Tension filled the air in Cuncolim after a self-styled lady activist on social media posted a video where she launched a vitriolic attack on sections of the majority community and charged them with land-grab and wrongdoing in the guise of bhakti. In a furious reaction, hundreds of aggrieved citizens took to the streets, blocked traffic and demanded an arrest while also seeking an apology.
Eventually, the police managed to negotiate a truce after the vlogger emerged with folded hands surrounded by a strong posse of police while the crowd was seething with anger and emotion in the background. Winds of uncertainty were blowing thick and fast as the situation was slipping out of control with violence and lathicharge appearing to be a possibility.
Incidentally, another incident that caught the eye was the arrest of a Ponda resident who was picked up by the Karnataka police and booked under stringent sections for his social media post that amplified a part of the national political discourse that veers around redistribution of the wealth of the majority community.
The two incidents are certainly not connected but throw up pertinent questions on the role of social media as a mass outreach tool, the blatant abuse of the freedom of expression and the biases on display. While much has been spoken about the veracity and authenticity of social media posts in an emerging trend of doctoring videos and fake posts that create false narratives, hate posts are fast taking society to a nadir of hate, intolerance and discord with a toothless system failing to keep pace. Perhaps, the enforcement doesn't realise that it is skating on thin ice as evident in Cuncolim.
Numerous citizens have styled themselves as activists and taken undue advantage of the lack of censorship on some social media platforms to post uncensored, defamatory and derogatory content, sometimes in the most malicious form. Police action against such elements has become a joke, and it was on display in Cuncolim too. A day after the Cuncolim incident, the same self-styled activist released another video stoking yet another controversy and raising suspicion about whether select sections of the political class are using such vloggers as tools to target opponents.
Alas, we live in a Goa where religious nationalism is increasingly taking root and superseding everything else, including personal rights and dignity. A rabid and unjustified commentary on personal lives is passable, but not a remote reference to religion. Religion is considered sacrosanct, but unfortunately, nobody bothers about any character assassination of individuals. Religion has become an instrument of political warfare and the drift in narratives is as clear as daylight.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right guaranteed to citizens in a democratic India, but as the world continues to walk on that slippery slope trying to strike a balance between undeterred free speech and censorship, open social media source becomes a highly debatable and controversial subject that threatens to tear societies apart.
The call to exercise restraint has been inefficacious in current restive times where communal emotion and intolerance ride high. The need of the hour is for the government of the day to be the neutral umpire and exercise discretion with utmost sincerity. It has to balance fair play and the toughness needed to do justice to its bounden duty of maintaining peace in a State that has always been a beacon of harmony for others.
