Tavleen Singh writes: Trolling as a political weapon

Indian Express

2 days ago

When you have been trolled on social media as often as I have, you learn to ignore the garbage that is flung at you. I am also aware that on social media political parties that do not like what you write or say have discovered that the way to shut you up is by maligning you so that you finally agree with them or shut up. As someone whose private life has been dredged through filth regularly on social media, I have chosen to ignore trolls from both our main political parties.
If this week I am choosing to pay attention to spiteful trolls and the tawdry political machinery that keeps them in business, it is because it is not possible to remain silent when you are accused of treason. Silence against a charge as serious as treason is unwise at the best of times and more so in the wake of a war when hostilities remain so alive that the Prime Minister rarely makes a speech these days in which he does not threaten Pakistan. Hostilities are still so alive that Pakistani singers have been erased from Spotify and thousands of Pakistani social media handles have been erased as well. Why India should be so insecure in victory is hard to understand but that is a subject for another day.
This week let me stick to the treason charge that was flung at me last week on social media. As someone who has just discovered ChatGPT and Grok, I am new to the marvels and dangers of Artificial Intelligence so I posted on X a video of Donald Trump mocking the Indian Air Force with the rider that if this was not fake, then we should realise that Trump is not on our side. I did this because I truly was not sure that it was a fake. And because it has angered me that instead of supporting our war against terrorism, the American President has equivocated and made India and Pakistan sound like juvenile, querulous neighbours fighting over something that has 'gone on for a thousand years.'
Also, I have heard from friends in foreign countries that the impression they have formed of Operation Sindoor is that it was a draw. That Pakistan was attacked by India and that it fought back. This narrative is so prevalent that our Prime Minister has sent all-party delegations to countries across the globe to correct the narrative. So, it did not surprise me to see a video of Trump making fun of the Indian Air Force. What has surprised me is that because of it the BJP's army of trolls has now accused me of being a Pakistani agent and 'having an agenda'.
This second charge came from a podcast, followed by eminent members of the BJP's higher echelons, in which a woman who could not get my name right gave me lessons in journalism. She said that journalism is not just about opinions but about checking facts before putting them out. She then proceeded to accuse me of being a supporter of Pakistan and an enemy of India's development without checking her own facts. She could have begun by getting my name right.
If she were not followed by senior BJP leaders, I would not have bothered to respond but since she is, I feel the need to clarify the facts. In charging me with having an anti-India agenda she mentioned two specific incidents. One about a Dalit child who drowned and who, she claims, I 'lied' had acid thrown in his face by upper caste thugs. The truth is that I follow a Dalit handle that records atrocities against Dalits, most of them horrific and all too real, and I have reposted them often adding the words 'another horror story'. This podcast lady claims that in this case, there was no atrocity. It was too long ago for me to remember but since atrocities against Dalits are routine does it matter?
Then Miss Patriot went on to charge me with having opposed Atal Bihari Vajpayee's golden quadrilateral in a long-ago column in India Today. She saw this as an example of my being an enemy of India's development. If she had read the article she would have discovered that what I objected to was existing roads being widened into highways in the name of building new ones. What I suggested was that the money being spent on widening these roads would have been better spent on building an access-controlled highway between Delhi and Mumbai.
In any case, the point I am trying to make this week is that it is not about one nasty harridan or others of her ilk. If they were not backed at the highest levels by either the BJP or the Congress Party, they would be people of no consequence. Sadly, they are backed by our two major political parties and trust me when I tell you that they are such a third-rate, tawdry bunch of trolls that the leaders of these parties should notice that it is they who are shamed every time they open their foul mouths.
It is not political points that they end up making but personal attacks that seek mostly to defame someone so badly that they shut up. I have chosen instead to develop a thick skin. But it is not thick enough to withstand a charge of treason.