in connection with nuns’
gang rape case out of that 12 were tribal Christians. Police concluded that
fierce rivalry between two groups of same village led to retributory attack on
nuns for the reason that they took stand in favor of another group.
Interestingly both groups consisted of Hindus and Christians.
But Indian intellectuals and Indian media were on
forefront in terming the gang rape case as Hindutva assault on Christian nuns.
They trolled Hindu outfits with such fervor that media ethics and journalistic
code of conduct proved ultimate victim. For their own convenience, they
continued to quote MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh as their valuable source of
information to coin Hindu groups as main culprit in gang rape case. No one took
the pain to visit the place where incidence occurred.
Till the date, these media trolls continue to refer
Jhabua Nuns gang rape case whenever they need to refer Hindutva terror.
Trolling after Graham Staines lynching:-
On 23rd January 1999 Australian
Christian missionary Graham Staines, along with his two sons Philip &
Timothy, was burnt to alive by a unknown gang members at Manoharpur village of
Keonjhar district in Odisha. State Police arrested local leader Dara Singh for
killing Graham Staines. It took great time for state police and then Justice
Wadhwa Commission of Inquiry set up by to reach to the conclusion about
lynching of Christian missionary. But the tools and techniques of investigation
available with Indian media and intellectuals were so accurate, speedy,
efficient and sophisticated that they declared Dara Singh as Bajrang Dal leader
and lynching was pre planned conspiracy to wipe out missionaries from tribal
belts of Odisha.
Dara Singh himself told in a statement to state police
that he was enraged due to aggressive proselytization activities by Staines and
Co. and particularly due to verbal abuse and insult of Hindu deities by
Christian missionaries. He clearly denied being associated with any Hindu
outfit on multiple occasions. But Hindutva trolling was at its peak and the
trolls were not in mood to pardon Hindu groups for crime which they never
committed!
These trolls painted Graham Staines as humanitarian
missionary without any sort of animosity with local tribal. But fortunately
Justice Wadhwa Commission exposed their lie by ordering Australian Missionary
Society to produce monthly issues of missionary magazine “Tidings” which used
to publish Graham and Gladys Staines regular dispatches send from Odisha. The
missionary society didn’t make it available to Wadhawa Commission fearing
expose of their lie, so Commission made it available by other means. The issues
of “Tidings” left Indian trolls red faced and exposed. As humanitarian image of
Staines couple was teared apart in “Tidings”. In each and every Tidings issue,
there were reports sent by Staines couple, narrating fierce opposition to
missionary activities by local tribal. There were hundreds of incidences of
violent clashes of missionaries with local tribal, which were aggrieved was
aggressive evangelization activities of missionaries under Staines leadership.
There were mentions of police intervening in summer camp fearing local
backlash.
At the end, Justice Wadhava Commission concluded that
Dara Singh was self-styled tribal leader without any affiliation with existing
Hindu organizations.
But still, these trolls continued to thrash, abuse and
troll Hindutva groups and particularly Bajrang Dal- VHP for murder of Staines.
Their logic is clear- Though Hindutva groups were not involved in murder, their
ideology created congenial atmosphere for such anti- Christian acts! What a
joke!
Trolling after Godhra train burning:-
On February 29th 2002, a train carrying Hindu Karsewaks returning
from Ayodhya burnt down at Godhra railway station in Gujrat killing 59 innocent
Hindu Karsewaks. The incidence sparked violent clashes between Hindus and
Muslims all over Gujrat. About thousand people died from both communities in
the riot which is collectively called as Godhra riots. Then Modi government was
accused of supporting Hindu backlash against Muslims, using state machinery.
But the fact was that about 200 people that died in police and Army firing
while executing shoot-at-sight orders, 95% were Hindus and total 27,000 Hindus
arrested against 7500 Muslim arrest as preventive measures.
But trolls in media and intellectuals are not
satisfied with the facts, they did their best to undermine tragedy of Godhra
train burning, ignored hard facts which are available on public domain, and
continued to attribute everything related to 2002 Gujarat riots to Hindu
groups.
Godhra riots were consistently exploited by media
trolls to earn credit points and to grab highest civil awards! Many
Padmbhushan- Padmashri awards are distributed to professional media trolls!
Hindu bashing under the guise of Godhra riots took the
trolling to new height and it lasted for about 12 years until most persecuted
person after Godhra- Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister!
Profiles of
trolling victims:- The TV channel which put direct question on
trolling is facing allegations of tax fraud and Mr Sanjay Dutt, the owner of
private security firm Quantum Securities has filed a writ petition against the
channel along with separate complaints at Enforcement Directorate and
Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation for allegedly committing tax
manipulations and inflating share prices.
But you can’t
ask the hard questions to this channel, as it will place you in the category of
internet trolls. Whenever common man ask these trolling masters difficult
questions, they used to play victimhood. They used to coin new terms to defend
them and to refrain from answering real questions.
Same thing is
happening with latest trolling victim- a lady journalist and TV anchor of same
channel. No doubt, the language used against her, by social media users was
highly objectionable and condemnable. But we can’t ignore the fact that, once
India’s top most financial intelligence agency had recorded telephonic
conversation of same lady journalist, while fixing ministerial portfolios along
with famous corporate lobbyist. She was actually playing the role of power
broker keeping aside journalistic ethics. Still she used to sermon India’s
social, political and especially Hindutva movement about ethics and moral
values! It’s ridiculous! But again, you can’t ask her about infamous Nira Radia
tapes. As, if anyone ask her about it, she will start shouting day and night
for so called character assassination, she will tell her audience, that she is
being targeted for being female! She will claim victimhood instead of giving
answer to common man!
Analyzing
Jaitely’s ‘Ignore or Digest’ statement:- As we
discussed the biggest trolling victim in India- RSS, has successfully employed
‘Ignore and Digest’ technique against most aggressive and obscene trolling
campaigns in independent India, we can conclude that, trolling, even in most
crude and aggressive form can’t break your resolve, commitment and dedication.
So, just
‘Ignore and Digest’ it!!!
