Another rant

 October 17, 2020

 

It’s a rare Saturday morning at home and I’m trying to re-discover the fine art of going nowhere. Because really there is nowhere to go. It’s an extremely hot day, with hazy air, but all the construction noise has quieted, I have eaten a yummy kimchi omelette, and I feel indulged.

 

I watched another debate about the withdrawal of the Tanishq ad. These debate shows are frustrating. The same stuff is bandied around and questions that could take the issues deeper are not asked. Though even just debating the issues to a depth on a tv show feels pointless in the current political climate when values are determined by mass trolling. But there were a couple of points made that went past without much unpacking that still linger for me. 

 

The first was about cancel culture. The point made was that liberals, along with the help of corporations, have been getting away too long with cancel culture. Their own bhasmasura (demon who had been granted the power to turn anyone he touched on the head to ashes) has now come back to haunt them as social media has allowed the masses to voice their opinions. His point being that at first only the liberals, a very small minority, had voices – has this really been the case? And now everyone does, and we finally hear the dissenting voices, those dissenting against the liberal viewpoints he meant. Of course, he didn’t say that this army of trolls has been deliberately created by think tanks and IT cells to support the ruling BJP. He didn’t say that the PM and HM follow these accounts. 

 

In any case, I didn’t understand what he was saying. Mainly because I don’t get how this ad supports cancel culture? I mean the ruling party does propagate communal hatred, but I don’t get how the ad was shaming that? Unfortunately nobody probed this, or maybe everyone understood his point?

 

And the second point in the debate was made by a man who said, if the ad had shown both sides then it would have been ok. The trolls wouldn’t have been upset then. At first, I didn’t get this either. What both sides? As he spoke further, I understood he meant communal tension was the other side that should have been shown. It is a reality in India and the world.

 

So really, are ads now supposed to show communal hatred? Are products to be sold through creating disharmony? Or am I totally missing what he meant?

 

But if all of us who talk about communal harmony have to also show the other side then shouldn’t those who talk about communal hatred show the other side too? Shouldn’t the BJP besides calling Muslims, infiltrators, illegal immigrants, terrorists etc. also call them peaceful, loyal citizens of India and more.

 

Though, this insistence on what else we liberals should protest is not new. Whenever we raise our voices about anything the ‘whataboutery’ starts. 

 

Of course, BJP followers — ones who normally post a fair bit about political issues — have remained silent on this, as they have on the absurd Ayodhya verdict, on the indignity of Hathras, lawlessness in UP, the mess of the economy. Instead they still post about Sushant Singh Rajput, about music or food, and other less significant things. Their silence on these issues helps the strong voices of the trollers in establishing a new India.