mob lynching: Are we celebrating violence?

The recent news of the Septuagenarian doctor lynched to death by in Assam, raised massive outrage and the people from different walks of life came together to protest the dastardly act. While the medical community took out protest against mob attack against their profession, most people began to feel insecure about the possibility of such attacks that could be triggered with the slightest mistake. Mob lynching is not new nor is it justified to only relate it to certain governmental policies or ideologies alone. Rather, mob lynching can be traced back to the times when it was usually associated in the early eighties. In the United States, it became an instrument directed toward blacks, who made up a highly disproportionate number of its victims. Lynching then overturned polarity to become not a white response to black atrocity but rather it took the form of white mechanism to keep blacks down. This kind of natural justice was not just directed to vent out unified anger but also as a display of terror of what possibly could be the fate, if things went out of order. With sporadic cases of mob lynching raising its ugly head time and again, it became a part of parliamentary discussion too, especially in the wake of the brutal lynching of Abhijit and Nilutpal in the pristine hills of Karbi Anglong where the people were said to be misdirected by fake news of child lifting. This was followed by similar stories repeating in West Bengal, Bihar and other states of India. Not simply attributing it to fake news or limiting it to be a techno-centric problem, we should keep in mind that mob lynching has a history and the root of this kind of attack lies in the fact that we often tend to celebrate violence in many forms. Violence conducted against another, be it a spouse or neighbor in public, is often covered extensively by media. A petty thief, if caught, suffers a horrific fate at the hands of the public or the owner of a vehicle who is part of an accident is often provided with mob justice, irrespective of who is responsible for the accident. The media through its extensive coverage always tends to celebrate this, which, in turn leads people to believe that mob justice is instant, self-righteous and effective. Most of the times, news channels are invited to witness pre-planned violence and sometimes vocal threats that are directed towards a particular party are very beautifully captured by the camera to show the audience. Of course, if the United States of America blames video games for gun violence rather than easy availability of arms for gun violence, simply attributing mob violence resulting from fake news or hatred towards a profession or community would be myopic. Should there not be a change in our attitude of providing instance justice? Has the legal system failed itself in providing timely justice? Perhaps it’s time to retrospect and that too very minutely at our news and television content. A change of perspective would be revealing. The story was published in insidene.com

Election-wise and vote ready

It is surely not the first time that as a voter, we have been exposed to media that reeks of political manifestos, propagandas and interest, but surely it is the first time where we fail to identify what is real, what is fake, what is trustworthy and what is not. Quite interestingly, media and politics have wrapped around each other so tight that its quite difficult to now identify where it all starts and where it ends. Television shows are now full of panel discussions abundant with mud-slinging and over-lapping of conversations with a jury styled journalist deciding who is right and who is wrong with little room for freedom of expression. The last time I heard radio was in the bus where there were ads designed to make the people question the policies and regular conversations without exactly telling people the outcome of each policy and hovering in whataboutery. Trolls and memes have taken over the social media and there hardly goes a scan in the social media where we do not see two people arguing over a political party, hell bent on proving their point to the large number of invisible audience who very quietly read the content and enjoy the public banter on a social forum. Even films are mostly biopic that represents a particular leader from a certain perspective designed to make the character look acceptable and lovable. What the real matter now is how media literate are we to consume media that banks heavily on content generated by the political parties? Are the people really matured to understand or segregate truth from fabricated ideas or is the country that is heavily dependent on social media thinking twice before forwarding a fake on half truth to others. These issues of misguided information are now circulating across and nothing remains completely aloof from politics. Last year alone there were close to 300 deaths resulting from fake social media messages and this year alone 100 messages are doing the networks every day that had little or no element of truth. Merely raising awareness on voting will not solve the issues of the largest democracies, but there should be series of workshops that will let people understand how to choose content over misinformation. Should there be not regulations on news presenters present unbiased stories or how headlines do not reflect opinion but objectivity. In a nation of a million voters, difference of choice is but obvious but what is important is how to identify whether the leader that promises to fulfil certain objectives are exactly what the voter is looking for. Large scale campaigns on media literacy in all the forms, print, television, radio, social media and even films is the need of the hour. This off course could be carried out by independent bodies whose primary objective should be to let people exercise their voting rights judiciously and not simply be swayed by appeals or agendas. Voting is a right and responsibility but voting responsibly should be the lookout for all members of the society For feedback mail at anupalahkar@gmail.com