The Drowned Voice of Logical Media in the Cacophony of Left/Right Activists

I woke up on a Monday morning to read that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel received a lot of flak for calling India a “poor country”. The issue is not that India was called a poor country. The issue is that those boycotting Snapchat believe that ‘their’ India is not a poor country coupling their wrath with their frangible national pride. Honestly, the statement made was largely true. Considering the population, economic wealth, per capita income, illiteracy- India does top the charts from bottom. The statement, no matter how inappropriate or tactless, was not as blasphemous as it was interpreted to be. In fact, it is not improbable to presume that lacs of Indians who are calling for #boycottSnapchat do realize that India is still a developing country.

Later Sonu Nigam becomes the subject of the crowd’s wrath by labeling morning “azaan” as “forced religiousness”. People burst out over a piffling tweet which in all honesty deserves merit. Haven’t all of us, at some point in our lives been irked by blaring loudspeakers because of some neighborhood jagran or a religious ritual. The singer was unnecessarily dragged into this because the infamous comment came at a time when religious extremism is at its peak. Talking about Diwali cracker pollution leads to criticizing Muslims for sacrificing goats. The beef ban is a blow on one community whereas not doing the same is supposedly hurting the sentiments of the other. We are okay with treating a punch with a punch. We have so engaged ourselves in blaming each other that we have forgotten to take a stand for the right. Sonu Nigam merely just expressed his discomfort over a societal practice and clearly ‘insisted’ that he is not anti any individual or any communal group. He definitely did not deserve the bullying that he got.

The fact that half the trollers and overenthusiastic Indians who went ahead to confuse Snapdeal with Snapchat and Sonu Sood with Sonu Nigam, further demonstrates our ignorance and yet again proves the point that we are in such a haste to take offense that we sideline logic.

For once when we thought that the netizenry has calmed, Katy Perry stirred the shitstorm again by posting a harmless image of Goddess Kali. Not to forget that she is the same person who is really closely connected with our culture and got married in Rajasthan in 2010. The wedding was a pure Desi affair with feras and exchange of varmalas.  A banal Instagram post became the subject of controversy and hate comments were hurled out.

The irony is that those standing up for the country and speaking up for the Indian religious sentiments and moralities in addition to berating the Snapchat CEO also went a step ahead to troll his fiancé Miranda Kerr. We are the same people who don’t think twice before bullying the singer who we once applauded for outstanding contribution to the country’s music. And yet again, we are still the same people who can beat any nation when it comes to fan following. Remember the 5 hours wait in the scorching sun just to see Coldplay perform once ? But we even did not shy away on questioning their song ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ and criticizing it for misusing India’s culture.

The real problem is that all the ‘activists’ calling out for the nation or any religion or any individual are focusing more on being correct rather than being appropriate. We should definitely be agitated but intolerance should not be impulsive, should not be driven by emotions but logic. Our anger should be directed in ‘solving’ the problems rather than these uncalled hate expressions. This resentment needs to stop and it needs to stop eating through our media circles into our social lives.

Here, I rest my case!