JOIN USTrolls have become common weapons to attack and hurt people in politics, cinema, media and other areas of life. Very often they breach the bounds of propriety and decency with the use of vulgar and abusive language. Threats and intimidations which may be treated as offences under the laws of the land are not uncommon. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj became a target of vicious trolling in the past few days after the ministry took action against a passport official in Lucknow for ill-treating an interfaith couple who had applied for passports. The couple had sought Swaraj’s intervention through social media and she had taken the initiative to address and resolve their grievance. But the minister was attacked for helping a Muslim woman and a Hindu married to her and for taking action against the official who had humiliated them and failed in his official duty. She was even asked whether she had changed after a kidney replant.
Swaraj handled the attacks on her well by drawing attention to them through some of her own tweets. She said that she liked some of the tweets about her and even asked people whether they liked them. She did well to expose her attackers to public scrutiny and judgement and to allow people to form an opinion on their conduct. The fact that 43% of her followers supported the trolling is shocking and shows that the standards of public and popular discourse are hitting new lows. There are also instances of trolls becoming both heinous and blatantly illegal, when legal action is required. All this is misuse of the social media and it will not go unnoticed that Hindutva zealots and those who hold extreme rightwing views are in the forefront of the abusive attacks. Very often the attacks become well-coordinated campaigns, with many people taking the cue from one, giving the impression that the attack has wide public support. Swaraj in fact became a victim of the culture and practices promoted by her own party.
A significant and worrying aspect of the Twitter attack on Swaraj was that her party failed to stand behind her and support her. Among the ministers, only Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari disapproved of the trolls, that too in meek statements days after the lack of support for her by ministers and leaders was noticed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained an eloquent silence on the matter. Quite clearly, the leaders do not want to take on their support base and put an end to the vicious culture because there are political returns from it.