cyberbullying
/ˈsʌɪbəˌbʊliɪŋ/
noun
meaning: the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
A Couple of days ago, a hero was born. A hero for the left, congress, AAP or more to put it with more objectivity — a hero for anyone who opposes Modi/BJP was born. A 28-year old hero whose parents are struggling with poverty, but he, instead of trying to earn for them, is living a luxurious life on state funds and glorifying poverty of his parents to gain sympathy. A hero who is using his FoE to the extreme and whose biggest ever achievement is getting arrested on charges of sedition. The orgasmic celebration of the same has been on since then.
On 6th March, I read about a girl Jhanvi Behal who challenged this new found leader for a debate. A girl who is just 15-year old; a girl, who, at 14, conducted a sting operation against liquor selling mafia in school and got them nabbed; a girl, who made a documentary on female foeticide; a girl whose efforts have been acknowledged by the PM on republic day. Mind you, she used her right to voice her opinion and media decided to air the same with articles and interviews. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Wow! at 15, this girl is so brave and aware”. I moved on to other news and forgot about Jhanvi.
But what I witnessed on the 7th morning was appalling, shocking and depressing. Jhanvi Behal was at the receiving end of jokes, mockery, veiled threats. The same liberals celebrating their JNU leader had turned into bullies — cyber bullies who seemed to have lost their head over a 15-year old girl challenge.
Most of these people, through their tweets, tried to corner her into silence and discredit her views.
And they were doing this unabashedly. With elan.
What gutted me was Twitter India politics & government head @raheelk was a part of it. He was mocking and teasing a 15-year old girl because she had an opinion. He himself and others have been vocally supportive of a once minor Malala, but when came to Jhanvi, all those ideals and principles were thrown out of window. They ganged up to humiliate her:
If a 15-year old Malala’s opinions and views can be celebrated and respected (rightly so) by them then what is the issue with Jahnvi here. Reasons for the intolerance and hypocrisy at parade? There was a conspiracy theory angle to as to the right was wrong in promoting Jhanvi because that will make her a subject of snark n ridicule of the left just like how few hold females wear short clothes or drinking responsible for rape and molestation
So while twitter head @jack has #Iammalala on his bio, here we have his twitterindia employee @raheelk bullying a 15-year old. I wonder what the twitter’s safety councile has to say about this. Irony is, couple of days ago twitter launched #PositionOfStrength campaign in india to empower women to raise voices against any form of discrimination, and their twitter india employee indulges in just that.
Until @raheelk was questioned on his disgusting behaviour, he didn’t (or still doesn’t) feel it was wrong and would have continued on his bullying spree. He has not apologised but has merely RTed others arguments defending him. If he feels he was not wrong, why did he subsequently delete his tweets (wonder why?)
All this while i kept wondering why,why was she being cornered like this. What was her crime. Having an opinion? Supporting Modi? Having questioned their new god from JNU? Having a political view opposite to their is illegal?
Why was this cyber bullying taking place.
Cyber bullying of minor should not be taken lightly. Every other day we read about victims of cyberbullying,online intimidation & threatening. There are number of cases of this n one has to simply google to know. It can have a permanent,instant impact on one’s psyche and confidence.
Remember the “NDTV girl asks” memes, where it was turned into a sexist and cyberbullying case. She was an adult student who was questioned for a question which she asked. But the same bunch of journos and standups made it a cyberbulling case. Here Miss Behal, 15, is mocked by same people for her opinions. How does this selective intolerance by most amd silence by few work?
What will happen when this minor girl who has now been abused, mocked, threatened and joked about reads about what has been said, written today or tomorrow or a year later. Wouldn’t she ask or wonder as to the reason for all the heap of negativity towards her?
Is questioning someone wrong?
Is praising the PM Modi a crime?
Seeking for debates is right held by only a few and others must SHUT UP? Why is it that the current opposition jumps and drags down every girl, women having an opinion/view as opposed to them? Shouldn’t we rather be happy that we have young opinionated brave girls in our country. Instead of appreciating her or questioning her for her opinions, you guys ended up being CYBERBULLIES.
SHAME ON YOU.
Hope Raheel remembers his tweet on Malala:
Malala’s Mark sheet. I feel like printing this out and mailing it to the F&$#@%G Taliban. pic.twitter.com/kR5aBBXtQw
— Raheel Khursheed (@Raheelk) August 21, 2015
