My husband landed at the Agartala airport – he was on his monthly visit to his native place – and immediately gave me a call. “You know, there is a 48-hour internet blackout here?” Infuriated he continues, “Some WhatsApp rumor of child abduction is going on. two hawkers from Uttar Pradesh were lynched!”
PROGRESSIVE INDIA OR AGGRESSIVE INDIA?
“What is happening to our country!” I exclaimed! Remember a decade back, we would continuously get to see and hear about anti-polio campaigns? How the Superstar Amitabh Bachchan with a lot of gravitas propagate about polio vaccination? Remember “Bula Di’s” HIV AIDS campaign?
These campaigns were our nation’s goal to tread the progressive, educative and logical path.
2018 AND LYNCHINGS INDIA – THE QUINT REPORT
2018 and here’s the haunting statistics from The Quint
Read it, view it and get agitated yourself. Because I am going through a rollercoaster ride of emotional upheaval.
KILLING THE INNOCENT? HOW ABOUT EDUCATING THE IGNORANT?
The last lynching that cost the lives of two youths from Guhawati, Assam – one was an entrepreneur and the other a budding musician – where they were seen pleading to the villagers that they are natives of Assam, to spare them. It all started by a single villager who simply could not handle two men’s presence – and he called others in the pretext that the kidnappers about whom they read via WhatsApp are here.
Without thinking twice or even having an iota of empathy – the somewhat – 200 villagers lynched and killed the two men. And why?
A WhatsApp Child Kidnapping Rumour!
I read every day in newspapers and watch news online about Government spending hundreds-thousands of ‘Crores’ tax money on building ‘bullet train’, ‘linking roads’ and all the Jazz.
My Questions:
– Why is the government not taking any step on stopping these lynchings?
– What is the government doing about killing in the name of Cow Slaughter, WhatsApp Rumours….?
– Why isn’t the government starting campaigns educating the uneducated about the right use of digital information, like through WhatsApp?
– If every village has access to mobile phones, WhatsApp, Facebook, then what is stopping the government to use these platforms to educate and inform the people from remote areas about Fake News, WhatsApp Rumours?
We as responsible, tax-paying citizens – who can pay taxes for “Swacch Bharat”…”Beti Bachao, Beti Parao”, “Graamin Yojojana …” taxes, will be happy to pay another percentage of our Salary for educating India about the right use of Digital Platforms.
The government and us Citizens together can stop killing in the name of Rumours, False Religious Values.