M/s. Goebbels, Stalin & Company - When Social Networking became Anti Social

Long before India got Kapil Sibal, history has seen persecution of voice opposing or rather trying to oppose autocratic and unpopular rule. There have been kings who have crushed any voice against their reign but then that was a different time and kings were considered or made to be considered as representative of Gods.

A flashback to the contemporary history brings names of Joseph Goebbels or Joseph Stalin to our mind. While the former was the Reich Minister of Propaganda during the Nazi rule in Germany, the latter was the premier of erstwhile Soviet Union from 1941 to 1953. Apart from having the common first name, they were known for manipulating the news or rather influencing news to their advantage. Both were masters of censorship of media. While Goebbels used tools of propaganda to further the claims of his master, Stalin created something called Iron curtain which effectively closed USSR from ‘to & fro’ flow of news with the rest of the world.

With our Union Minister for Telecom, Mr. Kapil Sibal asking for partial censorship or in his words ‘monitoring the content’ flowing on social networking sites like twitter, Facebook etc, is India too going to see a perpetual clampdown on exchange of news and views. Are we again seeing an avatar of M/s. Goebbels, Stalin & Company?

May be I am getting too imaginative and my fear is far fetched but definitely we need to have a closer look at this diktat or ‘view’ presented by the Govt. of India.

Let’s have a look

The genesis of this ‘view’ can be traced back to a meeting Sibal had with legal representatives of popular social networking sites after he saw a FB page carrying, what he calls highly objectionable, content on Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.

Post that he said that he saw some internet sites carrying content and images which are highly objectionable for some religious community. And he signed off by saying that his views doe not tantamount to censorship of these sites but in essence calls for screening of content.

Fine, but Mr. Sibal does not elaborate on the highly objectionable content that was published by someone about Mrs. Gandhi. He also fails to let us know which religious community he is talking about. It’s like a half baked cake which he expects the site owners and us the site users to eat. Will we eat?

My answer is NO, we will not. The same feeling of anguish has come out from across the society and groups with different and diverse political & ideological leanings. But, why will we not accept this view of Sibal. There has to be a reason.

According to me, the reason can be found in the way this Congress led government has been functioning for last seven years and the second reason can be traced to the feeling of disappointment many people have developed towards the mainstream news mainly the electronic media. And, in my opinion both are closely inter-linked

Why am I stressing on Congress. This is simply because, as I wrote, the genesis of this current issue emanates, from a so called, offensive content on Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Congress due to whatever reasons have not been able to free itself from its ‘family owned party’ mentality. All their concerns & acts starts and ends at 10 Janpath. They have successfully followed their ideology of keeping this family over and above the party and in some cases even the nation. So naturally any attack on the president of Congress is deemed as an attack on the party and perhaps Congress is not liking it.

Since the second term of UPA started its rule, we have seen a plethora of issues and scams which has eroded our confidence and ability to trust the political class of this country. Not a single day passed without getting to know some new scams of this government. Coupled with that, there was age old rhetoric of Congress about BJP, Narendra Modi & questioning their secular leaning.

This situation got even worse as many and more people felt that , if not all, but certain sections of media , especially electronic media, were not up to mark in giving a proper ethical & unbiased coverage of all these issues. Much was left to be desired. The debates , every night, were not all inclusive in terms of opinions & views. Many times debates on less relevant issues came up. In such a scenario, the social networking sites namely Facebook & twitter provided a platform for the anguished people to share their woes & worry over the functioning of the country. Is there any thing OFFENSIVE about it? Is it not democratic to share their views?

Moreover, it is not that only common population came on such platforms but it has been used by representatives of media and also politicians ranging from Narendra Modi to Digvijay Singh. Why? Because they too saw the potency of this platform.

I ask certain basic questions

• If the senior most member of Congress & chairperson of ruling UPA, suddenly goes to New York for a health trip or surgery, shouldn’t the media investigate it, cover it? Did it? No. so it was left to people to discuss this very important issue on these networking sites.

• If suddenly the same person, accompanied by her son who is tipped to become future PM, suddenly dart off to the chill of Alps in Switzerland and its city called Zug, shouldn’t people be concerned. Was there any coverage on it especially since this visit happened in wake of a mass protest started by Baba Ramdev demanding disclosure on the illegal Swiss accounts. Again the general public were crestfallen with the response of the main stream media and took matter upon its own hands. They questioned the visit of Sonia Gandhi. There  is nothing wrong in questioning a public leader’s sudden moves.

• In a recent rally of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, public saw the horrendous retort by senor Congress leaders who kicked innocent protestors. Twiteratti (as people on twitter r known) responded and raised its questions on it.

• A virtual rape of democracy happened at Ram Lila Maidan, Delhi when the government authorized a severe lathi charge in the midnight upon a mass of protestors who were sleeping. It was bound to get reactions and it did. What is so undemocratic about comments on a sure shot undemocratic move of Govt.

• When the CM of Karnataka was arrested, enough and more people supported it, welcomed it. I am sure mr. Sibal did not find anything undemocratic or offensive then.

• When a Ishrat Jehan is heralded as a martyr despite a senior most government official claiming that she was a representative of LeT, discussions and exchange of views are bound to happen as it did. What is so offensive about it?

• When this government , out of the blue, decides to introduce a highly contentious bill allowing FDI in MBRT, shouldn’t we the people, who selected this government, debate this bill, its merits & demerits. What is so offensive about it?

The fact of the matter is that this present Government is too concerned about this powerful medium’s prowess in enabling an exchange of views, which basically question its own existence.  But what can people do? This government, due to its own acts, has given all the reasons to the public to share their angst. The choice of media was more because of its ease, reach and benefits.

Yes, there are cases of people using unparliamentary or unsolicited language/views about leaders or religion. But then there are few of such cases. For every Hindu trying to share an ill-conceived theory on other religion, there are ten Hindus who are ready to correct him. So few cases in isolation should not be a reason for such panic as exhibited by Sibal!

He should know that every human mind is blessed with an in-house ‘edit machine’ which does not accept any opinion and theory on its face value. The mind reacts and answers. All the expressions on either Twitter or Facebook have been REACTIVE to what has been seen as a lacking act of government. This should not upset Sibal so much.

Moreover, who has stopped him from creating his own twitter handle or a FB page to counter such views or share his views. For sure, he will get thousands of followers within no time

The exchange of information on such sites is healthy for the mind with people sharing news and diverse views. It creates a platform to understand and respect each other as individuals, communities and religion. What is so wrong in it? Don’t we see people exchanging news and views on strategic matters w.r.t India’s internal & external security

Mr Sibal should know that majority of 25Milllion users of FB & over 100 million users of google products are educated people. It is a sign of a healthy and conscious nation when its educated class gets active, reactive and pro active on diverse socio, economic & political issues. If our government is indeed serious about creating healthy minds and educated nation, it simply can not take away a means for further enrichment of our mind.

This censorship of networking sites smacks of a strong political intent and will not do our nation any good in near & distant future.