Recently, a tweet by BJP MP Paresh Rawal against the author Arundhati Roy sparked a row. At the same time, a tweet by singer Abhijeet against JNU student Shehla Rashid also sparked a controversy.
People reacted to these tweets for many reasons. Some reactions were political, some thought the tweets were abusive, some thought they were in bad taste. But we should not ignore the fact that these tweets show the real faces of these people. They have shown us their heart, and now we have to decide how to deal with this.
Here are 5 reasons why we should not ignore these tweets:
1. They Show That Personal Attacks Are The Easiest
None of these tweets displays any deep ideology or thought. They directly target individuals. This is the easiest thing to do in this world. Abuse a person. When you cannot fight a battle politically or ideologically, you fight it through personal abuse.
2. They Show That Women Are Soft Targets
Be it 2017, or a century ago, women have always been easy targets, owing to how society chooses to exploit them. These two tweets were against two women. Both women have been outspoken and fearless in expressing their views. Abusers tend to choose women because they can say things which may hurt them directly. Or, given society’s attitudes, it is easy to say ‘dirty’ things about a woman. This is the most cowardly thing possible.
3. They Show That Violence Is In Your Heart
Whether you believe it or not, you are violent. You are so violent that you are ready to ‘use’ a woman as a human shield against stone pelters. You are so violent that you can comment on the character of a woman and indicate that she is a ‘sex worker’.
4. They Show Ideological Bankruptcy
If you look at the behaviour of these people, you will understand that they do not have any true ideological opponents. They do not know what to oppose, and why to oppose. They just want to oppose.
5. They Show Patriarchy At Its Finest
You should not ignore the patriarchy. These tweets display the kind of mindsets that believe that women are tools that can be ‘used’ as human shields or for physical satisfaction.
By all means, we should outrage against these tweets, or protest against them. But we should not ignore them or treat them as insignificant. Because they show a problem that goes far deeper than just a few tweets.