Social Media Monsters

An innocuous ad by Surf Excel stirred up unsavoury controversy the other day. Tens of thousands of Indians protested against the ad and demanded a boycott of the detergent. The ad seeks to promote communal harmony and the blood of too many Indians boiled! Why has India become such a place, a place full of hatred? It is a sad outcome of the ruling party’s policies and vision (lack of that, rather).

“[E]ntering the social media space in India has become like stepping into a mud-wrestling pit,” said Shashi Tharoor in his recent book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister. There are far too many Indians in the various social media who openly advocate violence against certain communities of people. The dominant political party in the country is spending millions of rupees to spew venom against certain people in these media portals.

 

By Amy Apollonian, a Facebook user

There are also people who question such spreading of hatred. There are a lot of Indians who still retain their sanity, who support love and cooperation instead of hatred and violence. The Surf Excel ad seeks to promote communal harmony. The massive protest against the ad reveals yet again the viciousness of the disease that has gripped the nation, thanks to the ruling party’s negligence in taking action against people who indulge in such activities. What should we expect when the ruler himself is an avatar of hatred?