“My account was hacked” is the new “My dog ate my homework”, on social media.
Social media was outraging over the stalking incident involving Haryana BJP chief’s son and the alleged cover-up that followed. But some on social media were trying to defend the accused, by raising questions over the character of the victim.
A picture, purportedly showing the victim and the BJP chief’s son in a rather friendly pose, went viral on social media. This was used by some to claim that the two had been friends, and possibly romantically involved, and this could just be a love story gone sour.
Although some on social media, especially BJP supporters, used this picture, many others including BJP spokesperson Tajinder Singh Bagga had very early on stated that the picture was in fact not of the BJP chief’s son at all:
No he is not Barala https://t.co/h2bBtkivhB
— Tajinder Bagga (@TajinderBagga) August 7, 2017
But as is commonly seen on social media, fake news travels faster than the truth, and the picture still became viral. In fact it eventually became so popular that even BJP National executive member Shaina NC was seen tweeting the picture, with an equally aggressive caption:
Soon, social media users pointed out that this was a misleading picture used for victim blaming, and Shaina NC promptly deleted her tweet. While people were expecting an apology, Shaina NC decided to pull a page from Rajdeep Sardesai’s book. She claimed that her account had been “hacked”:
Just gt access back to my account; some mischievous folks had hacked the account.
Please ignore any activity on my account of past few hours— ShainaNC (@ShainaNC) August 7, 2017
This was followed by a quick change in tone and tenor.
Modesty of a woman shd be respected.Any act of indignity agnst women is highly looked down upon.Unlike congress,our gov will ensure justice
— ShainaNC (@ShainaNC) August 7, 2017
Rajdeep Sardesai too had pulled the same stunt last year when his social media users complained of receiving abusive messages from Sardesai’s account. The hacker who hacked into Sardesai’s account has not been found yet.
In fact even today, Rajdeep was not far away from the action. As scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan had pointed out, Rajdeep Sardesai and Gaurav Sawant belonged to the same India Today stable, but had different views on the CCTV footage at Chandigarh:
While Rajdeep claimed the footage had “gone missing”, implying that the footage had existed and then been made to disappear, his colleague Sawant tweeted that the footage was not available at all, since the CCTV cameras were not working. Rajdeep suggested malafide intent, whereas Sawant implied that it was just the CCTV system not functioning.
A good 5 hours later, Rajdeep updated his version, but again it was camouflaged as a statement by the Chandigarh police:
Of course Rajdeep Sardesai, is known to spread lies on twitter every now and then, and has not yet been questioned by social media on this issue. Or else we may get to know of one more “hacking” incident.
And coming back to Shaina NC and some other BJP leaders or supporters who are tying themselves up while trying to defend the accused, they should heed to the suggestion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he had sent out in his very first speech in the parliament — keep your mouth shut rather than issuing senseless statements when crimes against women happen:
