Trolls Hit New Low By Targeting Sagarika Ghose And Rajdeep Sardesai’s Children

For Sagarika Ghose and Rajdeep Sardesai, social media trolling, especially by the right-wing trolls is not something new, but this time it has taken an ugly turn. Trolls are dragging their children in public domain and questioning irregularities in their admission procedures. I don’t understand the need of dragging family members in fights on any account.

I remember sometime back Sagarika had taken a break from Twitter when she got rape threats, which hinted that they knew where her daughter studied. Imagine how terrifying it must be for a mother who might be too worried or confused on whether to take such threats seriously or not.

I think that it’s fine for someone to disagree with Rajdeep or Sagarika, but making such vile personal threats for saying things that do not adhere to their political allegiance is not justified. It just shows how deprived and frustrated that person is who slanders you by trashing your work, calling names, abusing and even launching hate campaigns to destroy you.

This is not the first time that right-wing trolls have attacked Sagarika and Rajdeep. There have been instances where they even mocked for their goof ups or misread facts, but this time it has taken an ugly turn involving family.

The whole issue started with Prashant P. Umrao questioning Ishan Sardesai’s admission in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University. What followed was series of attack carried out by right-wing trolls saying all kind of things about Rajdeep and Sagarika. I can understand that advocate Prashant wanted to expose irregularities in Kasturba Medical College – he alleges that Ishan secured admission under the NRI quota violating the regulation, but this should be dealt with legally outside twitter.

Some of them started name calling, slamming their work, and even questioning their work of ethics. Some others even called them out saying that they are paid journalists making money illegally. I mean all this for saying things which you don’t agree or don’t fit into your political ideology?

I sometimes wonder- do these people want every well-known person disagreeing with their political ideology leaving twitter or any social media? Maybe Indians take offence at everything – including a harmless joke on their favourite celebrity or a statement against their political ideology. Trolls are frustrated people who are not happy their life, hiding under the tweet box under cloud anonymity so that they can attack and slander well-known people.

Trying to put an end to the allegation, Sagarika tried to clear the air with tweets to prove that there was no irregularity in his son’s admission, and repeatedly requesting people not to drag family into unnecessary trolling but trolls were no mood to listen.

Many of them came forward to extend their support and solidarity towards Sagarika and Rajdeep, which included Swara Bhaskar, who has faced cyberbullying herself.

Let’s learn to disagree with people and have a discussion with dignity than indulging in name calling and slander.

‘Slander is the tool of a loser when a debate is lost.’ – Socrates