Many of you may have already watched Chhichhore. It was motivational as it showed the sad reality of our education system and contemplated the meaning of success and inevitability of failure. However, I am going to talk about another aspect of the movie which may be connected with today’s political atmosphere in India.
In the movie, students of Hostel 4 (H4) try to defeat rival Hostel 3 (H3) in a college sports championship by hooting some slogans. Those slogans were demeaning and demotivating for H3 which pressurized them and made an all-time winning team lose. Those critical slogans put so much weight on the confident team that they succumbed to losing.
So, can we relate this tactic to today’s political trolling team on social media? Let’s take a look at Twitter or Facebook, which is filled with persistent violent and obscene comments that criticise the ruling party. Trolls do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of caste, gender, religion and just throw abuses on an ideological basis. It suppresses the voice of even constructive criticism. It seems that no one will listen to you even if you speak rationally or logically. No one will care whether you put facts or data validating your arguments. You will get only one thing, i.e. trolls.
Do you think these trolls are genuine? No, these are artificial trolls created by teams hired by political parties to demean other’s critic. They exist just to put opposing views on the sideline. They exist just to stop someone from putting their views freely by scaring them using abusive trolls. Many times, I have stopped myself from putting my views by thinking that “log nahi samjhenge, kitna hi koshish karlo” (people won’t understand, irrespective of how much ever you try). But, I did not know that these are not individuals but some PR teams of political parties.
I was always perplexed by how some eminent people or journalists continuously criticise the government or any other party freely despite receiving trolls that disrespect their dignity. But, that is the spirit! I assume they also know about the reality of artificial social media trolls and don’t fall for such tactics.
I just want to say that like the H4 team in Chhichhore did, similar tactics are being used on social media. Do not let yourself get sidestepped over conveying your views. People are listening to you and understand your genuine criticism irrespective of anything.